I'M VOTING NOW, AND HERE'S HOW

CHOOSE BETWEEN OPENING THE GATE FOR HIM AND...

   Paying the federal police

   Feeding a hungry child

   Protecting the country in case of a chemical spill

   Protecting the country by tracking the tropical storm

   Keeping the Dept. of Homeland Security fully functional

   Keeping Federal courts fully operational (they do have a backlog)

   Keeping the EEOC open

   Keeping the Import-Export bank open

   Keeping the FCC open

   Keeping the FederalElection Commission open

   Keeping the NLRA open

   Keeping the Maritime Commission open

   Keeping the Mine Safety Inspection agency open

   Keeping the Federal Trade Commission open

   Keeping the International Boundary commission open

   Keeping the NLRB open

   Keeping OSHA open and running

   Keeping the Office of Government Ethics operational (Really?)

   Keeping the Postal Service Inspector General on the job

   Keeping the USDA fully functional

   

I have noticed one thing over the last three days.  

A steady stream of Republican party, Washington DC humanoid specimens imposing a high, obstreperous, foot stamping, high pitch voice whining, sight and sound polluting infantile foot stomping behavior at the fact that they can't get their poor constituents into the very parks that they, themselves have shut down.

There are two things that twist in my craw about this. First is that none of them seems to give a damn about the financial harm that this situation is inflicting on hundreds of thousands of "simple people" in this country who have a lot more to worry about than the padlocked gate of a federal monument. I, for one have never set foot on one solitary square inch of Washington DC, and I don't consider myself to be any the worse for wear because of it.

Second.  I find myself deeply troubled by the fact that these idiots have time to take the opportunity to make news outside the gates of a park when they should be in the halls of their legislative chambers doing something about relieving the country from this cancer that they have implanted on it.  I wonder where the Democrats are at this time.  I haven't seen a one of them grandstanding for the cameras lately.  Have you?

I am very happy that these humanoid denizens from the sulphuric depths of Hades are on the bricks.  I plan to do what little I can to make them stay there for a long time. 

I have never belonged to a political party.  I have absolutely no intention of ever being identified as a member of one.  I vote in every election and I have never voted a straight ticket in 50 years.  I have decided that in the future I will never again vote for anyone.  The next two times I vote I will be voting against every single incumbent on the ticket...Every one.  Indiscriminately.  I will do that because I have decided to have some fun in my advancing age.  What the hell, we don't have a government anyway, we have a sandbox for children who want rich people to pay them and tell them what to do while they play in the sandbox.  Sometimes I wish that someone would run on the dictator ticket.  That would accomplish a few things. It would make the small government, war mongering wing nuts happy and keep the socialist democrats quiet because more than likely we would then get the single payer health care system that we need and that would really work.

For the time being, I suppose that I am going to have to suffer with our third world version of a health care system called medicare, and live in a country that has one of the most highly sophisticated legal bribery systems on the planet.

Oh, by the way, don't forget to vote against raising the debt limit.  That will really be the seed of the birth of the "Hello there, I'm Mephistophiles and I want to be your first friendly dictator.  Please vote for me."

   

CONSERVATIVE CATHOLIC WRITER: I'M NOW FOR SAME-SEX MARRIAGE

"No Paul we do not have to defend this claptrap article. Nor do we have to for all the others that will come down our pipeline in the future. I sent it to you so you might help me separate the chaffe from grain. It got my attention that's why I sent it to you. BTW 1 claptrap article out of 40,000 for the month do not make for a bad harvest. And believe it or not I do scan through them all everyday, several times a day"

The fact of the matter is, "It is too late."  It is past history.   It appeared.  You read it.  You sent it to me.  I was buried in work. I finally read it.  Told you that it is bad.  So you took it down.  So what?  It's too late.  One article out of 40,000 is a fallacious argument since the following of the one author is more than 1.  I flunked Math, but I did not flunk logic.  Statistics are invalid in the spiritual world where one act of virtue is enough and one immoral act is too much.  They are also invalid in a world where 400,000,000 humans have smartphones.  In a world with 12 or 13 time zones.  You cannot use the statistics argument with me.  I work for an enterprise that works around the clock, in all these time zones, has about 500 contractors and over 1,000 clients, and therefore can, at best, react to the interlocutions that flood the central bureau every hour of every day.  I resent having to be re-active to the world in the Kingdom of God, instead of pro-active.
If that sounds unrealistic, out of touch, quaint, other-worldly, old school, or whatever other adjective you want to use, fine.  I will remind you that it is the stone that makes the waves and the shore, no matter how expansive, can only feel the effects of the stone's act.  I refuse to be nothing but the shore.
It's admirable that you scan everything that comes across every day, but I am not impressed and here's why.  Like Don Quixote, your jousting against how many hundreds of thousands of windmills?  You are not more effective than the farmer who makes his rounds five times every day and closes the barn after the horse has been stolen.  You are nothing but a small protrusion from the shore.

"BTW, Deacon Kendra who posted this is a very conservative Catholic. And is one of the more respected ones. I am of the opinion he posted it to stimulate conversation not to convert to the subject person's position."
I will tell you that in the tradition of the Church, communicating things just to stimulate conversation is forbidden. Especially when you are stimulating conversation in the public at large, a largely ill informed public, I might add.  This is called the "Systematic Doubt."  See, there's even a name for it.  So, don't think you've made any headway on me with that one.  In this case, a deacon floating the position for homosexual marriage to millions of smartphone users is sure to cause the twisting and mangling of the weaker consciences in the audience. Not to mention the glee of those who hate the Catholic church to begin with.

You're going to have to do better than to tell me that our only option is to be re-active.  I am not going on prevent defense in matters of religion.  If that is the life of the 21st century, then I'm glad that my time is measured and my fuse is short.  And if, indeed, we are reduced to nursing our product after it has been bitten, I staunchly and irretrievably refuse to be a part of life in that environment.  I am a missionary, not a nurse; I am a teacher, not a cop.

A NASCENT TINY LEFT WING CONSPIRACY

Stick with me here, you'll see

I want to present a plan that will surely free many people from the devilish dungeon of falling deeper and deeper into debt.

My plan is also sure to rescue many more people from the clutches of the avaricious, loan purveyors who tend to make Shakespeare's Shylock look like a kindly grandfather.

We live in a society that doesn't thrive on logic.  It thrives instead on a well devised system of usury, designed to circumvent whatever laws that could be in place to prevent it.  I, however have discovered how to use the "Shylock-ness" of the system against it.

Remember the two prongs of the proposition:

Rescue borrowers from Debt <<<<>>>>Crush the Debtors

It dawned on me the other day.  A few years back, I received a phone call from a sweet, smooth, youthful female voice, lightly sprinkled with aromatic curry, but mellifluously cadenced.  The voice was explaining to me that if I didn't pay $ X00.00 before 

"0A/0B/CCCC" I would be reported to all major credit bureaux and my credit would thereafter be negatively impacted.  I responded to the sweet cadence with a quick, sharp bistouri monosyllabic ripost that I had no positive credit rating already, so she could go soak her head in the Ganges for all I cared.  I told her that her employer would get his money, and then some because of the penalties, which sums would go toward paying her paltry wages.

Goodbye, sweetie.

But, the conspiracy plan hit me just the other day.  I don't know why it took so long.

The lenders can be killed by their very own "security."

Here's how it goes:

I have 6 outstanding credit accounts that I have to pay into every month.

You have 6 such accounts.

We all have 6 such accounts.

We all behave such that we don't impoverish ourselves by driving up too many late fees, but just enough so that the plan can work and we get "reported" to the credit police.

So now, after a short while, we all have such low credit scores, say 150, for example, that no one will lend to us.

So we have now satisfied all our late fees and we are back on the minimum payment level.  It is important to drag this out for as long as possible.  While we have at least one such minimum payment as an obligation, no one will lend us anything.

So now we are, at best, on a debit card basis, and at worst, a cash only basis.  But, the lenders are making less and less money.  No more late fees, declining interest payments and, by their very own rules, declining loan approvals.  Yeah, the creeps are in trouble and they are dying by their very own criminal tool, the credit bureau.  

Then, here's the great schadenfreude moment.  It starts with the glossy mail offer to raise our credit.  Wwhhhrrrrrrrrr, shredder. After so many of those, here comes the slick snake oil telephone call.  I know, I've had this pleasure a couple of times.  

Oil Can Harry:  "We can get you a credit card rate of 5% plus a 2% rewards program."

Yours Truly, Krusty Kurmujjin:  "Get lost idiot.  Can't you see that my credit score is 150?"

OCH:  "Oh, you have such a wonderful payment record that we can make an exception."

YT, KK:  "Good.  I got only two more payments to make and then maybe you'll get laid off because there'll be no more income."

OCH:  Oh, don't worry, that won't happen."

YT, KK:  "Dream on, Bucko, I got friends.  The fact that you're calling means that we are winning.  Bye, now, Sweetheart."

CLICK!

See, that's how it works.  I think we can win this war.  Kill 'em with their own sword.  

CURSIVE IS A CURSEVORD IN DIS VORLD -- THE PRICE OF PROGRESS -- BANKRUPTCY

                   

 Hi.  Welcome to my retro post, almost totally handwritten, in what used to be known as longhand but now masquerades as cursive...in my very own, arthritically damaged handwriting. Enjoy!

Needless to say...

I was called into the head office and told that my services were no longer desired.
I have subsequently learned that the 
kindergarten teachers can't read long hand writing either.
Maybe we should go back to hieroglyphics...they have such pretty birds on their walls!

DEACON: “I’M THE CLERGY” NOT!

It is always dismaying when the statements of fact become weaker than the declaration of social status.  It happened the other day when the facts lost out to the status and the status declaration was triggered by a reaction to the “ [fill in the blank] Police.”

The world is full of buffoons.  None, or almost none of whom are more massive than those of the clergy, or the almost clergy, or the wanna be clergy.  Deacons are especially good examples of clerical buffoonery.  They have a very decided proclivity to look down on the laity.  Sometimes, dare I say, often more so than the priests themselves.  It seems as though they feel obliged to assert their newly established selves in the role of an “insider” in the life of the Church.  There is some type of pride that kicks in and makes them proclaim to the world that they are no longer “laity” but “clergy.”

This is especially noticeable in the Catholic church of the 21^st century where the mix of highly capable lay people and clergy is fast approaching numbers that favor the laity.  Even the influx of ordained permanent  deacons is not great enough to staunch the trend.  There are many lay people with long term church ministry experience coupled with middle level and even terminal educational degrees who are employed in the parishes to collaborate with the clergy in the mission of the Church.  Few clergy (in the United States anyway) have significant college degrees.  They have spent a lot of time in school but much of the schooling did not lead to a graduation in the secular meaning of the term.  Even fewer of them have degrees that indicate a major in a Church oriented discipline.  So, it is not rare to see a flare of anger from a cleric who is being gainsaid by a lay person.  A paid lay person.  On the same staff.  Yes, a paid professional with as much or even more ministerial experience and education than the cleric. 

Sadly the flare sometimes comes at a moment when a seemingly insignificant item is at issue.  And come, it does and it matters not who may or may not be witnessing the episode. 

Take the case of the deacon and the lay person who got entangled over an issue of ritual correctness.  The deacon was making a clear mistake in the directives that he was giving to a group of people who were to participate in a liturgy scheduled for the Easter Vigil ceremonies.  The deacon was expounding a ritual sequence wildly off the mark.  Now, All communications about this matter have been clear, concise, timely and very, very official.  The lay person in charge of the overall management of the liturgy was present at the time and made an intervention concerning the erroneous nature of the directives given by the deacon.  He took great offense at being called out by the “Liturgy Police” and immediately lost his cool and in a trice, after a quick exchange of cross words he ended the exchange by declaring himself “the clergy.”  It doesn’t end there. 

The lay person sent the clergyman the history of the communications as well as copies of the actual documents now in full force.  No response to that, but a good dose of vitriolic invective as a response.  Through it all, he remains “the clergy” and she remains “the laity.”  He rermains "right" and she, "wrong" and the flash-fast explosion of anger was lit by her.

A quick repartee about the “Liturgy Police.”  First, the only individuals who fear or dislike the police are those who know that they are not doing the right thing and are unhappy that they got caught at it.  Not a very brightly glowing endorsement for the clergyman in this case.  In fact it is as clear a self indictment as one could hope to find. 

This truth makes the tidal wave of self exculpating arguments laughable at best and disgusting at worst.  In this case the overwhelming stream of pseudo theology containing no logic, many reinforcing emotional repetitions and some pseudo psychological assertions are a combination of both, buffoonery and malice.  Just like the person who runs the red light spills out all over the citing officer.  Same attitude, same result.  

A right remains right and erroneous remains erroneous.

The other thought that I have is about the deacon clergy [I know that’s a coined term].   I’m against it.  If married men can be ordained to the diaconate, they can be ordained to the priesthood.  I also believe that the Tradition of how deacons came to be is on my side; at least in the way that I have come to look at the tradition of the diaconate.  I’m not against the diaconate.  I am against the clergy-creep that has come about.  Read the story of how deacons came into existence.  (Acts 6: 1 – 7)  Read it.  In a nutshell, deacons came about so that the Apostles could concentrate on spreading the word to the Jews.  They were neglecting the marginalized Greeks (think Gentiles), so they needed some help to run the soup kitchen.  It says clearly, “it isn’t right for us to set aside the proclamation of God’s word in order to serve tables.”  Why do we as Church allow them to operate as mini-priests?  For the greater part, they do not do it well.  For the greater part they are proud to be clergy, they act like clergy, and, in this one case they hammer people with their status and they forget (as does the Church in the US, at least) what their position is in the Apostolic Succession – table servers for the marginalized.

It is my humble opinion that they should stick to serving tables and stay out of the sanctuary.

MORENO VALLEY, CALIFORNIA - CHAKRA 1

I have decided to be polite and refrain from using foul language on these pages.  For the time being.
I have been living in Moreno Valley, California since January of 2005.  In that time I have discovered that it is the worst place in which I have ever made my domicile.  It is strategically placed on the map of the USA with regards the bodily function for which it is best suited.  Believe me, I feel it every single day.

I have come to the conclusion that there are not 3 businesses in this city that can be trusted to deliver a quality product and/or service on time.  Over the eight years that I have lived here I have learned to take my business to other cities for my made-to-order needs.  Moreno Valley has absolutely no concept of quality and punctuality.  It doesn't matter whether it is printing, household appliance installation services or service quotes, prescription drug delivery, barbers, you name it and I can find you a buffoon within a city block.  Not a soul who delivers these things has any concept of how to deal with customer expectations.  I take that back.  There is ONE soul with whom I have been satisfied over time.  ONE.  How's that for a definition of a great place to live?

Several years ago I was living in Rome, Italy.  It was in the sixties, some fifteen years after the War.  Fortunately, I was a student then and I did not have to put too many demands on the business community outside of the sheer basics of life.  I found out that it was a good thing that such was the case.  Rome was not, it turned out, the most customer oriented city on the face of the earth.  The Romans take care of tourists like hardly any other city I have ever been to.  But to long term residents and to each other, they are not that great.  That being said, Rome is like heaven compared to Moreno Valley.

Today, I put the last nail into another coffin in Moreno Valley.  We went to get a picture framed at an enterprise that had been quite satisfactory for the few times that we have patronized them in the last two or three years. Then they showed the dark side of their environment.  First, they did not submit an order [to their factory] that we communicated clearly was a required artifact for an important presentation we were preparing.  
We then negotiated a delivery date and sealed the deal.  When I went to claim the finished product on the appointed date, it was nowhere to be found.  I left with their assurances that they would have it on Tuesday [in three days].  It turned out that they clean forgot that it had not been outsourced yet.  I found that out when I received a telephone call [a miracle in Moreno Valley] saying that they had forgotten to outsource the job.  They did not say that they had not yet found the work order with the receipt.  I told them at the time that we no longer needed the finished product but that we could find other uses for it down the line.  When I asked for the pickup date I was told that it would be ready for pick-up on Saturday.  Today is Saturday.  I went, and of course, it was not there.  The reason, "We only found the work order yesterday.  It should be here sometime tomorrow."  
"Good," I replied.  "When you get it, sell it for two hundred dollars and send me a check for fifty-five dollars and we'll be even."  
"Just give me your address and I'll bring it to you as soon as it gets here," says she.  "I'll refund you half of what you paid."
"Forget it, keep it.  I don't need it any more anyway."
I left her in her bamboozled state, a blank-eyed and bewildered buffoon.

No, this is not an isolated incident.

I don't need the fifty-five.  It's just another tuition payment to the school of hard knocks.  It's the only school of any kind that is a sure bet to teach you about life in Moreno Valley.  In eight years I have found one good service provider:  my computer guy.  I must confess that I am wondering how long it will take before he implodes.  That's why I have a back-up machine.

SUICIDE BOMBERS or SUICIDE MASS KILLERS? WHICH IS BETTER?

No, I am not going to put up a picture.  If I did the great majority would fall into the scientific category of Caucasian, since we're talking about "white" people here, right?  Look it up.  You'll see.
In my lifetime we have gone from the Kamikaze to the Suicide Bomber  to the suicide by cop and to the mass murderer who takes as many as he/she can with the intent of not getting out alive.
Yes, I am writing this because of the Connecticut event.  The reason I am doing this is because it reflects upon our stability as a nation as compared to the stability of other first world nations in the world.  We are very violent as a population.  We are so fixated on fairness, that we find comfort in killing the killer; in jailing the recidivist for life; in overtaxing the retiree; in creating adversity between the employee and the employer.  On the other hand we have a complete disdain for fairness as we find comfort in underpaying immigrants, our own young people, women and the downtrodden.  We have no problem accepting bribes from big pharma, big oil, big finance, big comm, big construction and big Ag to the detriment of the general population.  We are the only first world country in the world where it is against the law to negotiate prescription drug prices as a country.
The United States is indeed a violent country.  It is a country where no one can be comfortable taking a stroll on city streets in the cool of the evening.  To make a point, I and my spouse have strolled the streets of Israel after 8 PM; in Rome after 9.  When I was younger I was unafraid of being out and about in Manila in the wee hours.  I was in a country where martial law had imposed a curfew, but never once was I shot at when out after curfew.  In this country (USA), if someone thinks you're up to no good, you're apt to be found face down in the gutter.
In this country it is dangerous to go to the theatre or even to school, at any level.
I have to admit that it is a challenge to live here in the USA with the level of cultural hatred that is the norm.  It seems that everyone hates more people that he/she loves.  I was in a situation just two days ago when I was in need of a long series of services from a lone clerk in a print shop.  I noticed a customer who was empty-handed and didn't seem like he needed much.  In front of him, I told the lone clerk to serve him since I knew that I was going to require more of her time.  She did.  He was quickly done with his transaction and left, passing in front of me without even grudgingly growling a "thank you."   I am a Caucasian.  But then again, is he?  I know one thing, he is an ass.  He is an image of our hatred - imbued, violent culture.
So,to all of you who are tempted to forward acrimonious, hatred-filled emails to me complaining about violent people from other parts of the globe stop and think of a couple of historical facts:  It is Christian Anglo-Saxons who forced the Cherokee to walk from Georgia to Oklahoma in the winter time; it is the Christian Caucasians who decimated the indigenous people from the midwest and the far west of what is now the United States; it is the Caucasians who separated the Japanese and took away all that they had only a few short 80 years ago.  I haven't even mentioned the horrendous effects of slavery; I haven't mentioned the cruelty visited upon women by denying them the right to vote for well over one century from the time of the ratification of the independence of this country.   The legacy of this thirst for imposing the will of the United States on the "other" populations is still with us.  We lead the world in mass murders.  We trail the world in the production of smart people.  We lead the world in the cost of education; we lead the world in the cost of health care but we are not competitive in life expectancy nor in educational achievement.
Before you call this the greatest country in the world in front of me, think twice.  I've seen a lot of happy people in many other countries.  One of the reasons why they are happy is because they don't have to worry about getting shot down on any given day.