My blog published a few days ago regarding the anniversary of the D Day Invasion may have been misunderstood by some. So, I’m taking a moment to clarify my position on that issue.
I think military action, and putting thousands of lives in danger should be considered as a final option after all other options have been exhausted. World War Two was not one of those times, the USA had no other choices from the start. I fully agree with America’s full-on commitment to stop the aggression by Germany, Japan, and their various allies. Were the battle plans as good as the could’ve been? Could the military have lessened the loss of lives by better planning? I think it’s very likely.
Make no mistake, I have the utmost respect for the men that stood tall in the face of great odds and were victorious. I have the utmost respect for those Americans that put in long hours in factories building the machinery for warfare. The folks at home sacrificed and did without, while doing whatever they could for the war effort. My wife was born and raised in London, England. They were on food rationing long after the war was over.
American women stepped up and did the work men would normally do. My aunt was a welder in the San Francisco shipyards. Women learned to fly and transferred bombers and fighter planes to the war zones. It was a “all in” effort, and the rewards were worth it. The world has been a much better place since that marvelous victory, but the politicians have not been good custodians of the spoils of victory.
As I said above, WW2 was unavoidable, no choice in the matter. Korea, I don’t really know enough about the history of that conflict to have a solid opinion. I can tell you what I have heard from veterans, they said it was a meat grinder. I recently read another report that said we were taking a hell of a beating before it came to an end. Perhaps when I learn more about it, I can write an article with a better level of knowledge.
After the Korean war, (the jury is still out on that one) I view every war since as pure nonsense, nothing more than the military-industrial complex exercising their muscle to fatten their wallets. Fat cat politicians taking big pay days to go along with the plans. When I see ads on TV for Wounded Warriors, Tunnels to Towers and so on, I get furious seeing young men and women missing limbs, badly burned, and paralyzed. This isn’t even taking into account the tens of thousands that were blown to pieces and returned home in flag draped coffins.
I spent all day Saturday with the Paralyzed Veterans of America, local chapter, participating in a car show they sponsored. I had an in-depth conversation with one of the wheelchair bound workers. He said to me, before I had a chance to voice my opinion, their goal is to convince the government to stop the senseless wars. To stop putting our soldiers in harm’s way unnecessarily. I totally agree. We should maintain a strong, well equipped, military with all of the latest technology, just in case they need to defend the homeland. We don’t need to be defending the borders of other nations, while our own is being overrun by sketchy Individuals of unknown origin and criminal backgrounds. I doubt you will ever find a person more against war, than a wheelchair bound veteran.
I think it’s pretty safe to say that those fat cat politicians that are always advocating for sending our troops into battle would melt like a sno-cone in Phoenix if they had to suit up and ship out.
So, to wrap this up, don’t ever equate my anti-war stance with a lack of patriotism and love of America and its glorious banner. If this country was invaded by a hostile power, I would gladly oil up my trusty 30-30 and put some bad guys in the cross hairs. (as long as I didn’t have to walk too far) I would make an excellent senior citizen sniper.
Support the veterans that gave so much for us and will live the rest of their lives enduring the hardships battle injuries. Don’t support the war monger politicians that constantly advocate for non-sensical military action.
GETTING CLOSE TO THE ANNIVERSARY OF D-DAY, AND THE IMAGES START CREEPING BACK INTO MY BRAIN, ALONG WITH SADNESS FOR THE MEN THAT DIDN’T MAKE IT OFF OF THAT BEACH ALIVE.
I was born in 1941, a number of men in my family participated in WW2, one of them didn’t make it back home, killed by an Italian sniper on the last day of the war. He was a medic, which makes it even more disturbing. When the war ended, I was old enough to understand the impact, I remember the anguish of my aunt and uncle, and my cousin’s widow. I remember the sadness that permeated my family. Think about how many thousands of times that scenario was repeated across the United States. I also remember the ones that did make it home missing arms and legs and suffering other horrific injuries.
I must have seen the photos and movies of those brave young soldiers aboard the landing crafts, just moments away from death hundreds of times. Those images are forever burned into my brain. When I was younger, the images didn’t affect me the way they do now. That’s why old men don’t make good soldiers. Those young men in those boats were in every sense of the phrase; “cannon fodder”. The United States Army knew a large percentage of those young men would never make it off of that beach alive, but through sheer numbers, would overcome the enemy. In reality it was very similar to the battle strategy of the Civil War, when large numbers of men charged each other out it the open and killed each other until one or the other side prevailed. The point I am making is, that in warfare, human beings are just as expendable as machines, in fact they are no different at all, in the eyes of the government.
I’m no military strategist, not even close. But was it really necessary to storm the beaches at Normandy and suffer the tremendous loss of life? The German gun emplacements would not be able to withstand the pounding of big naval guns for an extended period of time. Big guns and big bombs dropped from aircraft for a longer period of time makes on hell of a lot more sense than just throwing human beings at it. I would really like to hear a military expert explain why a beach invasion was a good idea. What was the rush, the war had already been grinding on for over three years.
THE SWEETNESS OF VICTORY SOON FADED
World peace was very short lived before our soldiers were back at war in Korea. 75 million human beings perished in WW2, and the death and suffering was forgotten in a mere five years. We wiped out the Nazis and Fascists and made room for the Communists. But look at the bright side, we only lost 36,000 more soldiers in Korea. As a benefit, south Korea is free, and you are now driving cheap Hyundais and Kias, and the hermit Kingdom is building ICBMs.
Fast forward two years to 1955, the USA just can’t get enough of the wonderful war stuff. I guess they figured they needed to kill off more young Americans and spend more tax dollars on war materials. So, they jumped right into the Vietnam war. But this one lasted way longer than WW2, it went on until November 1975. We were getting better at this war stuff, or our enemies were getting weaker, we only lost 58,220 soldiers over 20 years.
A quick tally here, the USA blew through 765, 506 living human beings dressed in battle gear from 1941 to 1975. That totals 22,515 men per year over a 34 year period. From 1941 to 1975 or 34 years, America was only at peace seven years. In my brain, that just doesn’t make sense. This sounds a bit sinister to me. It also brings me back to my point about how the government actually views its citizens.
But hey, let’s look at this even closer including the current time period. From 1941 to 2021 when the war in Afghanistan ended, eighty years had passed. Out of those eighty years America was free from military conflicts a mere 22 years, or about 27% of that time. It only took three years for the war mongers to start putting their eyes on Ukraine, and a proxy war with Russia. There is something very wrong going on. You probably didn’t notice any of this though, because we have been occupied with all of the racial and gender bullshit keeping your eyes off the ball.
I just had a crazy thought pass through my brain. Have you noticed that a huge percentage of the male illegal aliens are military age? Do you think the US may be restocking its supply of military age men for their next big war? How do you think that is going to go down when they start rounding up those guys and putting them in uniforms? Considering what the US Government has done in the past 40 years I don’t think it would be too farfetched. Wouldn’t that be sorta like hunting animals with bait. Lure them in and then kill ’em?
I have always been eager to pledge allegiance to “Old Glory”, and the homeland. Lately, I am beginning to wonder exactly what that means. It doesn’t mean what it did when I was twenty years old. The lame ass politicians have taken this country in a whole different direction than what our founding Fathers imagined. It’s getting harder and harder to recognize the USA. Right is wrong, and wrong is right. Women’s rights are getting stripped away in front of our eyes. Mothers are now called “birthing people”. The entire family structure is under attack. Men are berated if they appear or act too masculine. Police officers are being slaughtered while doing their jobs. Children are being sexualized by our public school system. Hard core pornography is in your child’s hands, on demand, thanks to cell phones. White kids are being taught they are inherently evil because of their skin color, black and brown kids are being taught white people are evil. Schools are teaching our children the USA is an evil nation, that it is stolen land. Christianity is under attack by our own government, which was founded by Christians, and those same Christians guaranteed a person was free to worship as they please. The justice system has been turned wrong side out by leftist judges. If you get a fair trial as a white, straight Christian, you should consider yourself very lucky.
So, as you read the previous paragraph, ask yourself, is this what 3/4 of a million soldiers died for? Nope. Those soldiers died for the USA as it once was, and the hope of its continued greatness. How many young men and women are going to be willing to volunteer for the USA as it is today? It’s already happening. Armed service recruiters are finding it harder to find volunteers. Is it going to get worse? We will see. The military fell short more than 41,000 people in 2023. The Defense Dept. said 57% of young Americans surveyed, stated concern that their lives would be forever damaged from PTSD and homelessness.
In my opinion, what we are seeing is the creeping patriotic destruction caused by endless wars. People are just getting sick and tired of war after war. It is taking a measurable toll on Americans. If we aren’t worried about having to serve in the military, we are worried about a war coming to us. We are worried about being attacked by long range nuclear weapons. We are worried about being killed in a terrorist attack. We are worried about how many of our enemies have crossed the southern border with death and destruction planned for the future.
Folks, it didn’t have to be this way. Our political leaders have become weak and greedy. They allowed the American Dream to be sold to the highest bidders. We have been defeated from within by lust and greed. I certainly hope this all turns around in the future, and America is healed, and rises once again to its former greatness. However, for this to happen, the left must be defeated, because they nurture evil.
I’m truly sorry if you need anti-depressants after reading this article, but I feel compelled to be a town crier, to take your attention away from the man-made crisis, created to divert your attention away from the truth. Stay free by staying alert. Do not trust authority it can be very dangerous to your freedoms.
POLITICALLY INCORRECT, CENTER-RIGHT PERSPECTIVE OF CURRENT NEWS EVENTS
ARE AMERICANS AS FREE AS WE THINK WE ARE, OR ARE WE KIDDING OURSELVES? PART TWO.
Why do you think FREEDOM OF SPEECH is the first amendment? Because it is the most important of all, it is the crown jewel of freedom. If you don’t have free speech, you don’t have freedom, period!!! In the United States freedom of speech exists unabated within a small radius of the speaker. The wider your words are broadcast, the more push back and restrictions occur. As a private citizen, having a conversation with my close friends, it is very likely I can say anything I damn well please, my friends don’t care. I picked my friends because they think like me. If I said the same thing in a different setting, I could be in big trouble quickly. Things could turn physical, there would be a price to pay for being mouthy.
The same thing happens on a larger scale in the academic and political arena. Typically, conservatives feel you should be able to express yourself with no repercussions. However, the left knows full well if they can control speech, they affectively control society as a whole. They have cleverly declared speech that is contrary to their ideas as being “hate speech” and have convinced one hell of a lot of nitwits to buy into the nonsense. They don’t want to debate the issues, because they are on the wrong side of popular opinion almost 100% of the time.
If you think this phenomenon sort of sprang up like a jack in the box, you would be dead wrong. The left has been indoctrinating young people on the issue for years. Starting in the primary schools and ramped up in the colleges and universities. The left has been so successful at this, it is virtually impossible for a conservative speaker to appear at most colleges. The left has created a sealed “echo chamber” for leftist propaganda.
You could sort of understand this if it was only happening in the halls of education. You could also reason that within a few years through diligent efforts it could be eradicated. However, the efforts to curtail free speech go all the way to the top offices of the federal government. This makes the entire situation a lot more serious. These people have the ability to crush you through the legal system. They are currently engaged in attempting to take out a political rival with “lawfare”. You may know the victim, his name is Donald J. Trump. They have been trying to silence him going on eight years. I am hearing people every day, expressing concerns that this battle could cost Trump his life. It cost JFK his life going up against the deep state. Epstein knew too much, and the old pirate syndrome took place as in; “dead men tell no tales”.
Flash back a little over a year ago during the Covid 19 debacle. Freedom of speech was virtually cancelled overnight. I was shocked at the lack of “pushback” by the American people. Everyone literally cowered in their homes and allowed the federal, state, and local governments to put us in invisible shackles. We were under house arrest without a shred of a legal document to back it up. Businesses that protested and attempted to stay open were ruined. Their business licenses were revoked, their liquor licenses were suspended, it was like a page from a history book, about what happened in Nazi Germany. I was stunned by what I was seeing.
Scientists and doctors that attempted to introduce alternative medicine to fight the symptoms were ostracized by the main stream medical world. They were ridiculed by TV anchors that are totally ignorant when it comes to medicine and therapeutic treatments. They were silenced by the federal government in any number of ways. The scientific world was turned upside down, to protect “big pharma” and force everyone to take their products. The US government, and other western governments were in lockstep regarding the infamous vaccine. I believe most if not all western governments made it impossible for citizens to sue “big pharma” for any harm that may come from their infamous products.
Early on in the so-called pandemic, a number of people suspected that this disease came from the Wuhan labs, and they were quickly labeled as kooks and nuts. I was among the ones that figured this out very early on. I’m not saying I’m some kind of genius, I’m saying that if you thought about it for more than 5.38 seconds it was as obvious as bird poop on your windshield. That said, they still tried to get us to believe it came from a so-called wet market. A group of former intelligence officers wrote a letter in an attempt to dispel the rumors. In other words, the feds were putting up a smoke screen to cover their asses.
Have you figured out yet why the governments shut down churches, restaurants, and bars during the pandemic? This is where likeminded people congregate and discuss the hot topics. This is where resistance groups are formed. They wanted to keep us separated so we couldn’t discuss this among ourselves. They were seriously impeding the first amendment.
I could write volumes on this topic. It is so blatantly obvious free speech is under attack right now by our own government. By lying politicians that took an oath to uphold the Constitution, but instead are trying to destroy it. Free speech is dangerous to a corrupt government, it could bring it down. The US government is among the most corrupt governments in the world. Oh, there are still a few good men and women that are trying to make a difference, but I’m afraid it’s a losing battle. They are seriously outnumbered. Just about everyone in D.C. has their hands out to collect the dollars being doled out by huge multinational corporations. Believe me, these people are more than happy to take away your rights to free speech to protect their turf. Right now, in this moment in time, you could classify this current government as insurgents, and you would be very close to correct. They have no respect for the average person, and consider them a danger to their existence, and have to be controlled by any means possible. If you don’t believe me, watch Nancy Pelosi at the recent Oxford debate. She says it out loud.
POLITICALLY INCORRECT CENTER-RIGHT PERSPECTIVE OF CURRENT NEWS EVENTS
ARE AMERICANS AS FREE AS WE THINK WE ARE, OR ARE WE KIDDING OURSELVES?
This article has been on my mind for several years. I think about it, and then I back out, thinking I am going to be perceived as anti-American, which is as far from the truth as you’re ever going to be. When I’m at a flag raising ceremony which is a couple of times a year, it is extremely emotional for me. When I watch the flag being hoisted while the National Anthem is being played, I am overwhelmed by the thoughts of all of the patriots that died defending this great nation. Some of them suffering from the most horrific injuries you can imagine. But in the past thirty odd years, we have entered into a whole new world, way different than eighty or so years ago right after WW2.
So, I guess I’ll start by asking the question; how do you define freedom? This is where my brain starts splintering into an overwhelming number of different answers. Let’s start with real basic stuff. You should be allowed to progress from birth to adulthood, without any outside influences regarding your gender, your choice of education, or your choice of occupation that you believe would make you happy. All of those things are your personal freedoms and should not be interfered with by others with ulterior motives. You should be allowed to attend the schools of your choice regardless of your race or religion. You should be able to gain entrance to schools of higher education based on your academic achievements, without any consideration of your ethnicity. Everything that I just mentioned above, has literally been shredded in the past 30 or 40 years. Not all at once, no, they would never have been able to get away with that. They have chipped away little by little, and those freedoms have evaporated, and you hardly noticed.
What is more basic than the freedom to own a home? Wow, you’re so excited buying your first home. If you’re lucky, it’s a home you want to spend the rest of your life in. You set goal to pay extra toward the principle on the mortgage, so you can actually own your property, it’s all yours. Nope, it’s not yours, it never will be. Even though you hold the title free and clear, you only get to keep your home as long as you pay the property taxes. When you stop paying property taxes, the state government forecloses and takes your home. The same thing happens if you get behind on your income taxes, the feds confiscate everything you own, including your home. You will pay on that home as long as you live there…period. There is no escape from taxation, no matter how hard you try. “The man” owns you and everything you acquire in life.
So you have been living happily in your home for 20 years, your family has grown and you would like to add on to it, make it larger and more comfortable. I mean you deserve it, you paid for it, you’re making a really nice salary. Boy, are you in for a surprise. The city planning commission will want to see the plans to see if it complies with all of the city codes and regulations. They are going to make you take out a building permit, that could be expensive and take months. If you live in a neighborhood with a HOA, they will likely have a selection of colors you have to choose from, and style of roofing materials that you’re are allowed to use. The city inspector will want to see if the construction meets code. Then the city will have to sign off on it for you to get your certificate of occupancy. Then when you’re all done, your house is now worth more money, so the tax assessor will raise your property taxes accordingly. Of course you could sell it and cash out, collecting all of that cold hard cash from the monetary appreciation that has taken place since you bought it 20 years ago. That can be a hefty sum, but don’t get all giddy. Unless you invest in another property within a certain time frame, the IRS will want their cut, aptly called capital gains.
Let’s talk about your automobile. Don’t even think about using it on a public road unless it is registered with the state, with a visible license plate, and tag showing you are currently paid up with the state. You will get a hefty fine if it isn’t insured. A lot of states have laws that say your vehicle has to pass a safety inspection and another tag is assigned to your car, usually displayed on your windshield. Surely, some of these things protect other motorists, but the state cleverly realizes how much you need your automobile and you will readily pay for the privilege of driving it. More revenue for “the man”. Oh, wait a minute, you can’t drive without gasoline, so let’s add some more taxes on gas. How often do you even think about the gasoline taxes? Do you even know what percentage of your gasoline dollar goes to taxes? I don’t, what difference would it make.
If you stay abreast of current events, which you should, you will become aware of the increased crime, and decreased police protection. So, you think it’s probably wise to own a firearm for home protection. Good idea. Shouldn’t be a problem, the bill of rights says it’s within my rights to own a gun. It’s called the second amendment. Nope, the anti-gun folks have all but killed that right. You can still own a gun, but holy cow, you have to jump through a lot of hoops. Now some states have the “red flag” law. You better make sure you don’t piss anyone off that knows you own that gun, you could end up having it confiscated, even if the reason is based on a lie. If you are involved in a domestic violence offense, they can make sure you are not allowed to own a gun in the future. But wait a minute you say, I didn’t cause the problem. It don’t matter, they are just happy to make you a former gun owner, without a chance of becoming a future gun owner. They hate guns.
Well hell, since I can’t hunt anymore, I’m going fishing you say. Not without a license you aren’t. If you buy a boat, even a small one, it has to be licensed as well before you go sailing off on your fishing excursion. Also, you better be able to identify the fish you catch, it may not be the proper season for that fish, and you could get a hefty fine for catching that smelly little bugger. Even if the fish you catch is not restricted by a time period, it better be big enough to keep, or you’re in trouble again. OK, you’re good, all of your fish are the right size, in the right season, but if you’re caught with more than you’re allowed, another big fine is coming your way. Anyway, if you add up all of the money you spend on gear, license, boat, gasoline to get to the fishing hole, gasoline to get back home, you’re way better off to stop in at the Safeway, and buy the fish of your choice, and spend all of that extra money you saved on beer. So far there’s no restriction on beer unless you drive after drinking it. Don’t think you can get by with riding your horse home from the bar while drunk, that’s illegal too. Even your riding lawnmower will get you in trouble while drunk.
A few years ago, I bought a high end drone with a fabulous camera, with a motorized gimbal that rotated a full 360 degrees plus up and down. You could adjust the exposure on the camera while in flight to get the best possible video or snapshot. It has a range of over one mile, and a flight time of close to 30 minutes at 40 miles per hour. The controller told you how much battery life you had remaining and gave you a warning if you were too far out. This was literally like flying a full-on aircraft. The purchase price was just over $4,000.00. This aircraft was large and amazing to fly. But I was restricted from flying over people or highways unless I had a pilot’s license equivalent to a manned aircraft, actually the same exact test. But I could have a limited license called a sport license that allowed me to fly over non populated areas. With the sports license I was not allowed to sell any photos I took. My drone had to be registered with the FAA and it had official FAA license number on it same as the Cessna flying out of the local airport. OK, I was willing to put up with all of that, bending the law a little here and there, but the straw that broke the camel’s back for me, was the FAA was going to make me fit it with a transponder at the beginning of 2004. I threw in the towel and sold it.
Years ago, when I was much younger and highly energetic, I bought cheap cars with issues, fixed them and maybe threw in a cheap paint job and flipped them for a quick profit. Being a law-abiding citizen, I registered them within legal the time frame, and turned in all of the proper paperwork when I sold them. I wanted to make sure everything was legal and above board. It wasn’t long before the state of California sent me a notice that if sold one more car that year I would have to become a dealer. So, I looked into what was required to be a dealer, no way could I afford to do that. I started buying cars telling the sellers not to date the paperwork, then when I sold them, I simply passed the paperwork on to the new owner and my name didn’t show up anywhere. Sometimes you just have to do what you have to do.
The first time I tried to have a legal business out of my home, I established a fictitious business name, AKA dba. As soon as you do that it is published in a local newspaper, and the city immediately sends you notice that you have to have a city business license. So, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out to open a bank account in your own personal name, and make sure your customers make the checks out to you personally, leaving off any indication it is a business. Your bank will take care of the transactions without any problems, and you are under the radar. Take your books to the accountant, operating as a sole proprietor. The minute the government knows your are conducting a business of any type, they immediately put out their claws to get their share.
Being a private contractor used to be a great gig. I made some very good money in California as a private contractor/ consultant. Then the state got greedy and started making laws that pretty much killed the ability to do that. If the states think you have found a way around giving them a share of your earnings, they’ll find a way to stop it.
When the phrase “land of the free” was coined, it was probably mostly correct. Today, not so much. I was watching a police show from Florida a few weeks ago, they got a call that a couple of folks were engaged in sexual intercourse at the bus stop. When they arrived, a black guy and a white gal were in fact fully engaged. They were both arrested as you would imagine. One more thing you aren’t free to do, as much as you may want to.
It’s been a while since I did a “View” article. View articles are simply that, my thoughts and views about stuff. Not necessarily news kind of stuff. I’m a You Tube junkie, I love all of the different things you can see and experience. I have recently been following the video episodes by Jeff Thisted. He owns and drives a 1955 Chevy station wagon that has been hot rodded and lightly customized, and he drives it from Chicago to L.A. on route 66 as much as possible while shooting some awesome video. Some large pieces of the old highway are sadly gone, and ain’t comin’ back. Why would that interest me? well I have done the same trip from Tulsa to Santa Monica four times. Once with my parents in a 1953 Plymouth Belvedere, once in a 1953 Studebaker Commander Regal Starlight Coupe when I was 21 years old with my wife and kids, once with my wife and kids in a 1959 Plymouth Fury, again in my 1965 Formula S Barracuda, and my final trip was with my wife and kids in a 1970 Plymouth Fury with a 440 Magnum engine. So, watching Jeff’s videos was fun to see all of the old motels and gas stations and towns. Looking at the old road, and how narrow it was, brought back so many memories.
THE CALL OF THE OPEN ROAD
I was born into a family that liked to go places and see things. After WW2 when rationing was lifted, people began to travel. My first big road trip was in 1949, with my sister and her husband in a brand new 1949 Plymouth sedan. We traveled from Tulsa across Texas to Juarez Mexico, then on to New Mexico and the Carlsbad Caverns, then to southern Colorado, and back home to Tulsa. It was an amazing trip for an eight-year-old. For some odd reason I remember Albuquerque and how small it was comparing it to how it looked in the sixties.
The home I grew up in was about two miles from route 66. Alongside the highway was the Frisco railway. On a warm summer night, I could lay in my bed and hear the traffic on 66 and the steam trains coming and going. Our house was quite a lot higher than the rail yards about five miles east of us. When the big steam locomotives climbed the grade going west, they actually caused the windows to rattle in our house, when we were about two miles from the tracks. The steam whistles on those old trains were a beckoning call to go somewhere, anywhere. By the time I was six years old, I already had two trips by rail under my belt. One to Dallas Texas, and one to St. Louis, Missouri. I remember crossing the Mississippi on a train like it was yesterday.
Ironically, the new four lane bypass that took route 66 around most of the populated areas of Tulsa took out my birthplace home as well. We moved to the other side of route 66 to a brand-new home which was close enough to the train tracks we could see the trains from our house. And could hear the traffic on 66 a little louder. The noise from the railroad and route 66 wasn’t a problem, it was a good sound. It’s no surprise after growing up in that environment that I had a bad case of the wanderlust. It didn’t help that my whole family had a passion for cars. I couldn’t wait until I got my first car so I could start racking up some highway miles. ( A side note; The house that was taken out by the new highway was my birthplace, built by my mom and dad and moved to that location almost ten years earlier. The new owners that bought it from the state moved it again and it still stands today, in great condition, looking much like it did when I was a kid. )
My father was the “rules of the road” expert. When I was a kid, I watched him drive while standing behind his seat. I wanted to know how it all worked. I was fascinated by the instrument panel and all of the gauges and what they meant. I used to listen to my dad’s road stories while he was driving, and how drivers were expected to interact with each other, being courteous at all times. How cars interacted with trucks and so on. I listened carefully to his every word which was the gospel of the road. I was especially impressed watching him drive at night, I loved the glow of the instrument panel lights, watching him navigate the darkness. The headlights on the old cars with six volt electrical systems were about the equivalent of a good flashlight. They were really bad in the rain. Every trip with my Dad behind the wheel was a big adventure for me.
AUTOMOBILES AND HIGHWAYS ARE A ROMANTIC EXPERIENCE OF ANOTHER KIND.
That’s exactly why it is a great topic for movies and tv shows. Every road trip is an adventure. It may not be of epic proportion, but you will remember what happened and what you saw on that trip the rest of your life. My late wife was just as smitten by the road as myself. She bought a book in the eighties by a native American author named William Least Heat Moon, called “Blue Highways”. Blue highways are the roads on the map that are blue, which means they are secondary roads found in sparsely populated areas. (we were still traveling by maps, it was many years before GPS and cell phones) She suggested that we follow his route across the western states as far as possible while traveling to Oklahoma from southern California. We did exactly that, what a fabulous trip. You have probably heard the phrase “one horse towns”, well there are a lot of those on blue highways. Your vehicle better be in good condition, because most of the time it’s a long way to any kind of automotive services.
Fortunately for me after my late wife’s passing, I met my current wife, and she too loves to travel. We have been married for sixteen years and have covered a lot of asphalt during those years, some by car, some by motorhome, some by truck and trailer. Also, a fair amount by motorcycle before age caught up with us.
Our last big adventure was about three years ago. We loaded up the trusty old Suburban and headed to Phoenix from Oregon. I added the picture above, because this is the type of road I love to travel on. This is the cut-off from West of Phoenix to Lake Havasu where we visited our grandchildren and great grandchildren. I have to add that I lived in the southwest USA for thirty years and drove these roads extensively.
This canyon is near St. George Utah, the hills and valleys are gorgeous. We loved St. George so much we spent three days there taking in all of the sights. Contrary to what some people think, the desert is a beautiful place. Right about now, it may be a little late, but the Mojave Desert in California is blanketed with wildflowers. It literally looks like a carpet.
PURPLE MOUNTAINS MAJESTY, ABOVE THE FRUITED PLAINS. GOD BLESS AMERICA
In April I celebrated my 83rd birthday, and I have only been able to see 30 out of 50 states, British Columbia, Alberta, and southern Ontario. There are so many beautiful places to see, so many beautiful highways to travel, so many wonderful people to meet. That is the romantic allure of the highway. It allows people of today to have their own personal adventures and see once in a lifetime places.
As you read above, I grew up in Oklahoma, seeing the Pacific Ocean for the first time was amazing. Standing in the Rockies looking over vast valleys, and walking through the Redwood forests of California are experiences that can’t be taken away from you. Standing in a wheat field in Kansas in the summer when the wheat is up to your waist for as far as the eye can see cannot be duplicated. Seeing Multnomah falls in Oregon in the wintertime when they are frozen cannot be matched.
My daughters just went to Europe a few months ago, and brought back some amazing photos, but I still haven’t seen my own country yet. I would love to see Main and Connecticut in the fall. I would love to take ride on the old Durango, Colorado steam train. Would love to drive the Blue Mountain Highway. Nope, don’t wanna go anywhere outside of the USA until I have seen everything here, and time is running short. Hell, I haven’t even seen the largest ball of twine yet, but I’ve been to Nashville. Saw the Columbia sitting on the launch pad a week before it exploded.
The United States of America is an awesome place. I can’t thank God enough for giving me the opportunity to live here, during the best time of its existence. It absolutely breaks my heart daily watching it be destroyed little by little, by evil people with no souls. Stand strong against this evil my friends. Do whatever is in your power to preserve our nation.
POLITICALLY INCORRECT, CENTER-RIGHT PERSPECTIVE OF CURRENT NEWS EVENTS
WHAT THE HELL ARE THEY THINKING?
If you have been reading my blog for any length of time, you know I’m a hopeless “gearhead” car nut. I was born that way. It’s genetic, my father was, both of my sisters, and my younger brother all loved automobiles. After all of these years of labor, I don’t have lot of money piled up in bank account. Spent most of it on cars, and just wasted the rest.
All of that said, I keep up with the automobile scene pretty closely. What I see in recent years is the price of cars is getting completely out of hand. A lot of things are contributing to that, but what I see as the main factor, is car manufacturers are trying to make cars do everything, including your housework. I’m serious, today’s cars have tons of features that are not even needed to get you from point ‘A’ to point ‘B’. In the end it makes the cars less reliable and way more expensive.
They gave me a new Chrysler car to use while my Suburban was in the shop. That was the most obnoxious car have ever driven. It had an irritating touch screen in the middle of the dash to turn on the HVAC system, set the temperature and so on. I hated it. I had to pull over and stop to use it. My Suburban is 17 years old and it’s bad enough with all of the stupid little buttons. None of this stuff is tactile, it takes your attention away from driving when looking at the digital displays. How about a three-position switch, low, medium and high, with a sliding lever to set the temp. You don’t need to know the precise temperature, adjust it to your comfort. That’s what you’re doing anyway, and you can do it without taking your eyes off the road.
The Chrysler had a ten speed automatic transmission. The damned thing never stopped changing gears. It was totally irritating. My Suburban has a three speed automatic with overdrive and a big 5.3 liter V8. It has enough power, that it doesn’t need to constantly search of gears, besides it’s busy searching for gas stations. But trust me, there are more important things in life than miles per gallon.
This one really gets me wound up. Why the hell do I need a screen the size of my computer monitor in the middle of the dash showing me fourteen different views of protestors beating my car with baseball bats, when it really needs machine guns. I’m serious, why do you need to watch yourself driving as if you and your car are having an “out of body” experience unless you’re driving while in a strait jacket.
RAIN SENSING WIPERS? Have you ever been in doubt when to turn on your wipers? Another expensive little feature that is totally unnecessary that will break just after the warranty expires and will cost just under a thousand dollars to restore it. That’s why RAIN-X is really good to carry in your trunk. Maybe they add this feature to keep you from crashing while you’re trying to find your wiper app on the touch screen.
SELF DRIVING MODE: If you’re too damn lazy to drive your own car, take public transportation and save someone’s life because your too stupid to be driving anyway.
AUTOMATIC PARKINGFEATURE: If you such a lame ass driver that you can’t park your own car, UBER might be your best bet. Besides it will save the rest of us the pain of returning to a damaged car.
LANE DEPARTURE WARNING DEVICES: This feature became necessary when the installed the big ass touch screen on the dash, because you’re all over the road while your trying to find the app to turn on the wipers or adjust the air temp. Most people that are of average intelligence and not drunk don’t really need this. It could be useful for drivers in self-driving mode while trying to have sex with their cousin and live streaming it on FANS ONLY.
The point I am trying to make is that car makers in their efforts to attract more customers are loading their cars with unnecessary garbage features that fail after few years and cost an arm and a leg to repair. I quit buying Ford trucks because the electronic features are prone to failure more than the other trucks I bought in the past. My Suburban is 17 years old and all of the electronic displays still work fine. All of these added features drive up the initial cost, and ownership maintenance. Another problem is that if you are looking for a less expensive car, your choices are some piece of crap econobox that is equivalent to driving a cardboard box on wheels. Why can’t you buy a mid size car with basic features that doesn’t break the bank? They used to make them. I had a 2004 Buick Century sedan with basic features, got fantastic gas mileage, comfortable, reliable, and we drove it for years with very minor repairs.
When you buy a car that you have to finance for 8 years so you can afford the payments, you will likely never own that car. You will likely trade it before it’s paid off and go into debt for another eight years. Your life will be divided into car payment segments. I got into that revolving car payment lifestyle years ago so I could be seen in the latest model, with the most features, and fanciest colors. Then I figured it out that I was being played for sucker. Now we drive nice older cars, that look stylish, and don’t have eight-year contracts. It pisses me off I didn’t figure that out sooner, I could have owned more motorcycles.
Stay safe and free my friends. God bless you and your families.
POLITICALLY INCORRECT, CENTER RIGHT PERSPECTIVE, OF CURRENT NEWS EVENTS
You have probably noticed that my articles have been rather sporadic lately. I suppose you could say that I am suffering from a mild form of PTSD, after Joe Biden was elected and proceeded to destroy my country. Well, maybe it’s a little more than a mild form of PTSD. I’m pretty much genuinely pissed 24-7-365. Him and his band of commies are well on their way to the absolute destruction of this once great nation. You will never convince me otherwise, that Barrack Hussien Obama isn’t playing a major role in this as well. Joe Biden is living in La La Land, oblivious to reality. Don’t kid yourselves, all of this calamity is not just happening by chance, this is being orchestrated. I’m going to let Victor Davis Hanson put it in perspective.
I am acutely aware of everything Victor says in this video, I have been saying this in my blogs for years now. It’s depressing as hell knowing a group of knights on white stallions is not going to ride in and save us. The Republicans were our last hope, and they have completely morphed into something unrecognizable. The Republicans are great talkers but are in reality what the Chinese call “paper tigers”. They are mostly useless.
So, I keep scanning the news, looking for a glimmer of hope, looking for some kind of sign things are starting to change, and all I see is more lawlessness, despair, government lies and propaganda. They are spending the USA into oblivion. They are destroying our beautiful cities one by one and allowing China to buy up our farmlands. They are allowing non-citizens to pull down the American flag and put a foreign flag in its place, and there is no one there willing to step in and stop it. If you dare attempt to defend your homeland when your own government won’t, they will prosecute you and put you in prison and throw away the key.
So, I’m afraid that when people finally realize that their own government will not follow its own laws, the American people will turn largely lawless. Why wouldn’t they? Either the law applies to all, or it applies to none. We are headed down a very dangerous path.
I will be back soon, in the meantime, stay safe, and stay vigilant for your freedom. God Bless you all. We are headed for some rough times I’m afraid.
POLITICALLLY INCORRECT, CENTER RIGHT PERSPECTIVE OF CURRENT NEWS EVENTS.
A few months ago, I wrote an article about an old orange cat that has been around my neighborhood for several years. He didn’t have an apparent home. He was a rough looking old guy, that carried scars of past cat fights, his ears were bent and ragged, and had that look that said “don’t even think about coming near me”. The “compulsory” neighborhood ” cat lady” lives a few doors south of my house left her garage door up just enough for him to squeeze under it and provided a little bed and food for him. He was happy to grab a nap and a snack but wanted no part of being friends. Everyone respected his space and didn’t interfere with his hanging out. Well, the “cat lady” told me a few days ago that she found him passed away in her garage. She bagged up his body and she thought, now what am I going to do with it? She thought about it for awhile and said I can’t just drop him in the trash can, his life has been pretty crappy, so she took his remains to the vet and had him cremated and gave him a final resting place in her yard. So, amid all of the craziness in the world, there are still good people out there that have heart and compassion, for all creatures and people.
I DOUBT WE WILL EVER REALLY KNOW WHY THE DEMOCRATS ACTUALLY DID THIS.
On its face, the idea of throwing the gates open and letting the world walk into our country unmitigated is insanity at the highest level. There are literally hundreds of reasons why this is a really bad idea. I’m going to touch on just few that seem really important to me. It would be impossible to list them all in one article.
PUBLIC HEALTH
As long as I can remember, the United States has been very focused on health and disease control. If any type of infectious disease started spreading, the wheels went into motion immediately to get it under control. Quarantines were common in the 1800’s and early 1900’s. It wasn’t uncommon for a household to be under quarantine until the occupants were no longer considered to be carriers. This was especially true for tuberculosis which is highly contagious and dangerous. I was a pre-teen during the polio outbreak in the fifties, it was really scary. Some of my friends ended up badly crippled.
I believe the forties and fifties were the beginning of the quest by medical science to develop vaccines to protect people from these dreaded diseases. They successfully eradicated many childhood diseases that had previously taken the lives of thousands of children. Polio was stopped in its tracks by Jonas Salk. What a relief that was when kids could live their lives without fear of being crippled or spending their lives in iron lungs. Measles left a lot of kids with damaged hearts.
The unmitigated flow of immigrants from third world nations is about to undo a lot of the hard work medical science has done for the population of this country. Leprosy has re-emerged in some of the southern states. Although leprosy is curable by modern medicine, it can still have a devastating effect it not diagnosed and treated quickly. Tuberculosis is being re-introduced by illegal migrants, and unfortunately, it seems to be resistant to nearly all existing drugs. It is called XDR-TB. People with HIV are especially vulnerable. The new treatment has shown success, but with a host of side effects, and will take six months of therapy. If the therapy is not followed through to the end, it will recur.
INCREASED CRIMINAL ACTIVITY
This is proving to be true almost every day in the large metropolitan areas where thousands of illegal migrants now find themselves situated. There are probably a half a dozen new stories every day ranging from rape to murder to burglary and everything in between. What make it worse is that a lot of these people were not identified when they crossed the border and have no record whatsoever. Nobody even knows they are here. They can commit crimes with no way to track them. No DNA, no fingerprint data, no history of any kind. Even worse, quite a large percentage are members of organized gangs from South America and have a well-organized communication system in place. They move freely from state to state and city to city, undetected.
The current legal system, which is extremely soft on crime, and double soft on minorities is giving these criminals free reign to wreak havoc on American citizens. Because of the insane idea to defund the police in some cities, the police can’t possibly make a dent in this new crime wave.
STEALING BENEFITS FROM AMERICANS
There will always be the “less fortunate” among us that need our help. It has been that way from the beginning of time. It’s simply a fact of life. Before any of this nonsense began, government agencies were struggling to provide benefits for the needy, which included mentally challenged people, physically handicapped, injured veterans, and displaced people, both adults and children. It’s a huge task to manage these struggling individuals. The last thing we needed was to have millions more requiring living assistance. The new wave of welfare recipients are quite different, they are much younger and able bodied. They don’t happen to be American born, and speak foreign dialects. They are also poorly educated with no job skills other than physical laborers. When these people find it impossible to provide for themselves, they will resort to crime. It’s simply a matter of self preservation.
Stories are emerging that the local government agencies are moving American citizens out of government provided shelters and housing illegal immigrants in their place. I recently heard a story that illegal immigrants were being housed in facilities designated for veterans. Why is the left displacing Americans in favor of non Americans? Whose bright idea was this? Fortunately, people are fighting back against this craziness.
I have listed obvious things we can all see happening. There are thousand of little things that we don’t notice. One of the larger effects is how they are stealing our votes. Not by voting, but by demographics. When these people are counted on the census, it will affect the congressional districts, and ultimately result in a stronger Democrat presence in Congress.
You don’t have to have a degree in economics to understand the monetary drain on our economy from illegal immigration. It is a proven fact that illegals will be a burden for a decade or more before they start putting more money into the economy than they are taking out. Our Medicare and Medicaid systems were already taking huge hits before the surge of illegals. Where do you think these folks are going to get medical care? They can’t even feed and house themselves. The government is creating a brand new under class while killing the middle class.
Think about this for a minute. Corporations in America are becoming richer and more powerful every day and play an ever-increasing role in the shaping government policies. Corporations are becoming more and more involved in our every day lives through the way we communicate, what we eat, what we drive, and what kind of home we live in. Corporations now own and operate a huge swath of agricultural land, and food production. Medical corporations had a huge influence on how we dealt with Covid. They are playing a huge role in the transgender issue by promoting gender care.
Are we witnessing a corporate take over of our government? Are the corporations pushing for unbridled immigration to create a giant labor pool of uneducated, obedient workers? The middle class would be a hinderance for corporate control. The corporations would love to have a one-party government that they could easily control. We are very close to that right now, and you can see the devastating effects from it.
I apologize for the for leading you down a somewhat crooked path tonight, but there are so many things that seem to be intertwined, it’s hard to not see the connections in all of the things currently happening. There seems to be some sort of master plan in play, but it’s still hidden from sight for the time being. But one thing is abundantly clear, there are powerful forces that are trying to dismantle our Republic.
MUSIC WILL MAKE YOU FEEL BETTER
I listen to music, many types of music to take my mind off of the nonsense going on in the world. One of my favorite sources is YouTube, where you can find some incredible artists that make you drift away to another world. I’m going to provide a link to a guitarist that I think is phenomenal. His name is Justin Johnson.
Hope you enjoyed listening to Justin and his band as much as I do. Have a super week, stay vigilant, stay free. OJ left the building today, the world is a better place by a little bit.
The link below is to an article that explains in infinite detail what I was trying to convey in my last blog. I would never be able to create an article such as this one, I simply don’t have the educational tools. I know its happening, I feel it, I see it, but can’t tell you how we got here. This article will fill in the blanks.
THE LAWS THAT WERE WRITTEN TO PROTECT US ARE BEING USED TO DESTROY US.
The song ‘Hotel California” written by the Eagles had a line in it that said “we are all prisoners of our own device”. As far as the law is concerned, I will modify that phrase slightly and say we are victims of our own device. Device being the law, which is being used against us like a mace, pounding us into oblivion.
This is how it works; Using the same exact law, you apply it harshly on your opponent, and very sparingly on your cohorts. The best example I could ever hope to have, was how the rioters of 2020, which were allies of the Democrat party, received little or no punishment, in some cases such as Portland, Oregon were recently awarded damages for being roughed up by Police. In opposition to that, the January 6th rioters were less destructive by a huge margin, no fires were set, and no one was murdered in spite of what they claim, and yet many of them are still in prison and more are being tried and convicted four years later.
Donald Trump is being bludgeoned by laws that are being twisted and distorted by unscrupulous prosecutors and presided over by activist judges. The law being the law, you are trapped by it exactly like a spider traps its prey. Once the victim is in the web, and the more they try to free themselves, they run out of money, like the spider’s prey runs out of energy and falls prey to the predator. A court of law can be transformed into a virtual “meat grinder” and the defendant can lose his or her entire life’s work, home, savings, everything, and even if you somehow manage to crawl back and eventually win, you will never get your stuff back. It can be amazingly cruel.
Biden and his cronies have turned the law into a nuclear weapon to destroy anyone connected with MAGA or suspected of being connected with MAGA. Have you noticed they are very careful to not use the word Republicans? Republicans after all are a valid political party, and attempting to destroy the Republican party would be looked upon with great disdain. And, a lot of Republicans think like Democrats, but those MAGA folks are terrorists, see what they did on January 6th? Donald Trump and his whole organization are the leaders of the MAGA movement, they have to be destroyed no matter what. They are a dire threat to democracy. It has to be true, Joe Biden and MSM said so.
The list of Trump associates that have been destroyed by Bidens DOJ is long, and it just keeps growing. Mike Lindell and his company “My Pillow” has been the target of the left for supporting Donald Trump and has suffered greatly. Woke companies Walmart, Kohls, J.C.Penney, Wayfair, Bed Bath and Beyond, and others have refused to carry his products for purely political reasons. Dominion and Smartmatic voting systems are suing him for defamation which they will undoubtedly win, and My Pillow will probably go down in flames. Vigorously participating in politics today can be a dangerous undertaking. Side note, we have My Pillow pillows in our home and our RV and love them, best pillows we ever owned bar none.
Did you ever think in a million years that you would see the FBI coming down on parents protesting school board policies? A father is upset about his daughter being raped on school property, they tried to cover it up, and the father ends up being arrested for loudly complaining and accusing them of the cover up. How the hell did a school board get this much power over parents? By the way, the school boards are subjecting children to drag queens (AKA sexual perverts) and getting protection from the local police departments to keep parents from disrupting the shows. The law is turning our world upside down.The good guys are bad, the bad guys are good.
Roger Stone, Rudy Guliani, Mike Lindell, Steve Bannon, Allen Weisselberg, Peter Navarro, Michael Flynn, Paul Manafort, Rick Gates, Elliot Broidy, Carter Page, and more than 1,000 people in connection with January 6th have been prosecuted, or they are facing prosecution from Biden’s corrupt DOJ. Trump himself has been indicted at least four times. Does anyone with a sound mind actually think these charges were actually justified? Of course they weren’t. They are kangaroo court bullshit meant to intimidate and harass these individuals. But there is another motive, and that my friends, is to discourage others from working with Trump in the future. I don’t know the identities, but I have read that Trump has difficulty finding attorneys that will work for him, because of the intimidation factor. While attempting to paint Trump and his supporters as being corrupt, they themselves are being exposed as actually being the ones that are corrupt. It has been revealed that Fani Willis earns a base salary of about $110,000.00 per year as a D.A. She rakes in an additional 1.5 million from “various sources”. Willis’s wealth includes 5 million in real estate, including 300 acres in Utah, and four bedroom Villa in Georgia, property in Maui, and two properties in Houston, TX. Plus, she owns eight cars. On top of this, she claims she keeps about 10K in cash in her home. Her net worth is reported to be around 8M. Let that all sink in for a moment, and tell me that doesn’t warrant an investigation into this woman’s business affairs. My guess, is that she is very good at siphoning off money from government funding, that comes through her office. I don’t know that as a fact, but it is a very common practice among people in her position.
So, the DOJ and FBI can very rapidly bring charges against Trump and his supporters for stuff that mostly falls under the heading of misdemeanors, prosecute them, or attempt to prosecute them, and they can’t seem to bring themselves to charge Hunter Biden with anything, even as minor as being an unlicensed foreign agent? Joe Biden willfully took classified documents, stored them in unsecure locations, shared them with a ghost writer ( who claims he destroyed them) . Joe Biden wasn’t even allowed to have these in his possession as a senator, he essentially stole classified government documents. That is a felony all day long. The verdict from the DOJ Inspector General was that even though he was guilty of doing this, no jury would convict him, being an old man with a failing mind. This sounds a bit like the reasoning of Jim Comey regarding the Hillary Clinton email scandal. It’s the way things work, and not likely to change as long as you have a (D) behind your name. I literally laugh out loud when one of these sanctimonious assholes say; “no one is above the law”, when every single Democrat party politician is actually above the law. It is one of the biggest lies ever told, and is repeated over and over, and everyone knows it’s a lie.
But one of the things that irritates me most about these lying bastards, is they do it with a backdrop of American flags. They do this because they think it gives their lies validity. No, what it does is desecrate our glorious flag. These slimy dirtbags are not real Americans, the real Americans are the hardworking men and women that obey the law, work every day, make families, and make this nation function. Police officers, fire fighters, doctors, nurses, business owners, clergymen, and all of the other folks that make sure we have power, water, and essentials for life. And most of all, military personnel that stand ready to defend the nation and it’s people whenever, wherever needed.
Remember this, every single day; what you see the law doing to their political opponents can easily be done to you if you do something that opposes their agenda. I don’t know a single person personally who could financially withstand a legal assault like what they are doing to Trump and his supporters. The slimy dirtbags know this, they want to scare you into being quiet. They want to scare you into going along without a fight. Your government is the biggest bully you will ever face, bar none, and they will not be prosecuted if they kill you in the process. Ask Ashley Babbit’s family.
steelpencil.com 