The first reality of our situation is that we are much fewer in number than we'd like to believe. The second reality is that we are getting old, those of us who care.
The communists had full control of our public schools by 1975 and we have one full generation of our children and at least part of another who have known no other education system. They know no better than what they were taught, which isn't much. Our children weren't taught the same things that we were taught. The teachers of today were taught in this system since kindergarten. They know no better. They teach only what they were taught. How many Conservative teachers do you know?
They were taught in a system where Political Correctness was the prime motivator. No one gets his or her feelings hurt. There are no winners and there are no losers. The revisionist history that they learned left them believing that America is an evil nation. All of our accomplishments were made in the name of personal greed. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer. They have been "primed" for the coming revolution. They don't want the same things that we want.
We, their parents and grandparents, allowed this to happen.
We are old and we are few.
How many of you ever read the material that your children were being taught in school? How many of you took your complaints to a School Board meeting? How many of you tried to correct the "system" before it got out of control? How many even knew what your children were doing or what they were learning?
The answer is self-evident. It's as obvious as the nose on our collective face. We did nothing to prevent the disaster that we face today. By our inaction, we can be blamed for encouraging it.
There were many material "things" to give to our children and we spoiled them rotten with these "things". Technology ran rampant and became inexpensive. The children of today couldn't care less about riding a bicycle or playing cowboys and Indians or cops and robbers. They don't go outside and play "army". They sit at their computers and "kill" each other electronically. They are fat and they are lazy and sadly, they are stupid. And we sit back and wonder why.
And the government uses that inexpensive technology to watch our every move. And our children and grandchildren are fine with that.
"It doesn't matter as long as you are doing nothing wrong."
How many times have you heard that statement? Too few of us understand the implications of what that statement means.
They have no grasp of reality. I give you OWS and all of the other "Occupy" movements as proof. I'll also give you our current ratings in the world regarding knowledge of math and science. 23rd and 25th. That’s out of about 40 "modern" countries. We used to be in the top 5.
Think back to when you were a kid in school. How many kids had "behavior disorders"? What happened to them when they misbehaved? What happened to any kid who misbehaved in school? What happened to them when they got home?
What happens to them today?
How many of your peers were diagnosed with ADD or ADHD when you were a kid? (Hint: none) Today you will find up to half of our kids have been diagnosed with ADD or ADHD. It's an excuse to not have to expect much from them. It's an excuse to make someone else in the "system" be responsible for them. It brings the school districts a lot of money. We just medicate them and hope for the best.
Public education is a failure. Nothing is being done to correct it. There is a reason for that.
We don’t discipline our kids. We don’t want to hurt their feelings so we allow them to do whatever they want to. We don’t want to be turned in to the government for "abusing" them.
Have you been to a mall lately, or to a supermarket? Have you watched how they behave? More importantly, have you watched how their parents behave?
Anyway, I kinda got off track there. Must be the ADD.
Us older folks want a return to the Constitutional Republic that we knew as children and young adults. We yearn for the old days when we were responsible for ourselves and when we knew that if we screwed up we would be held accountable for our actions. We yearn for the lost times of civility and respect. The days when our word was our bond.
Those times are gone. I'm not sure they ever existed, really.
The sad fact is that we are greatly outnumbered. The majority doesn't care. They believe that the path we are following today is the right path to take. They believe in Marx's maxim "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs".
Lenin has also been proven to be correct. "Give me four years to teach the children and the seed I have sown will never be uprooted".
Well, we will see if it is never uprooted. Socialism has never succeeded anywhere in the past. I doubt it can succeed anywhere in the future. It forgets the fact that human beings are individuals with individual wants, needs, and desires. It forgets that some people are stronger than others and will fill their wants, needs, and desires by force if necessary. Law of the Jungle trumps the laws of man.
We had our Utopia. It is now gone. We allowed it to slip away, silently into the night. We trusted that our system of government was morally and ethically superior and that it would work properly forever without our input.
We were wrong.
Marx also said "The meaning of peace is the absence of opposition to Socialism".
Anyway - - -
We can talk for hours or days or weeks, months or years about the Constitution and what it means. We can argue about whether it's good or bad. We can yell and scream and posture all we want to about it but it doesn't change a thing. We had it, we let it slip away, and there are too few left who care. There will soon be no one left who remembers it.
"We can evade reality but we cannot evade the consequences of evading reality." - Ayn Rand
****************************** ****************************** Here is the "JOHNNY OPTIMISM" comic strip for Friday 25 November 2011, which I'm posting because it is so downright funny!
For a larger version that's easier to read, just click on the picture.
A new (or sometimes repeated) edition of the hilarious "JOHNNY OPTIMISM" comic strip, created by that twisted genius, STILTON JARLSBERG, M.D., appears each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at the "JOHNNY OPTIMISM" web site.
*********************************************************** *********************************************************** Greetings and Salutations to All my Kith and Kin and All the Ships in Outer Space: Here is how we're observing THANKSGIVING DAY at the ARMED FORCES RETIREMENT HOME in Gulfport, Mississippi.
For a larger view, please click on the photograph.
Also, although it's not listed on the schedule, some local farmer is bringing his dog here for a visit. How do I know? Because there's a sign outside our mess hall that says, "BINGO Tonight at 1900". "There was a farmer Had a dog, And Bingo was his name, Oh! B-I-N-G-O, B-I-N-G-O, B-I-N-G-O, And Bingo was his name, Oh!" May we all continue to be ever grateful for everything we have, including all those little unmentioned things we generally take for granted, and may we strive diligently to be more deserving of the manifest blessings so graciously bestowed upon all of us by our Heavenly Father. And now, as a token of gratitude for all of our innumerable blessings on this very special Thanksgiving Day, I offer up this famous hymn. For the best effect, please be sure and watch, in "FULL SCREEN" mode, my homemade amateur video recording of ME (!), performing "FINLANDIA", as I accompany myself by strumming simple chords on my YamahaG-130A classical guitar, which I created and posted in my room at the Ol' Soldiers' Home in Washington, D.C. on Friday 08 January 2010.
I was disappointed last Friday to see House Democrats united against a balanced budget amendment (BBA). American families sit down at their kitchen tables and balance their checkbooks and bank accounts to make sure they live within their means. The federal government should do the same. Friday was an unfortunate missed opportunity by Democrats to sit at the table with Republicans to create a better environment for job growth through reduced spending and a balanced budget.
This summer I strongly advocated that any deal to raise our nation’s debt ceiling include a vote on a balanced budget amendment. Working with the Whip Team, it was our responsibility to find a strong BBA that has the teeth to rein in spending and can be passed in the House. We fulfilled that pledge. The fact that the President and House Democrats overwhelming opposed this legislation should not be surprising when you consider the series of failed economic policies passed under Democrat leadership.
Just as I remain committed to continuing to work with my conservative House colleagues to pass a balanced budget, I also remain committed to ensuring our nation’s budget is not balanced on the back of our men and women in uniform, veterans and their families. A robust national security is vital to our country’s economic security. Nowhere is this truer than in South Mississippi where our multi-billion dollar military industry is a pillar of our economy and way of life. Recently, the military culture and economy that reverberates through all sectors of South Mississippi has become the target of massive and unsustainable budget cuts.
The U.S. military is the guardian of our increasingly globalized economy. The military protects the realms where business occurs and prosperity is born, including ocean ports, the skies, space and even cyberspace. The downgrading of our credit rating rattled our economic standing in the world, but further defense cuts would have severe economic costs beyond what America has previously endured.
While defense spending only accounts for 20 percent of our federal budget, defense has already endured the lion’s share of spending cuts. During a time when we need to be reinvesting in our military, the Department of Defense is planning on budget reductions over the next ten years of more than $450 billion – a difficult, yet manageable task.
Unless serious action is taken to prevent sequestration by the “super committee,” DoD will sustain an additional $500 billion in cuts over the next ten years bringing the total to nearly $1 trillion. As Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta described in his letter to the Senate Armed Services Committee, cuts under maximum sequestration would… “reduce the size of the military sharply.” He estimated that after ten years we would have the smallest ground force since 1940, the smallest number of ships since 1915, and the smallest Air Force in its history.
As a Marine Gulf War Veteran, a Sergeant in the Army National Guard and a Member of House Armed Services Committee, I am fighting day and night to avoid one single penny in additional cuts to defense. Our South Mississippi economy as well as the economy and defense of our nation depend on it. During the budget debate, my message is to focus on the real drivers of our debt and not the defender of our prosperity.
I just now received your e-mail, and I'm reading through it.
I'm shocked and disappointed that you are in favor of a Balanced Budget Amendment.
Lest you think this is about party politics, I support neither the Republican Party nor the Democrat Party, for I blame them both equally.
My concern is strictly for the enforcement and preservation of our divinely inspired Constitution of the United States of America.
According to the Constitution, it is YOU and your fellow Congressman who control all government spending - - - period.
So, if Congress isn't obeying the Constitution now (to which we both publicly swore a solemn oath to God Almighty), why would another amendment change anything?
After all, politicians and bureaucrats would just find a sneaky way to ignore and circumvent any existing constitutional or legal requirements, just as they already do.
Please, leave our Constitution ALONE!!!
As for our military forces, because of our impending national economic collapse, I recommend bringing all troops stationed in foreign lands back to this country while it can still be done.
Otherwise, all those guys will be stranded and deserted, many thousands of miles away, with no way to get home, and no way to sustain themselves there.
Why not station them along our border with Mexico?
Our country's primary defense should rely on the local citizen militia, with the regular armed forces used only as a cadre for training and equipment maintenance.
I know this works, based on my personal experience, having served in the regular United States Army, the National Guard, and the State Guard (which is America's TRUE "militia").
Thank you.
John Robert Mallernee Armed Forces Retirement Home 1800 Beach Drive, Unit 311 Gulfport, Mississippi 39507
This dangerously illegal and immoral subversive underground resistance message is being surreptitiously monitored by the Beaming Internet Government Broadband Radio Oscillation Telecommunications Hearing Electronic Reconnaissance (i.e., B.I.G. B.R.O.T.H.E.R.) as part of a coordinated official clandestine domestic surveillance investigation, in cooperation with the National Administration of Zealous Interrogation (i.e., N.A.Z.I.) and the Commission On Message Monitoring Investigative Electronics (i.e., C.O.M.M.I.E.).
Serious felony criminal charges are pending, with extreme penalties yet to be determined!
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Greetings and Salutations to All my Kith and Kin and All the Ships in Outer Space:
Retired
personnel and former members of the Army (as described above) may wear
all categories of medals described in this regulation on appropriate
civilian clothing. This
includes clothes designed for veteran and patriotic organizations on
Veteran’s Day, Memorial Day, and Armed Forces Day, as well as at formal
occasions of ceremony and social functions of a military nature. Personnel may wear either full-size or miniature medals. Personnel who wear
medals on civilian clothes should place the medals on the clothing in
approximately the same location and in the same manner as for the Army
uniform, so they look similar to medals worn on the Army uniform.
At the last minute, due to the weather, the parade was cancelled.
But, we veterans ignored the officially announced cancellation and, promptly at 1100 Hours, began marching down the middle of Main Street, forcing vehicle traffic to stop or make way.
What could the police do?
It would be too embarrassing to arrest a bunch of decorated war veterans marching down the street on Veterans Day, so the police did the only thing they could do, which was to quickly halt and reroute traffic, and then escort us through the entire designated parade route.
That night, on the television news, I saw the same thing had happened in Colorado with the veterans there also refusing to be kept from marching in their parade by a mere blizzard.
So, where are our local veterans organizations today?
Aren't they the ones who are responsible for educating the public and preserving our heritage?
These are my thoughts.
What are yours?
Do you think I'm making something out of nothing by my insistence that Veterans Day activities continue to begin at the Eleventh Hour on the Eleventh Day of the Eleventh Month?
******************************** ******************************** The "JOHNNY OPTIMISM" comic strip, by STILTON JARLSBERG, M.D., appears each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
For a larger view that's easier to read, please click on the picture.
