Well now............

`.................I guess I could post something about the atrocity up in VA.
I'll probably ruminate on that little incident for a while, worrying at it like a Yorkie gnawing an elephant's leg bone.

Instead I think I'll post about my youngest granddaughter. That OK? Well tough titty. It's my blog and I'll post about what I want to.

10 months old now, she is. Quite a handful. Smart as a whip and stubborn as a North Georgia Mule. Kinda like the irresistible force. And for her, there are no immovable objects.

She can crawl like a greased ell, but would rather hold on to your fingers and walk.

She loves her grandmother (nanny) like I love chocolate. Oh she'll tolerate some one else when she's here, but only if she chooses to.

Naps.......ha, those are for lesser mortals than she. So tired she's whining and pulling at her ears........she'll shake her head........no, no, no, no, no. Trying to fight it off as long as possible. That's when I'll pick her up in the crook of my right arm, settle into the rocking easy chair and sing soft into her ear. It also helps if she has her pink bunny with the tail pull activated music box to hold onto..

It only plays e i e i o, and I could sing about dogs barking and pigs oinking, or cows mooing and it was like morphine to a gut shot victim . But no more, today I had to make up a song with her name in it. Hearing her name would cause her to listen, which stops the struggle, and it's all down hill from there.

It's a nice interlude. I get her to sleep and myself all at the same time. Generally good for about an hour, then her internal clock screams "Wake the heck up". It keeps her looking young but doesn't help me in that dept. at all......at all.

Sorry for the lack of posting. I'm contemplating my navel, and the lint.....unlike tea leaves, tell me not a thing.

I suppose I could let you look at her...............

Water from Heaven

Fell upon us yesterday and last night.

Oh, welcome relief for the parched earth around here. Now I'll have to step carefully in the yard to avoid bringing any mud into the house and onto the ratty and grimy old carpet on the floors. One of the first things on the house fix-up list is to replace all the carpet except for the bedrooms with nice hardwood flooring. Carpet is nice and soft on the feet. But a rug can be just as nice and easily thrown out or cleaned outdoors if needed.

It was nice to ride thru the mist and fog over NE Georgia yesterday. I had my whole trip planned out so as to visit each required stop at the appropriate time and still wind up in Clarksville where the real estate closing was scheduled for 4 pm..
It should come as no surprise to hear that at approx. 3.30 pm a call was received telling me it is postponed until this afternoon.

Thus proving once again the old saying, "Those who have the gold make the rules".

Kudzu putting out and doing just fine.

Here there be monsters

Does anyone remember the old drawing of the world before Columbus showed that the earth was really round and not flat, which showed the extent of the then known world and past that the above inscription.

The internet is sorta like that. All the edges have not been explored or probably even imagined. And the old warning has some validity today.

I posted the Aquamarine and Platinum bracelet I wrote about finding a few weeks ago on Craigslist. Nothing ventured, nothing gained as they say. A couple of days later email received apparently from a very interested buyer. Willing to pay more than I asked for me to take the posting off and deal with him.
I'm always ready to deal, but mama didn't raise me to be quite as dumb as I look. I merely replied that I'd be glad to take his money.
Wonderful was the reply. He was on a trip but his business partner would be sending me a check....send address to which it would be sent. No problem, although I did notice that the language was a little off for a native born american. Back came the reply that his partner owed him $3500 and he would send that to me and would I please send the bracelet as it was to be a wedding present. And if I would be so kind to forward the remaining money to his wife in North Carolina.

Alarms went off like the shuttle from Canaveral.

I replied that if he would be so kind as to send me good funds for the exact amount in either cash, a good check, or Gold rounded off the the nearest 1/10th oz, that I would be glad to send the bracelet as soon as the funds cleared into my account or the gold was assayed for purity.

Needless to say, I didn't hear back from him, but the next day another very similar email came from a different address wanting to do somewhat the same.

My reply was much the same and I haven't heard from him either.

I posted it on ebay and have had a few people look at it and want more information. Should you care to see it, go to here

Be careful out there folks, for "Here there be Monsters".

Okay ! Now all together.......

.....breath a small sigh of relief.

I'm back from the VA and a visit to she who prescribes my drugs, in all their variety, except for the BP and keep me from bloating pills.
Good to go for another 3 months or so. There'll be no ranting, raving, and foaming at the mouth on her watch......she hopes.

Was bemoaning the state of the world with a group of like aged and experienced guys today. Such an easy target (kinda like the 100 meter target that kept popping up on the m-16 qualification course). I won't say it's like shooting fish in a barrel but, If you can't find something to moan about these days, you are likely under the age of 20 or living in your own little bubble.. Just be careful to not moan too much or it'll become a habit (kinda like a nun's where her head is too small and it keeps slipping over her eyes) blocking you from enjoying life at all......at all.

Specifically we were talking about the state of education coming out of our public schools today. Public meaning of course government controlled schools.

I remember when Mrs. Venable, Miss Fisher, and Mrs. Hall were trying to impart the mysteries of Reading, 'Riting, and 'Rithmatic to our group of snot-nosed half tamed yard apes at good ol' Dacula elementary and high school. All one building. Too hot in winter because of the boiler fired steam heat. Too hot in spring and fall because air conditioning was something rich folks had and we'd never heard of. That was taken care of by opening the many windows. Windows under which, outside at recess we boys and some girls played mumble-d-peg with a variety of knives from Case, Old Timer and sometimes an Eyetalian switchblade someone's dad or older brother had brought back from a hitch in the Army overseas.

To my knowledge, no one was ever cut by someone else at school, to include Kenneth Lance who about cut his thumb off trying to impress people with how he could cut a cigarette dropped from his lips, then whipping out his hawkbill to slice it in half before it reached the ground out by the Vo-ag building.

It seemed to come down to a reduced individualism and acceptance of personal responsibility and an increased desire to let someone else take care of it.

When that desire is expressed, there will most always be someone who will out of the goodness of their heart or desire for authority over others, step forward touting the latest flavor of the month in 'don't worry about that, we'll take care of you here in the halls of government'. After all, isn't that what we send them to office to do.

I wonder what would happen today, if a President would have the courage and intelligence to proclaim "Ya'll work it out for your selves. We have a system of courts to dispute differences in, laws to prevent anyone taking anything from you by fraud or force, and a national government to prevent other nations from interfering in your peaceful enjoyment of your homes, your lives, your property. There isn't anyone above or below the other because of color, ethnicity, or gender. We all start out with the same rights, freedoms and every opportunity accorded anyone else, and you have the responsibility to make of it all you can or will."

How long would it be before some crazed, lone, looney tune put 4 bullets in that president's head in less than 6 seconds?

Just my wondering s from inside the kudzu grotto.

No Ham for us.

No Ham. How in the world did a celebration of the resurrection of a nice Jewish Carpenter come to have ham as a central part of the meal.

Don't get me wrong. I have nothing against ham. Far from it. From pickled pigs feet to ham to tenderloin (especially in a nice warm, buttered buttermilk biscuit)to bacon to shoulder roast I like all things pork. Oh yes, forgot to list BBQ. Not beef like some in the west like, but pig in all its lack of glory. Pigskins, cracklings, lard, liver, even the brains scrambled with eggs and cheese. The only thing that maybe slows me down is souse meat.

But I digress. This is supposed to be about the fact that we didn't eat ham for lunch today.

No! No !

What we had, was Southern Redneck made Mexican food. Taco's, burritos, fajitas, refried beans (oh will the covers shake tonight), red sauce, green sauce, fried chili's, tabasco pickles. More than enough to feed us all twice, though we did our duty and tried.

Everyone seemed to have a great time. The guys all talked about turkey and deer hunting. My oldest grandson has so far downed two Tom Turkeys this year and his dad one. A little good natured ribbing going on there. There was even talk of planning an African lion hunting trip with much description of lion hunts seen on the outdoor channel.

At least we remembered the reason for the day in my Blessing on the food, and attendance at sacrament this morning.

Hope your day went as well.

Half way thru the weekend

Grump is watching "The Ten Commandments" on TV. Spouse is snuggled in bed for the last hour and a half.

I'm beginning to think about tomorrow. We traditionally go to the Sister-in-laws for easter and won't be breaking that tomorrow. There will be enough time to attend Sacrament meeting first.

A hat tip to This Guy for putting it in all in prospective,

I bet that wood was hard.
I bet the nails hurt.

Not sure

..........this guy is right, but at least he's putting forth ideas with a little reason behind them.

Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it.

I don't remember who said that.........but it sure applies today.

If you're able.........

Go over to livey’s and do a good deed. I guarantee you'll feel good about it. If not blame it on me and do it anyway.

She is...........

...............In fact.......

A 1998 Jaguar XJ 8 L .




I really need a good name for her.

There is a reason.........

........for my only occasionally ranting about politics.

I believe that the group of politicians on both the right and left side of the congressional isle have, since Regan, and many before him, consciously and deliberately sold this country down the river to the highest bidder.

If you can give me good reasoned argument against that position, I'd be glad to hear it and consider your argument. In civil discourse, as that is the only way worthy of civilized beings. Of course you'd have to remember that I'm only half civilized and only marginally sane.

I read an article about one of my Heroes this afternoon. I'd be gratified if you would go Here and read it also. It's not that long.

Comments welcome. You don't have to of course, but an idea of how many actually go and read it would be nice.

English Mistressess .......

.......I've had two.

Not too bad for an introverted redneck country boy, I'd say.

There's just something about them that draws you in. Kinda like funnel cake at the county fair. Or the barker shouting "Come see the girl born with no body, only a head".

I remember the first, in my youth. As a young Army officer, freshly come from the killing fields, to the airfields of Germany. She drew me in with her beauty. The sleek lines of her body, her clothes.... colors molded almost closer than skin to her. As alluring as a breath of fresh air to a drowning man. And I tried drowning myself within her. With her I lived out my fantasies. I was 007, Errol Flynn, Alexander the Great, conqueror of all I surveyed. With her I could go anywhere, do anything. I was her first. Sadly.... not to be her last, for when I returned to the States she wouldn't come with me. It preys on my mind at times that she didn't come. I see her in my minds eye, as fresh, as alluring, as lithe as in my youth, for in my mind she never grows old.

And now I have another...

...Older, I'm not her first, nor she mine...

She came to me from a failed relationship....bruised, bearing her scars of abuse at the hands of those who did not respect her... her lineage, her heritage, her subtle grace and beauty.

Still, holding her head high, she asks for no quarter from anyone. She pulled me to her, casually, almost off handedly. As if to say.. 'will you be worthy of me'? And I try. I ply her with rich vintages. I buy her salves and unguents for her body and the scars which, while she doesn't try to hide them, she turns so as to mask them from the stares of gawkers and the illiterate who would point and not understand. And she seems grateful that I understand and am patient with her.

Heavier than the first in my youth, she is still graceful. Hiding the strength within her, she moves with that rare combination of agility and speed which surprises those who have not experienced her kind. When I enter her, at my pleasure, she moves to accommodate me, remembering my preferences, my likes, so that each time, while new, the same, for I am older now, and set in my ways. Yet when stroked just so, she growls and moves almost more quickly than I can adjust to... leaping, rushing to the finish. And so we complement each other... each bringing to the relationship seemingly what the other needs at this time in our lives. A little excitement, a little danger...... and a little, much needed, stability.

She is.................

Let me at......

<
....those pain pills.

Whoa who the hell has been beating on me with a ball bat. Oh yeah. Now I remember.

The lot our house sits on has never been landscaped. In fact since construction 8 years ago, except for just a little grass front and back the rest of the lot had been allowed to regrow in briar's, bushes and small trees.

The wife wanted to get out there and whack it all down with small hand pruners.
The girl just doesn't want to wait till funds allow hiring a skid steer loader to push everything up by the roots so at least most of it won't return.

Well yesterday was the big day. Loader was delivered about 4:30. Since then I've been riding the bucking bronco from hell with not the best muffler system. I've got aches and sore spots in places I'd forgotten I had. Fortunately there were still a few of the pain pills left over from my carpal tunnel procedure last year. Just waiting for them to kick in.
'
But at least the jungle has been pushed back for now. Before pictures at top. After at bottom. Now if I can just find some Kudzu sprouts to plant, I'll be good to go.
Wonder how that will go over? Probably about as good as when she came out and found the bench had a broken leg. No "way to go babe, the yard sure looks better". No just "you broke my bench leg!!" Like I can't get it welded.

Thank goodness kudzu grows quickly.

You can certainly tell......

......that spring has arrived big time in this part of Georgia.

Last week you could look up and just barely see new leaves appearing on the red oak trees and the white oaks only had their dangly blooms on.
Today I look up and the red oaks are providing a halfway decent shade from the mid-80's temperatures and the white oak leaves are telling us that we better get a move on if were going to be planting corn.

And pollen.........don't get me started. The Atlanta weather persons are saying that todays was the highest ever. And the pines are only just barely getting started on their release of reproductive dust. The next month will see yellow clouds of the stuff wafting in the slightest breeze.

This morning first thing I took the water hose and washed the pollen off our cars and truck. This afternoon.......couldn't tell I had expended the effort or water.

I told the wife that I'd probably get a bobcat to push up all the small brush and trees which have been allowed to grown on the non mowed parts of the lot this coming weekend. "Oh, don't push up the Carolina Jasmine", she said. Like I can avoid doing that if I take the small trees out of the way. She'll just have to go to Home depot and buy flowers to replace them.

You can all ways tell when spring comes to this area. All you have to do is open the door (windows being closed so precious air conditioning doesn't escape) and listen to all the hacking and coughing going on up and down the neighborhood.

The wisteria is in full bloom, and beautiful. But the Kudzu is only just beginning to leaf out and start growing. Be a while before it starts blooming. I'll just have to wait.

As I sit.............

...........in front of a blank page

and search for my muse......
and the right words to use....
to open my heart....
I succeed only in part...

the doors which are locked.....
.......are also blocked....

and the bands which bind....
the pain which I hide...
seem stronger than steel.....
and bend not to my will...

I look with longing......
to those who are belonging...
to ones who are held.....
by others..their souls to meld......

and I yearn to be free...
of the chains which bind me..
and keep hidden within...
all my ugly past sins...

perhaps I'll try...
transcendental meditation...
instead of the doc's...
chemical medication.

WELL DONE!!!!

A most hearty WELL DONE goes to LL who correctly identified the speech maker as Russell N. Conwell, Founder of Temple University and Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia. The author of "Acres of Diamonds", which speech he gave over 6000 times and many printings as a pamphlet and book. As inspiring a speech on responsibility and Free Enterprise as I have ever read.

If you haven't yet read it, follow the link LL gave in the comments on the last post.

And to all who may have wondered and searched for the answer. Thanks for playing.

Up in the morning ...........

........Just to keep my job.....

Wait........Ha......I don't have a job.

It's 8 in the am, on what looks to be a sunny Saturday. The wife and dog are off to the sister-in-law, leaving me to watch over the ol' grump and make sure he eats and takes his meds.

Had 3 visitors from overseas on the blog late last night. Ireland, England, and Bulgaria. Cool......thinks I. No body wants to talk though. Have to seriously rethink what I want to put out there on this blog.

In other news, an american general in afganastan, kicked out a group of Marines for responding to an attack by IED. I know this must bring great joy to liberal moonbats out there. Bend over, put our head between our legs, kiss our own ass and come on home. The democrats and media have soundly defeated truth justice and the American way again. The War against Islamic terrorists has been not lost but conceded. And we whimper, tuck our tails and whine for forgiveness from the very ones who would destroy us. Vietnam all over again.

In the good news, LL’s pooch is doing better. Way to go Mona. Every time I see the name Mona, I think of Lisa, she of the enigmatic smile.

The search is still on for the answer to my trivia question. Hints have been in every post since, except one I think. Answer tomorrow.

Well, since everybody hates me and nobody loves me, I think I'll go out and eat worms.

I can only imagine............

........what this must feel like for both of them.

The ironman triathlon each year in Hawaii is a testimony to the strength of the human will.

I saw this man and his son compete in their last triathlon on TV a couple years ago. I still get tears in my eyes. This is a nice youtube edition, but the actual event was moving beyond words.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4B-r8KJhlE

Sorry, you'll have to copy and paste. I'll learn how to put videos up one of these days. Read the description beside the video. You won't regret it.

Where do you go to ...................

..............find.........

...................diamonds??

I've had many ladies tell me that, "Oh, I don't wear any jewelery. I'm not interested in that sort of thing." Most of them look like they and their husband or boyfriend together couldn't scrape up the cost of even a [so called]'chip' diamond. Funny how that works.

I'm sure that there are many women who really do not have any interest in jewelry. However, I think it may be quite a bit fewer than those I hear protesting. Our nature encourages each of us to show our feathers a bit.. Kinda like peacocks trying to attract the gaze of a peahen. Or guys trying to hold their potbelly in. Come on guys, admit it. Hell, sometimes at the local shopping center here, when the coeds are in town, I damn near pass out from lack of oxygen, because I won't let my diaphragm drop.

So if I hear a lady tell me they have no interest, I look more closely at them, to check my estimate of their net worth. It makes no never mind to me. I prospect for diamonds and gold where ever I am. I agree that the more attractive a lady is, the less need for ornamentation they require. And the young and nubile need nothing but their radiant good health and zest for life.

I however will turn my head toward a lady of legal age, and a little, who clearly has a self confidence about herself and pride in her appearance, to dress to show that, and to wear her clothes and jewelery in a manner that says "I'm worthy of myself". The grunge look does not appeal to me. You do not need to be well off, or rich, to take pride in who you are. Some of the poorer are more worthy than many of the wealthiest.

Back to the original question. If you think of only precious stones as diamonds, I guess you would look in a jewelry store, or a large mall. Perhaps you would think to go to South Africa, although they are well down the list from first on the list of top diamond producing countries.

If however you think of moments, or special places, or music, or kind words to a stranger, or gestures of affection between married couples, both young and old. Then you might be surprised at all the jewels you stumble across.

An old Buddhist monk once told a farmer that if he would find diamonds, he should look where the river ran over white sand between two mountains and there he would find diamonds. So the farmer sold all his acres and went in search of diamonds, and spent all his money and wore out his spirit in the search, when possibly he should have looked closer to home.

I'll have to sweep the corners of the grotto to see what I can find....., under the kudzu.

Did You...........

...........Or Do You?

Have a list of the things you want to accomplish? Or wanted to, meant to, would of, could of, should of list of things to do or see or have by the time............
........whenever things?

I guess most of us could come up with a list if we were to give it some thought.

Or do we mostly just react to whatever life hands us on that particular day, or moment.

A wish man might rightly say, that a goal unwritten, with real intent, is just a dream.
And so many of us are just dreamers.

Yet somehow the world keeps on turning on its' axis, while hurtling thru space around the sun, which is way out on the edge of our galaxy, one of many, some bigger, some smaller. All expanding outward at unbelievable speeds away from that instant in time when............

.......Bang!...it all began.

And so it goes.................and I suppose it will, for quite a while yet, whether any of us reach our particular hoped for destinationnnnnnnnnn........

Wherein I am blessed.......

.......truly.

I was raised the only boy, the first born in a family of six children. For the mathematically challenged....... that means I have 5 younger sisters.

Out of courtesy to them, I'll not give their ages away, but, I do want to relate that while we were in the waiting room at Emory University some years ago, while our mother was undergoing her second heart bypass, one of them noticed 'Look, Larry is the only one of us without any gray in their hair.'

A couple of years ago it was noted that now I'm the only one with any gray. Obviously while I've aged.........They remain as youthful and lovely as always.

My sister Melba, (for some reason, those of us in the redneck part of Georgia, pronounce that as Melberrrr.) Well, maybe that was just me.

She sent the wife and I a nice gift today. For which I am thankful and tickled.

There was one addressed to me which I want to share with the whole part of the blog-o-world I reach.




Thanks Sis.

From inside my now scented kudzu grotto.

Hush! I thought I heard a russell n th' corner.

Update: No slight meant of the rest of my sisters, as they are all fine ladies and have fairly nice husbands and kinda OK kids.

Speech Hint

Boy do I know how to have fun, or what?

Story of my life. Just a little out of sync with everyone else. Sorta like looking into a fun house mirror, only with out the fun. Sorry to be so boring. 100+ year old speeches, while they may still contain truths that apply today, are kinda like getting advice from your Great-Great-Grandfather. You just want him to shut up and give you your birthday gift, already, for crying out loud, so you can go hang with your buds.

Temples of higher education want to teach the newest slant on things at the expense of the tried and true. With the exception of LL,(who is nowhere near 40 by the way) does anyone over the age of 40 have the slightest idea of how to help their children with their math homework? But we want them to get into the finest Universities so they'll get a good job and be able to support us when we get senile. Drooling on our chin and soiling our polyester pants left over from the 70's.

Our speech giver was no Con man. He drew from the Well of wisdom and knowledge and tried most of his adult life to impart that to all he came in contact with.

I'll not bother with anymore hints. I gave you several tonight. If nobody wants to play...........
.....well, I'll just find something else to write about.

Now...back to American Idol along with about 25 million other mindless drones. But some of those ladies can flat freeking Sing.

Laws..........

........What are they good for???

For what reason do we have laws?

I was thinking along these lines today, while picking at the lint in my navel. Actually I was driving to Home Depot to indulge my love of looking at tools, and watching some of the people who go to Home Depot for whatever.

Down at the end of the parking lot, someone, I can only assume HD themselves, has erected, quite a while ago, one of those metal carports and provided picnic tables for the Latinos looking to pick up a day labor job. Every contractor in the area knows to go there in the morning if they need help. Don't even bother going if you don't pay at least $12 an hour. The old guys tell the new guys and they're tougher than a labor union.

There are not quite as many hanging there as there were last year. Building has picked up so much around here that steady jobs are available for anyone who wants to work and will.

So, I'm thinking about the fact that we have immigration laws in this country, but the defenders of our Homeland don't seem too serious about enforcing them.

It occurred to me that if a sovereign nation won't protect their own borders, then they are guilty of violating the oath that they took to defend this nation from all enemies, both foreign and domestic. Some people will say anything and then do the opposite. (Kinda like the Clintons and their marriage vows.)

Our Declaration of Independence says that we are endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights. That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the of the Governed.

What, then, is law? It is the collective organization of the individual right to lawful defense.

Each of us has a natural right--from our Creator-- to defend his person, his liberty, and his property. These are the three basic requirements of life, and the preservation of any one of them is completely dependent upon the preservation of the other two. For what are our faculties but the extension of our individuality? And what is property but an extension of our faculties?
(The Law, Frederic Bastiat, June 1850)

We have laws to enforce our individual rights in a group manner.

We adopted a constitution to delineate how our rights should be defended, and elect public servants to enforce our rights, and defend the land that we think of as Our Country.

It seems to me that we are being seriously short changed in the things we supposedly pay taxes for.

Your comments, either for or against are welcome.

Just my view from the kudzu.

Oh how I love .......

....to drive to Atlanta in the morning rush hour traffic..

NOT!!!

Thankfully, it's only a couple of times per month. I pity the fools who drive it every day of the work week. I'm glad there were no serious accidents to contend with. I get up at 5:15 in order to leave before 6am to try to miss the heaviest part of the traffic. I don't care if I get there and hour and a half early, just let me miss the heavy traffic. 30 minutes later will get me there an hour later at the earliest.

When I ran the dairy farm all I had to do was step out the door and I was at work. I would average less than 7000 miles on the pickup truck a year. Now I average between 30 and 45,000 miles a year. At least most of it is outside of the big cities. A friend once told me I work harder at not having a job than most people did with a job. I've tried it a few times. I'm just not a good employee. I prefer to boss others around, even if it is only me, myself and I. The pay is the pits though.

Another hint for the previous question.

The gentleman in question took 57 cents and turned it into over $200,000.00. and from that small beginning founded one of the most prestigious universities in the eastern United States as well as a renowned hospital.

One more day in the life of a kudzu dweller.

Just a Hint

.... for the question of authorship of the speech fragment........

..The author was a soldier, lawyer, preacher, world traveler and educator.
He was very shrewd with money, with the ability to turn a very small amount into a considerable sum.

The fragment is from one of the great speeches of any time.

Sorry Jean, Abraham Lincoln while a gifted orator, and only slightly connected in a small way to the author, was a politician through and through, and one who helped start the drift away from the Constitution of the United States and into an oligarchy of the supremely corrupt. (JMHO)

Come on people, ask your friends.

Here's a chance to hack away at the kudzu over us all.

Remember you'll get a hearty Well Done from your's truly.

This Guy.......

.......is....

........way Interesting.

Makes you think, and wonder....

I like to read........

.........it entertains, sooths, inspires, moves
my soul.

My mother instilled that within me, I think. Also my father, who would come in of an evening after the days work was done and supper finished, and sit in his chair and read the paper and any one of the farming magazines or perhaps Sports Afield, because he loved the out of doors and hunting.

But since I was very young and not old enough to labor in the fields, or tramp thru the woods then, I first learned to read from my mother and the teachers at our school. I was good at it, by damn, and it was encouraged and looked on with favor. Besides, I learned quickly that by being able to read well and retain what I had read, I was able to do well in my lessons. Not that I always got the best grades because...........
...well, because I was lazy, if you must know the truth of the matter.

But, I did well enough, I suppose.

Back then, in the age of dinosaurs, we were taught some strange things. After all, this was before the digital watch, when the computers of the times filled whole buildings, and the term 'bug in your compute' meant that a fly or cockroach had shorted out one of about a bazillion glass vacuum tubes.

Strange, weird, demonic things we did learn back in those pre-civilized days, when boys wore greased back ducktail haircuts, and girls still wore dresses with poodles on them and white bobby socks, and wore their hair up in a pony tail.

These things and my love of reading remain within me. I'll sometimes read something that I have read many times before and find a truth that time and people have tried to change and I'll be reminded of one of the things that probably make up a part of what I am.

Tonight was such a time. Something that is now so much a part of me that any deviation of it grates on my nerves like the scratching of fingernails on a green blackboard hanging on the wall of my old classrooms.

I'm going to put up a quote here from a famous speech, and I'll give a gracious and hearty well done to anyone who can tell me who gave the speech. It's very famous, millions of people have heard it or read it, so this should be easy for the readers out there in the ether. All 10 or so of you. Feel free to ask anyone you know to help you, I'll give them the same Well Done. If you don't know, and have a real desire to know, I'll share with you. But, only after real effort to come up with the answer yourself.

Quote;
I ask this audience again who of you are going to be great? Says a young man: "I am going to be great." "When are you going to be great?" "When I am elected to some political office." Won't you learn the lesson, young man; that it is prima facie evidence of littleness to hold public office under our form of government? Think of it. This is a government of the people, and by the people, and for the people, and not for the officeholder, and if the people in this country rule as they always should rule, an officeholder is only the servant of the people, and the Bible says that "the servant cannot be greater than his master."

The Bible says that "he that is sent cannot be greater than he who sent him." In this country the people are the masters, and the officeholders can never be greater than the people; they should be honest servants of the people, but they are not our greatest men. Young man, remember that you never heard of a great man holding any political office in this country unless he took that office at an expense to himself. It is a loss to every great man to take a public office in our country. Bear this in mind, young man, that you cannot be made great by a political election.
Endquote

I sincerely hope that thousands of people can give me the answer.......

...before the kudzu starts growing in the spring.

One of my .......

...............Favorite people of all time

...........Is General George Patton. I'll confess to watching George C Scott's portrayal of him in the movie, which I loved.

But I have read biography's on him, and the books covering all his existing correspondence available. The Guy was full of self-doubt, but by damn, nobody could tell by looking or listening to him.

I lifted this from Denny, and I swear, I almost broke into a smile.

Give it up for
Georgie Boy

Call me insensitive to the wants of the Islamic terrorists, but Scruuuuum!

Do you remember .........

........the land before time.

My grandchildren used to love to watch the cartoon movies about Dinosaurs supposedly in the 'Land before time' where most of the dinosaurs were able to talk and always treated each other gently except the Tyrannosaurus Rex who was kinda a meany and the greatest threat came from climate change of one kind or another.

I'll bet there is a special section of hell reserved for those environmentalist wacko brainwashing terrorists who prey on kids minds. Hope so anyway.

No..... I'm referring to a time not so long ago, when things didn't seem to move so fast. Before the advent of the quartz vibration regulated digital wrist watch, that we all wear now. Even I, anarchist and rebel without a cause that I am.

I remember when the Pulsar watch was the newest rage. Then they went digital and analog dials seemed to suddenly disappear.
I'm glad they made a come back, cause even without my glasses, I can tell approximately what time it is.

My first watch was a Timex with a gold plated expandable band. I thought I was all that, with that watch on my wrist. After the Astronauts landed on the moon I just had to have a watch like the one they wore. An Omega Speedmaster II. A chronograph which I still have, although without the original stainless steel band.
It still keeps perfect time just like it was made to do, even if you do have to manually wind it each day.

But, I refer to an even earlier time children. When our grandparents and great grand parents carried watches made to be carried in the pocket. Pocket Watches, greater and not so great depending on your economic status. When my maternal Grandfather passed away, his gold plated 7 jewel Elgin came down to me. I still have it, but even when he had it, it constantly needed repair and couldn't be depended on.

Railroad and Doctors watches were considered necessary instruments of their trade. They were generally of higher quality and accuracy. Probably a 23 or 27 jewel watch of any one of dozens of brands. Many of these were encased in 14 or even 18 karat gold cases, delicately engraved with birds, flowers, vines or other decorations.

Cowboys carried theirs in the watch pocket of their Levis'. Bankers and Undertakers carried theirs in their suits vest pocket with a gold chain crossing their ample stomachs.

Folks would take them out slowly and gently. Open the case and leisurely look to see what time it was. You could tell how important a person thought he was by the amount of time and the deliberateness with which they consulted their watch. If it caused you to wait for them, that was all the better.

Over the past half century many collectors of those old fine watches acquired as many fine ones as their budget allowed. There are still many of these, mostly middle aged men, (sorry ladies) around. But the interest is waning fast as they die off.

I have acquired a couple nice pocket watches. Not so much to collect but with the anticipation of turning a small profit. They're not really all that expensive, but, I picked them up at approximately the price they commanded when new or less. All I paid less than $50.00 for . They're gold plated or filled. Hard to sell these days.. In fact in the last 6 months I bought quite a few solid gold pocket watch cases at scrap value. People just can't sell what they have and sell the gold for scrap and part out the works for horologist's to use as repair parts.

It signals the loss of a slower, gentler time, which, for some wistful reason, I missed and miss.

So I slink back into my kudzu covered grotto.......

...Where I reside, and am fine Jean.

I sit.........

...........in my misery......

...and you don't know I'm there.

I rejoice in my strength..........

...and you don't hear my Tarzan yell.

I wait patiently......

...and you don't come to me.

I lie there beside you.........

...and you never reach out to me.

I scream in my pain.....

...and you can't hear the noise in my brain.

And I know.......

...that the time when you would have known......

...and would have rejoiced,

...and would have rushed to me,

...and reached out to me,

...and heard the unspoken screams......

...........has long since passed,

and as I sit, waiting, longingly, dejectedly

...embarrassingly,..

...I know that the finger of time......

...having writ,

...turns the page

..........and moves on .

This man has..........

............a grasp on reality.

Even more importantly, he knows what the Richest Man in Babylon knows.

Move over Bill Gates and Warren Buffett.

Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day.......

Teach him to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.

A little mining........

....I did today.....

...A little prospecting.

Some people like to look back at the end of the day to see a nice straight furrow. Plowed deep and even, with the black turned up to face the sun. Ready for another furrow to be plowed beside it, as identical to it as possible. Until the number of them add up to a field, ready for the planting, and the watering, and tending, so at last to the harvest.

Some like to hunch over their numbers, and charts, and graphs. Adding, subtracting, tweaking, manipulating until the answer suits them or their employer.

Some chase little white balls around over a finely manicured lawn, or strain to bash a slightly larger ball over the fence, or between the goal posts, or thru a round metal hoop. Contemplating their newest sponsorship or mortgage payment on their vastly overpriced and oft times ill constructed manse in the most popular country club estates. Where their finely dressed and perfumed mates wait for them to fall prey to some small indiscretion, anticipating their next 4 million dollar diamond ring, bought at retail from the most expensive haute coutier jeweler. A small trophy for another small slip from grace of one of the pantheon of sports gods.

Mr. Grizzle of my youth, and my fathers youth, looked forward to a fine fall day, among the reds and golds and greens of the forests along the Alcovy. Where, after a breakfast of cured ham, redeye gravy and biscuits, he'd slip away with his English Setter an old Sears and Roebuck 16 gauge double barrel, and 4 shells. To seek once more to show only himself that his eye and hands were still steady.

As a boy in the early spring, just after the first hard rain to follow the first warm spell, as soon as the water cleared a bit. We'd go, my father and I, and perhaps an uncle or two, down to the river just after dark. To wade knee deep in the fast running water, shining our lights downward looking for the silver gleam of our quarry. Round, heavy laden with roe and long as your forearm or perhaps your whole arm, Suckers .

An inelegant name for an inelegant fish, which any other time of the year would patrol the bottom of ponds, lakes and swamps deep enough, eating and trying to avoid being eaten. But at this magical time of year would travel up the streams thru shallows barely deep enough to travel, in order to lay their roe, and thus begin another generation of their species. Begin that is if they could run our gauntlet and avoid our gigs.

Perhaps this is one of the many reasons I've never been one to sit quietly on a stand, waiting patiently for that big buck to wander unsuspectingly down the path, head outstretched in hopes of finding the doe who left that tantalizing aroma in the air.

Preferring to soar quietly thru the air, like a falcon seeking prey, to streak breathlessly downward, wings pulled in tight, faster than wind, to emerge either victorious or empty handed, in search of whatever it is I hope to find.

Today I found stones, blue green as the sea, wrapped gleaming in Platinum. And one, square, seemingly flawless, perfect as a princess, white trophy to the successful hunt.

After which.......

........I returned to the Kudzu.

Born Free.................

............
.......
.....
...And if I have my way.......

"To work for libertarianism -- to oppose the growth of government and aid the liberation of the individual -- used to be an idealistic choice taken for purely idealistic reasons. Now it is an act of intelligent and almost desperate self-defense."

Robert Anton Wilson

........I'll die free

Stolen from Boortz

Just a thought from the kudzu

Don't forget............

.........To spring forward tonight.

After all, the government decides and we must obey like good little sheeple, mustn't we.

Makes me...........

...............Kinda wanna dance.

Whata day. Started out about 45 degrees with a few low clouds and a slight sprinkle of rain. You could see the sun coming up red behind the clouds as the morning awoke.

A fresh buttermilk biscuit and peach preserves got the day started right. Would've been better with a little crispy bacon.

I went to Walmart and Home Depot and only got half of what I went after. North side of the house needed a good dose of clorox and greased lightning to get rid of the mildew and crud growing there because of the lack of sunshine.
That accomplished by about 12pm, I tried to get on the internet. Whoops! Service is out. An unusual thing so far. Fall Back to the old standby a few good books. I'm rereading a few pages at a time The Richest Man in Babylon. Then switch to Leave Her to Heaven, a 1944 book written on extra thin paper because of the war. A little of that and turn to The Last Spymaster by Gayle Lynds, a spy mystery.

By then the wife is home with a few groceries which include fresh beef liver.
OH ! My ! With friend onions on the top along with Rice a Roni with cheese sauce.
Seventh Heaven let me tell you.

Then to find this little jewel on Youtube.........

...... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQIq4KobGXE

(sorry. You'll have to copy and paste. You might enjoy. I did. Always a pleasure to hear a song and understand every word)

A good ending to a good day.

We even do it in the kudzu.

Where are they?

Who are they? Do they exist?

I know, you're thinking kdzu's off his medication again, or perhaps he over did things.
Maybe so, time will tell I guess.

LL’s blog is one I read everyday. Her honesty and candor, as well as her unabashed patriotism is a cleansing of the palet from the dregs of the meals of everyday life.

Today she posted the link to a couple of Jackasses.
Click on the link in her post.

I used to wonder where such people came from. But we see them all around us. Watch the boob tube for even a little while and you'll see more than you can stomach. Jerry Springer doesn't even have to break a sweat to round up more than would fill the Astrodome. And by no means is it limited to men. Girl's, you could do worse than spaying a few of your species also.

When I think of such things, I have to admit that I tremble for the future of humankind. Perhaps I'm a bit too much of a pessimist, but I've been fooled by people a few too many times. Like Sunni Maravillosa, I wonder where are the Sons of Boromir?

I could, and probably should, pay more attention to the immediate needs of myself and family. I've squandered most of my youth ( I don't consider that I'm as old as the calendar says ) in dreams. On the other hand I've done so many different things that I wanted to do that I pity those who are afraid to jump into the deep black water without knowing how to swim.

So I think about the future of the human race and of the trials of this moment in time. I think of my sisters sons who serve their country. One or perhaps two in Iraq even as I type. A shame that I don't keep in closer touch.

We (by this I mean Western Civilization) are truly engaged in a struggle, in reality
just as important as the fictional struggle in The Lord of the Rings books. A struggle against an evil that would deny every individual of their Free Will.
I don't claim to be a very good Christian, nor well versed in the scriptures, but it's my understanding that a great war was fought in heaven to determine if mankind would be forced to come to God, or have the choice to come willingly. Free Will Freedom One and the same I think. And we're fighting to keep that flame alive.

If you listen to the MSM you would think that we are losing and running from that fight on all fronts. That we face a righteous and implacable foe. That we might as well give up now, withdraw to our borders and wait for the inevitable overthrow of the world as we know it.

But if history teaches us anything it is that when we forget history we do so at our peril. 100 years after the founding of Islam by Mohamed the world thought that the forces he unleashed were unstoppable. Western Civilization was indeed on the brink of being over run. And then a small band near Tours in France, broke their ranks and their back for over a thousand years.

Read here for an account of that decisive turning point in history. Perhaps like me, you too will realize what a determined small
group of warriors can do.

Just my view....
..............from deep inside the kudzu.

Be Glad..............

........Be very, very, very Glad................

..............That I'm on my drugs.

Yesterday whilst sitting at the dining table with my hearing only half tuned into the tv in the living room where the local weather wizards were telling us what was what.........said wizards mentioned the impending change to daylight savings time this upcoming weekend. How it'll be 3 weeks earlier this year, and how some people will be upset.

Then the idiot male half of the team makes the statement, something to the effect of.......
......."Oh well, the government decides and we have to obey

WTF ......We Have to Obey????

Bejus, That kind of talk grates on my last good nerve. I can feel it tingling now from the left side of my neck, down my back and into my left leg.

This country is sliding down the slippery slope, going to hell in a hand basket.

Damned if I wouldn't leave if I weren't so stubborn and hopeful that some how there are enough good decent right thinking people left here that we might possible, improbably, have a snowballs chance in hell of turning the thinking of our citizens around, before we just tell the barbarian horde from the middle east to just come on over and we'll all bow down to their stinking asses.

I probably need to go take this mornings quota. Ya think?

From News of The Weird.com

Doesn't this just give you the warm and fuzzies..........


........Ms. Pan Alying, a schoolteacher in China's Shandong province, had her purse snatched in January (containing her mobile phone, bank cards and cash) and decided to try pleading with the thief by sending text messages to her stolen phone. According to Xinhua news agency, she patiently sent 21 sympathetic notes to the man, with no answer, but the day after the last one, she found a package at her door containing her purse and all its contents intact, with a note, "I'm sorry. ... I'll correct my ways and be an upright person." [Reuters, 1-22-07]

Truly Amazing...........

...............this internet is.

I average about 9 to 10 hits a day on this blog. Many are repeat readers. Some family and others part of an extended family I'd love to meet some day.

But, sometimes I am just flabbergasted by the locations from which people peek at the inside of my mind. I've had hits from the US of course, also, Mexico, Holland, England , Spain, Morocco, Indonesia, Singapore, Russia, Afghanistan, Russia to name a bunch.
Generally I'll get one hit from these countries after they've read a comment of mine on some of my favorite blogs. Rarely will they comment. Hell, most of those who check me each day, rarely comment. That's OK. I figure if I've said something worth a comment you will.

But yesterday I got two hits from 2 cities in Red China. How awesome is that? I'd love to communicate with them, to see how they live and why they search the internet.

The blogosphere is just a neat place, capable of bringing the people of the world together. Generally if peoples will engage in civilized discussion, they will see the similarities in each other. Differences, sure, but perhaps they will discuss them rather that hating each other for it.

Just my view........
........from the Kudzu.

Agree....................

..................Or disagree....

This woman is spreading the truth. Let's just hope there are more like her off the radar in the middle east.

I think that if this hundred year war is to come to a good conclusion, it will have to be brought about by peaceful, freedom loving, patriots of whatever country who love freedom more than their own lives or whoever might be in power in their home country.

Just my view from the kudzu.

Grand Children

We have two of our grandchildren (My Sons) here with us this weekend.

Went and picked them up Saturday morning for a two day stay. A twooo dayyy tour.
They are great kids and like all of them between the ages of 7 and 9 full of questions, and so full of energy that they tire us out completely. But it is a joy to see how much they have grown and the things they have learned.

It's when you have grandchildren that you can see some of the unconscious lessons that your own children learned at your feet. And some that you're not too proud that they learned. Because somehow, unless they have given it some serious thought on their own, even if they don't really want to, they teach what they themselves have learned.

Many lessons that you wish you could go back and teach are too late, because you've only just learned them yourselves, or your children saw your actions before you learned that particular lesson, and can't see the change you hope is in you now.

I've often thought how nice it would be, if we could pass on the lessons we've learned to our children at birth, so they wouldn't have to go thru the experiences we did in order to learn from them. I mean how nice if children were born knowing everything we know, at a young age, and could then build upon that knowledge to grow to greater and greater heights of achievement. Imagine where we would be by now. Surely off this planet and to the stars.

On the other hand, many times I look at all the lessons we go thru and don't learn a damned thing from it. People are still greedy, envious, hateful, hurtful, stupid in large groups and in general no better that the worst among us as a whole. I know , you and I are not like that.......

.,...or are we?

What lessons do you wish your children could learn, before reality bites a big ol' chunk of their ass off?

Heeee's back!!

There is almost nothing so painful to a internet addict as to have your computer in the shop for 5 days.
I almost made those two little chinese people go crazy with my bitching and whining.
Finally they told me that IE wouldn't do what I wanted it to, and to just switch to Mozilla Firefox.
I can do that.
But it rubs my grain the wrong way to have something not work like I want it to.

Watch out....

.... This report is sure to raise some eyebrows and screams of indignation.

One thing we can be sure of. This guy Cameron and the tv stations will run it into the ground as long as it's worth a dollar to them. I don't know if he has any sort of agenda. If he does I'm sure that at least a little of it is wanting to make money or a name for himself. Course the actual digging happened years ago and he just heard about it and injected himself and his opinions.

Most people who know me, know that my beliefs are strong, but I would never deny you the right to believe that I'm wrong or whatever you want to believe in, as long as you will allow me the same courtesy.

Faith it is said, is the belief in things unseen (yet). The inspiration for this life comes from above or within, and the man or woman with hope in their heart can meet any foe and can rally from the most bitter disappointment. When hope spreads her wings, courage will dare the darkest night, and will come to the morning untired and undefeated. But without hope courage dies, and the feet are hard to move, and the wings are held with heavy weights, and darkness rules the light.

We are here now. Where we came from is not so important as where we are bound. Is this all? Is it both the beginning and the end? Do we stop here, or shall we go on?

Does some safe and quiet harbor await us at the end of our life's journey, where we can anchor from the storm tossed voyage of life and be welcomed to a blest abode amidst the shouts of friends and kindred dear, and there forever rest? Or is the future dark and hopeless, are the harbors closed, are there no lights along the shore.

I'm a big fan of the Lord of the Rings books. My first opportunity to read them came over 20 years ago when my brother in law gave me a set. Over the years I literally wore them out from reading and rereading. One of my favorite scenes comes in the third volume when Merry and Gandalf are under siege in the castle and all looks to be lost and Merry remarks that it looked like the end or something. And Gandalf with a longing and faraway look in his eyes says that death is not the end, but like a long voyage on the ocean, where you look for land, and then you see it, 'White Shores'.

If you don't know me, life has no hold on me. Whatever they are, I look forward, with longing, to White Shores.

Long after the furor of this is long behind us, whatever the outcome may be, there will still be those who believe as they will. And that is probably as it should be.

Realising how.....

...blind and counter-productive our elected servants in Washington are, I wonder how long it will take to award most favored nation trading status to our Persian brothers?

Nothing......

.....makes the earth seem so spacious as to have friends at a distance: they make the latitudes and longitudes.

— Henry David Thoreau

Life............

........is not meant to be lived
in fear...
or alone...
or without...

under slavery...
in a funk...
in confusion...

in debt...
in trouble...
in bed, under the covers...

in anger...
in hatred...
or in sadness, for what might have been...

No, life is meant to be lived with your eyes wide open...
with your heart both hard enough to bear your burdens...
and soft enough to cause you to bend down to help another...

Life is to be lived...
in all its richness...
and poverty...
so that, if this is all there is, or will be...

that it will be enough.

Our good FRIENDS.........

............the Saudias have once again offered a token of their friendship to the U.S.

What's that old saying? Something about 'lying down with dogs'?


UPDATE; Scroll further down to read about the mooslimes (pig piss be upon them forever) high regard for women.

I promise............

...........that this will be the last post on Ms. Spears.

She has apparently checked out of rehab again after only one day, against my counsel.

Well if she won't listen to the Master, the grasshopper must be turned out of the monastery, into the chill wintery blast of the Tibetian winter. To freeze, starve or come to her senses as she wills.

You see Uniece........

She took my rant to heart, realised the error of her ways, and went back to rehab.

I have a brother-in-law who once shot himself. He was young and dumb. Not so young that he hadn't married and had a kid or two or three. Just young enough to think that the world was totally against him.

I forget if it was money trouble, wife trouble, mother trouble or stepfather trouble or drinking trouble. Just that he was convinced that every one was against him.

You see he didn't have a sense of self worth. He couldn't conceive of the idea that he wasn't somebody unique. Everybody should stop their busy lives and listen to him, and solve his problems for him.

That's really what determines when we reach adulthood. When we come to realise that 'if it is to be, it's up to me'. We can all function better with a support group, but, not if all that group is doing is enabling us in our disfunction.

Anyway the BIL called my wife and told her he had a .22 rifle and he was going to shoot himself. She found out where he was and begged him not to do anything foolish, and then took off to where he was.

As she pulled up, she could see him staggering in the driveway with blood on his shirt. Fortunately he really was so dumb he didn't quite realise where his heart is. Shot himself high in left chest, and it was only a .22.

She calls me from the hospital to come down. As I walked into the lobby I could hear him hollering, "Oh God, It hurts". I told my wife that if he was going to die he wouldn't be screaming with that much volume. And he did heal from the gunshot.

Unfortunately he never grew up. So now he's just an old baby, and his life has never improved in the last 25 or 30 years.

Maybe, just maybe, Miss Spears will have a 'wake up' moment in rehab, and come out of it with a determination to be a better, smarter grown-up person..........

.........if so my work will not have been in vain.

Like she or any of you pay any attention to what I think.

Just my view from the Kudzu.

Oh! Help Me! .............

..........Somebody PLEASE Help me!


You went to a rehab center stayed one day and then left you stupid stupid girl.

I don't know who is managing this girls career or what's left of it. It used to be her mommy, but, now you know she is an adult and can screw and have babies and everything. To bad she never had to grow up.

A star and famous and rich since before she started her periods, so she had hired help for everything. Yes men and women to cater to her every whim. Parents who were so caught up in the glamour and the fact that their little darling is a STAR.

What was it the Beatles used to sing? "Can't buy you loooove".

But some people will do anything for money, including telling you how special you are and how beautiful, and smart and we just love you so, so, very, very much. Just keep on handing out those Franklins and we'll give you anything you want.

Isn't it funny how so many of us don't really know just exactly what it is we want?
We want to be loved, and then act unloveable. We want to be smart, but will not put forth the effort to learn and retain the things we once learned. We want to believe what people tell us, only to see time and time again them fail us, or use us for their own wants. We want to be rich but will time and again opt to buy toys instead of investments.

Why is it that nobody wants what we really deserve? What we've really earned. Somehow we're entitled to so much more.

I know what I want.




I want it all. I'm just like the rest of you.

Are we headed for a dictatorship?

And if we are can we stop This?

Just trying to make both ends match.........

........I guess.

I see that our girl Britany’s head is as bald as her clam now. You can send your thanks for not rehashing that story with pictures here by sending me gold. 24 karat and three 9's fine.
Your welcome.

And then she went out and got tattooed to celebrate the event.. Interesting that she checked out of rehab after one day to go and do these things.

I've always felt that getting a tatoo evidenced either a sometimes subtle and sometimes not so cry for either attention or help or a screw you attitude. I could be wrong..........I've never had a desire for one, so can't really say. Some people cut themselves, some get tattoo's.

Had an employee once who's girlfriend/mother of his 3 children was fond of wearing those low cut jeans with a shirt which bared her midriff below the navel. Which area bore the classy tattoo EAT ME with a curved arrow pointing towards her nether regions. Made me kinda want to gently scold her with a length of 2 x 4 upside her head.

In other news I see that a lovely Friskey Austrailan has joined the 7 mile high club with some actor and then got fired for it. We can understand that she has to find some sort of replacement for her income.........
....along with the book and magazine deals. As as sure as I'm sitting in front of this keyboard someone is already writing a screenplay with her playing the head (couldn't resist) role.

People used to want to create something useful and productive with their lives.

Now..........just their fifteen minutes and a book deal.

If we could only see the kudzu vines wrapped around their souls, we would probably give up all hope of them ever being rescued.

Where do they find those people?

I have often asked myself that very question about the people who appear on some of the daytime reality shows such as, Judge Judy, Divorce court, Judge Joe Brown.

Hey don't look at me thata way. I don't turn over to them. Paw-in-law though seems to have a strong affinity for them. I just see them as I go back and forth thru the living room. I'd shield my eyes but I'd probably fall all over the pooch. Besides, thats where the most comfortable recliner for my afternoon nap is.

Now I know that, of course, none of my 5 or 6 readers ever watch those steaming, stinking piles of dog droppings. But, they keep putting them on the tv, so someone has to be watching.

What distresses me is the number of women who fall into a relationship with a man who is obviously, to the rest of human kind, less than the ideal mate or partner.
Why they're oblivious to the fact that he has none of the characteristics of even a sub-human, but even most animal species would run him off, I don't know. Well, maybe not pigs, but then pigs enjoy rolling around in mud and excretment.

For some reason a lot of women gravitate towards the so-called 'Bad Boy'. Whether it's because they seek danger of some kind, or their maternal instincts just want to see if they can change him for the better.

This in no way seeks to exonerate those women who themselves lack less than the ideal characteristics of the perfect young lady. We find too many of them around us also. Either they were never taught, they refused to learn, they are determined to go against common sense, or they are just too sorry and stupid to do better.

Unfortunately, they seem, for some insane reason to bear the most offspring.

And all too many of them exude a stronger pheromone than more refined flowers, so as to draw the male of the species closer.

I personally think the ideal young woman is independent. She fits herself fo a useful life instead of continually posing for a marriage proposal. She is one who appreciates her powers and influence. No one has more power today than woman, if she will only use it in the proper way. This young woman will never tolerate a young man that is not her equal socially, mentally, and morally. She will not marry a man to reform him. It is a precarious business when any young woman turns herself into a reformatory and undertaakes the hazardous task of reclaiming a young man by the marriage process. If she is unable to reform him before marriage, she can not do so afterwards. I do not know of any young men that marry girls to reform them. And besides, no woman can associate with or marry a man beneath her and hope to lift him up to her level.......She will descend to his.

Choices, we all make them every day, and often give little thought to them, even though each one can alter the future in ways not fore seen if we don't think about them. Especially if all we think with is our groins.

Bah, Humbug.

But, for all you lovers out there.

Enjoy .

"Not that there's anything wrong with that." *

I was walking on the backside of our lot today with the rep. from the pipeline company. (We go to the middle of a 75' right of way, for a large petroleum company).

Talking about whether we could build a fence back there.

I was reminded of something I hadn't thought about in a long time.

While a mere fuzzy faced young lad in high school, I knew of a guy we all called queer. (Yes, I know that's not politically correct nowadays, but bite me, it was the 60's). He acted feminine in a time where that wasn't quite as accepted as now.

You will remember from a previous post how tolerant I am.

Anyway, he was a couple of years younger than I and our paths didn't exactly converge. I graduated, got married and then joined the army in the next year and a half and didn't think of him at all.

What got me to thinking about him today was talking with the pipeline guy and remembering another supervisor of said pipeline which also ran thru the dairy farm I was raised on.

After serving nearly 6 years in the Army, I got out to run the farm when Dad died.
The pipeline supervisor was a guy in his 60's I guess, and he had known my dad and each fall would come to our annual dove shoots. (Yes, we would actually kill those cute little mourning doves and eat them with great relish.) (And if we were lucky some fresh buttermilk biscuits and brown gravy. Yum!)

His wife ran one of the local real estate offices, and as the story was told to me, was in the habit of frequenting one of the beauty parlors in town, Fancy's if memory serves.

As it happened, the ol' boy we called queer had gone off somewhere and had a sex-change operation during the time I was serving my baser instincts and trying to inflict bodily harm on little brown skinned natives of a Southeast Asian Paradise.

Changed his name slightly and returned to the local area where he had a job as a beautician at the afore mentioned beauty parlor.

Anyway the wife, was having her usual Friday hairdo and makeup plastering. The quick change artist was styling the hair of the lady in the chair next to her, so it was only natural that she should overhear the conversion taking place.

Quickdraw was telling about his recent change of attitude and allowed as how, "Mama says it looks just like the real thing". "Do you want to go in the back and I'll show you."

Ol' gal ran out of there with her hair wet and the sheet flapping about her neck.

I still get the giggles from that visual image. Not that there is anything wrong about it you understand.

*with thanks to the Sienfeld Show.

Well, well.......

.....I see that we're now up to at least 5 men claiming to be the father of Vicky’s young daughter. The number will probably balloon up to where it rivals the size of her bra, although I can never remember seeing any publicity shot in which she was wearing one.

What is it with these guys? You know that they don't have the interests of the child in mind, don't you?

If you want my opinion, (which I know you are just panting to read) they should use a DNA sample from all of them and determine which, if any, of them truly are the father.

Then they should just shoot the rest of them between the eyes with a large calibar bullet, and ask the real father one simple question. "Will you take this child and raise it until adult hood and not get a single dime of money?"

If the answer is anything other than an immediate "Yes", they shoot him between the eyes, and place the child with a christian adoption agency and keep it's idenity secret until said child reaches adulthood and only if it then wants to know, reveal the true parentage. It just might hit the jackpot and grow into a halfway decent human being.

As it is now, the chances of little baby Smith, or whatever its name is, of having a snowballs chance in hell of having said halfway decent life is somewhere between slim and none.

God Bless that little child. She's got an uphill climb ahead of her.

Kudzu can............

......come creeping up on you in the damnedest places sometimes.

I would like to think that I'm a pretty tolerant type of person. You know what I mean. A real live and let live kinda guy.

(Pause whilst I go partake of the evening set of mood altering drugs)

Ahhh! That's taken care of. Good thing they are only partly effective and take a while to enter the old digestive tract.

Anyhow, back to bragging on what a great guy I am generally and all around. Handsome too, but who's looking.

As I said, a better person you'd have to look hard and long to find.

But, while driving back from the VA today, I realised that only my puritan nature and genteel upbringing prohibit me from leaving bloody footprints behind me.

Liberal, socialist, free-market hating, bombastic assholes just really get on my last half of a good nerve. Having to be in the same room, not to mention on the same continent with them irritates me like sand in my underoos.

I really, for the life of me, don't understand where they are coming from. To me it's only common sense to defend, fight for, and if need be to die for, Freedom, in all the many aspects of the word, for family, for country, for all of the rights both implicit and implied, laid out in the Declaration of Independence and the original Constitution and Bill of rights. To do all these things as quickly for someone else as for myself. To do anything else would diminish me as well as them.

What's scary if the fact the I'd probably be able to blow away someone who disagrees with me and walk away as if it were nothing. Don't offer to make me ruler of the world. That's just a little scary to think about, as alluring as it sounds. Especially the harem of dancing girls that would have to go with the job to even get me to consider it. That and the hoards of gold that would of course have to be paid in tribute.

Now that just totally doesn't jib with my original, (if somewhat tongue in cheek) comments about how I feel about myself.

Don't ask me for an explanation of this dichotomy, as I have no clue other than the duality of good and evil that resides in all of us.

Control of self, I guess is what sets us apart from animals, and will always keep us a little lower than the angels.....Maybe I need to take up Transcendental Meditation or Yoga...........or drinking.

Whadda ya think? Huuummmm?

UPDATE; Should have read Livey before I started picking at the lint in my navel.

I once knew..........

.......a fair young girl. She was blithe and happy. Her form was perfect------a fit model for the sculptor's skill. Her features were fair as the lily and her cheeks like the blushing rose. Her eyes wer bright as polished jewels, and sparkled like the dewdrops of the morning. Her voice was rhythmic and musical, and her laughter like the rippling waters. She was as pure as fragrance from a flower garden.

Her origin was divine. Everywhere were the finger-marks of God, and about her the fragrant breath of heaven. She was born to a high and holy purpose.

But alas! What a change! What a fall! That which had come from the hand of God as perfect as an angel form, and as pure as a baby's dream, the hand of man had touched and spoiled. So pale and poor, and haggard. So bent, and broken, and shriveled. No life, no ambition, no hope. She was like the fragrant flowers drooping and dying under the biting of the fiercest frosts. Like the blooming beauties scorched and withered by the awful blast from the hot furnaces of hell. You ask the cause?

All the scars and blemishes, all the wrecks and ruins, all the agonies and heartaches, all the faded beauty and withered hope, and all the sighs and tears are man made.

"God saw everything that He had made, and behold it was very good."
"And God looked upon the earth and behold it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted His way upon the earth."

Anna Nicole was once her parents baby, on loan to them from God, endowed with great beauty and nobility. Some where along the way, that beauty, that nobility, was changed, molded into different forms by life's experiences and trials. By temptations and desires for the things of this world.

We watched in amazement, in astonishment,in amusement, in lustfulness, in excitement for the next soap opera-esk tidbit of gossip that might come our way because of who she was preceived to be, and perhaps what we wanted her to be. And I wonder if she ever asked herself 'Who am I?'

And now she's dead. And before she's hardly cold the vultures are swarming around her corpse, and the flies of the media buzz about carrying tidbits of her off, bringing them to those of us who want to partake, in whatever measure, of the essence that was her.

Maybe God decided that she had suffered enough in this life.

Near Death Experience......

......not mine, the other guy.

It is amazing how thing will happen in a matter of seconds, sometimes, yet you can look back and visualise each bit of that space of time in incredable clearity.

I had just left the house this afternoon. Ours is the second driveway on the left, from the intersection. Less than 100 feet probably, at most 125'. I turned left onto Nowhere Rd. ( I'm not making that up ) I really do live almost at nowhere.

In my 2000 Dodge Ram 1500 (with 274000 miles on it) I accelerated away from the stop, and saw sitting at the next street, maybe 200 feet, a black crotch rocket with helmeted rider about to turn right toward me. No biggie right?

At about 50 ft from him, I saw him start to pull out. Still no problem....
......then I watched as he had trouble with the pullout, as if he had little experience on bikes. His front wheel gave a wobble left and right, and I knew we were in for trouble.

If he gets it straightened out and stays in his lane we're OK. If not he's going to cream me.

Decision time folks. Only course of action for me is get over and try to accelerate past the probable point of impact. If it works it gives him my lane to try to recover or at worst he'll run off the road and maybe up the grassy bank. A bruised ego and maybe a scratch on his bike.

I almost made it. Funny about bikes, the more they start to get away from you, the more you twist the grip to the rear increasing the gas to the engine. Just as I thought, 'maybe I made it', Wham impact to the left rear. I saw in the rear view mirror him hit the grassy bank behind me, I slammed on the brakes. No other traffic on the road in either direction, popped it into reverse and smoked tires backing up toward him and off to the right side of the road.

Stopping short of the point of impact, throwing it in park, I jumped out reaching for my cell phone and running to see if he is OK. He's getting up, I ask if he is hurt as my thumb is dialing 911.

I'm OK he says, just as the dispatcher answers, '911 dispatcher, can I help you'?.

"Auto accident, on Nowhere Rd, at Blueberry Hill intersection"

"Is anyone hurt sir?"

"Are you OK", I ask?

"I'm OK"

From there it was a matter of waiting for the police, which to my astonishment, happened within seconds as a Sheriff's cruiser pulls up behind us.

I'm thinking, 'Man their good down here'. Turns out he just happened to be in the area and didn't even get the 911 call before he got out to check on us.

He getS our license and my ins. card, and I'm stepping back to look at the damage to Ol' Red when I hear the guy say, "I just bought it and don't have ins".

Hot damn, wouldn't you know it. Not only didn't he not have ins. on the bike but he didn't have a motorcycle permit.

The bike was brand new with less than 20 miles on it.

His left handle bar and mirrow had hit just beyond my left rear tire. His mirror was still stuck inside the wheel well, and the left rear quarter panel was flattened from there to the bumper.

Could have been much worse. Lucky we were both just pulling out. Who knows what would have happened if our respectiv speeds were faster.

Turns out that he has his car insurance with the same company as I. Even if they refuse him, my uninsured motorist coverage should take care of Ol' Red.

Glad I didn't have to shoot her. We've grown used to each other.

How Quickly.......

….does one forget in the midst of all our trials and tribulations, in the middle of our day to day scrabbling for the means of existence, and hopefully, some meaning, some reason for us to have a right to belong here, that we do not exist alone on this daub of mud and water spinning thru space at………. Mph around a relatively small sun on the outer reaches of our galactic cluster. Just one among untold other galaxies with uncountable suns and unknowable numbers of planets, all merrily spinning around. And their inhabitants, if any, totally unaware of us, and if they are aware of the possibility of our being, would probably soon forget about us, because they are also dealing with their own trials, their own scrabbling about for the means of their existence.

How quick are we to label others. As gooks, chinks, japs, savages, barbarians, mooslimes, or whatever we choose to label them.. Just because we really don’t want to take the time to identify with their humanity, because they look, or smell differently, or they believe in different gods, or like the French they eat snails.

How quickly we can lump them in to some anonymous, catch all group. Where we can hide from their humanity.

It’s so easy to let others have to deal with them on a personal level.

It really takes no thought to label someone for the color of their skin, or the origin of their being.

I confess to being one of those who tend to do these things. I remember a tee shirt I had in 'Nam, with the words I had written across it, "Kill 'em all, let God sort it out".

I had left for SE Asia, leaving a young 18 yr old bride, newly a mother of 5 days, and my dad's words of advice in my ears, "don't go looking for a fight, but do whatever you have to, to come home again".

No 20 yr old thinks he'll not come home. We're just too full of piss and vinegar.

One of the things that is different about this war, that I see, is the much larger percentages of somewhat older soldiers. Men who have more maturity about them. Who have recognized their humanity and also the humanity of those who they fight. And they recognize that the vast majority of Iraqis and Afgans simply want like us, to be left alone to eke out their existence for themselves and their families. Many of them truly seek a free and independant country where they live by the rule of law and their leaders are also subject to those same laws.

It's in the nature of man to desire to live free of undue constraints and to stand in fear of no man. To be able to keep the fruits of their labor, and to freely trade with others for things they themselves cannot produce. To subject themselves to others, if need be to provide service in exchange for money or goods, and then go home of an evening and spend time with children and wives.

Not too far back in the past, they could do that. The middle east, at one time the cradle of civilization, saw their accomplishment slide into memory over time as perhaps most culturs do as the long reach of time waves over them. Other cultures, different in certain respects, and the same in others, came along and introduced new ideas and took and built on some of their ideas. Progressing toward an uncertain future together.

Once a bastion of new ideas and inovations, then came the cruel hobnailed boot of religious fanaticism holding sway, and over centuries because of the desire of every breast to be free, a moving away from that toward a molding with the best of other cultures. Information, began moving across the world at a more and more rapid pace.

I can remember not too long ago you could look to the middle east and see freedom for men and women increasing. A vibrant blend of western and eastern cultures making progress toward providing all with more of the neccessities of life.

And then, for more reasons than I have time to go into, we in the west in our craveness, we abandoned the peoples of the Middle East once again to the religious fanatics. And for a generation they have only been taught that they should rule the world, and bring down the rest of mankind to their level, because they can't see how to bring themselves up to a level with the rest of us. Envy, malice fills the hearts of those who hold themselves up as leaders, and they fear that if left to their own devices their people will lose their fear and respect for them.

But, you can only suppress, never eliminate, the desire of man to be free no matter what it takes.

Many of our finest and brightest in the military recognize these traits. Some very few of our national leaders do. Virtually none of the MSM are willing to see it, because they have their own perverted reasons for keeping mankind a slave.

But it exists, it always has and always will.

If you've a notion to, you might check out this article......The hands of God

All it takes for evil to exist is for good men to do nothing.........


All it takes for freedom to exist is for good men to stand up, upon sound principals, and share the idea of freedom with all he comes in contact with. And be willing to spend his blood and fortune and good name if necessary in that cause.

Well......Well.......

I guess I'm somebodies shit list now.

The first 3 hits I had today are all from Senate.gov.

The little bit of ranting I did yesterday may have struck a nerve. Or else they are just lurking to see if my rants get any reaction from the 8 to 10 viewers I have per day.

I'm just saying that if you want to make your voices heard your have to be at least as loud as the local moonbats.

I really want this experiment we call the United States Of America to succeed. But, we need real leaders in charge. And, we need to raise our voices so they know that we're watching what is going on and, frankly, my dear, I'm not much impressed by 99/100th of that crowd.

They say they want to boost the economy......well, pass the Fair Tax!
They want support for the troops.........I do. But, I'd love to see a system somewhat simular to Swisserland where every adult mail is a part of their armed forces reserves, and have their weapons in their home, and they remain a part of, and train for their part till age 50 or something.

Personally, I'd like to see a system simular to on Robert Heinlen proposed many years ago. Let anyone who wanted all of the priveleges of citizenship, male or female, have to serve in the military. Those that do have full citizenship, with the right to vote, AND, to hold political office.
Those who are conceintious objectors and still want the vote will serve their country in a differant way but will still serve at the pleasure of the country.
Those who don't want to earn their full franchise would not have to serve, but would not be elegable to vote for anything higher than dog catcher.
And for those who want to live off the kindness of others, NO vote, No enjoying all this country has to offer, Just a menial job that supports them but they work were ever they ar assigned.
If They just want to be left alone, God Bless them, let them support themselves and families without any kind of stigma, or monetary help from the Govt. This might be the group I'd choose after earning full citizenship first.

Oh well, enought ranting for such an early hour. Time for my mid-morning nap.

Reporting in.

I said that I would report if any of my congress critters called me, or wrote in reply to my angry emails to them.

I'm sorry to have to report that I got a call from Sen. Saxby Chambliss's office today. Needless to say not from him, but a flunky.

He allowed as how the Senator was disappointed in what happened at the Capitol building. Disappointed , not angry, not mad, not concerned that lawbreakers we allowed to deface govt property. (although on reflection maybe that is something more of us should be doing even down to the local level).

No, just disappointed. I asked him if anyone up there was going to do anything to insure that it would not happen again. Well, "no".

The older I get the more I think back to one of the principals of lazzire faire' style governing. "That government that governs least, governs best".

I'm tired of the government trying to regulate everything we do in this country today. Want to start a business....... gotta get the proper forms and permits. Gonna build a house...........gotta get an environmental impact study and the proper form and permits, submit them in quadreplacits and we'll get back to you in our own sweet time. How long before, like china, we have to get a permit to have more than one child, before we have to carry the proper permits and forms to travel around the country. Before we have to carry a card that permits us to use our own money.
Oh, and heaven forbit that someone wants to carry around a thousand $'s or more in his or her pocket. Why, they must be a part of the dreaded illegal drug gangs that run rampant over the highways and byways. 'Oh we'll just that that from you so that you can't use it to by drugs, even if there is no evidence of that, and you'll have to crawl thru hell and broken bottles to try to prove that it's your money and you are not a criminal, which everyone knows you are, cause we keep passing new laws and regulations every day so that you are bound to break one or more.

Anywho, that's my report of how our elected officials don't care about addressing the concerns of the hoi' poloi. But, they will call you just to show you how very much they care.