Have any of you noticed the newly improved sinister way that we are getting screwed at the grocery store?  The week before Thanksgiving is when I first noticed it.  The 8 lb bag of potatoes.  Not the normal 5 or 10 lb, nope, an 8 lb bag.  The packaging hadn't changed, the same redish mesh bag with the foil label and big white clippy on the top, but less potatoes.  I came home and checked the bag of potatoes I still had from a few weeks earlier, and sure enough, it was 10 lbs.

Was talking to Lesa about this Friday as she was fuming about the frozen garlic bread.  Used to be like 10 oz box and now is more expensive and is down to 7 oz but the box hasn't changed so if you don't look, you don't realize.  And let me tell you, they aint foolin no one with those teeny tiny little bottles of laundry detergent that miraculously clean 64 more loads than the bigger ones did.  Hogwash.

Today was the very last straw when I opened a dozen eggs and found that now a dozen is equal to 10 eggs.  Enough is enough already!!

(Ok, there were 12 eggs, but you get my point.)  I like to be kissed when I'm getting screwed.  Just sayin.

So the movie was kind of a stinker, as I was prepared for it to be, but had some funny parts.  I think you know if you go to see something called Mall Cop and you've seen the previews where 300 lb Kevin James is trying to kung fu himself down the mall, it's gonna be one of those "yeah, but it was kinda funny" movies *L*

The date was.....pretty bad.  I mean, like, walk in the house, close the door and tears start flowing bad.  Like, ok, I'm 48 and have heart problems and diabetes so really, how many more years do I have to just be by myself, 10? 15?  I can probably do that rather than tolerate another stupid date, bad.

First sign of trouble is when he picked me up and went directly to the drivers side door & got in & waited for me to get in.  I should have just turned around and went back in the house *L*  Got to the theater and before I can even get out of the car he's half way to the building.  When we leave, he's like 50' ahead of me and I finally just stopped dead in my tracks and hollered his name.  He came back to me with this confused look on his face, apparently he had forgotten he had brought someone with him, and I said "Um, you think we could act like we came here together?"  And off he goes, way ahead of me again.  Then he unlocks my car door (no remote stuff) but doesn't open the door, just goes around and gets in his side.  Mama Mia!

But wait, it gets better.

We go to Wing Warehouse and have a couple beers.  Nate's friend BJ is there and I talk to him a while (might as well, John sure wasn't talking) and then Nate showed up and him & John chatted a little.  Then we left and he brought me home.  John, not Nate.  He puts the car in park and I ask if he wants to come in.  He replies "Nah, if I do I won't get anything done tomorrow".  And he say's "Do I have to walk you to the door?"   At which point I'm figuring I have been dismissed, so I open the car door and he says....."Well, could I at least get a hug?"  I think hug was the last word, couldn't quite hear it over the car door slamming.

Ok, it really does get better, I just find that I like to draw the story out *L*

About 10 minutes after he leaves, he IM's me.  He lives really close.  And he starts to explain himself to me.  And I realize that there is at least one person in the world who knows less how to behave on a date than I do.  And I realize that he's a much better communicator when he's talking to me through text messages or IM's than he is in person.  And I realize that he's been out of the loop a lot longer than even I have been and was actually so much more nervous than me that he was taking Tums before he picked me up.  Like all day before he picked me up.

So...after we IM for almost an hour, he asks if he can come and get me & bring me to his place, which is what he wanted to ask me when we left Wings but didn't have the courage.  So I let him pick me up & we went back to his house (which is very nice, by the way, built 3 yrs ago) and we hung out all night.  And he brought me home around 8 this morning.

He has 3 daughters, 22, 19 & 9, and a 2 yr old granddaughter.  He took me on a tour of the house and every wall has pictures taped up that his 9 yr old has drawn.  He has maybe 1 bare wall in his bedroom, the other 3 are just plastered with her drawings.  I got a good feeling from that....he called her his interior decorator.  I think that's kinda cool.

So, anyhow, he's going to S. Carolina in the morning for a week long visit with his Mom.  We'll see what happens after that.

I'm going to go stick a chicken in the oven and watch some ridiculously bad movie on the Sci Fi channel.  You kids enjoy your day!  

 

PS - I must have played that Leon Redbone "Baby it's cold outside" thing a hundred times yesterday, every time I passed the computer I clicked play *L*  You'll never guess what song is running around in my head today!!! 

 

 

(Glenn Beck played this song, with Bing Crosby, and had a running dialog through it as to how the singer was really a kidnapper and wouldn't let the poor woman leave....Somehow he had her in a pot above the fire in the fireplace. It was hilarious...but you may have had to be there to appreciate it *g*)

(THIS version is by Leon RedBone and Zooey Deschanel )

Today, outside my door

Note the pretty little red heart windchime sent all the way from frigid Iowa by my dear friend, misyapa *g*

I changed my desktop to remind me that Spring is just around the corner!

I got an email from my Mom, how some funny emails I had sent her yesterday brightened an otherwise dreary day, so I hunted through my photo albums and sent this one of the front of their home and told her how to make it her desktop, to look at on these dreary days and know there is hope.....

And then my beautiful 20 yr old niece, Ashley, called to tell me how the parenting class she went to at the church last night turned out.

Our darlin, Ava, who just turned 1 in November, has become a tyrant and Ash has been very upset and stressed over Ava running the household. Hard to believe this sweet lil thing is a brat, huh? *L*

Yeah, we love her, but she needs some....um....direction   So, apparently, the Pastor had some really good things to share with them last night and Ash has already tried a couple things with Ava this morning and they seem to be working, so....all's well.

They've turned out to be pretty good Mommy & Daddy.  (that doesn't sound right, but you know what I mean *L*)

It makes me happy that my nieces call me to discuss their lives.  I wonder if my Aunt Val felt like this when I called her.

Ok, gotta admit, I'm a little excited  looking forward to this evening.  John came online a little earlier to see if I had changed my mind *L*  "About what", I inquired.  "Our date, assuming it is a date".  Too funny.  He'll be here at 7.

(in·quire play_w2("I0157400") (n-kwr) also en·quire (n-))

All the above pics are at my house, other than my Mom's garden....Just in case you wondered *g*

Alrighty, got things to do.  Hope you all are enjoying your day!!  

It never ceases to amaze me how things God* works in our lives. 

*I'm just going to start saying what I mean and if someone thinks I've turned into a religious fanatic, so be it.  I'm not worried about answering to you. 

In 2002, while recovering from the open heart surgery, I went to the christian bookstore with my mom and browsing through the racks I found this beautiful book of encouragement that immediately begged to be bought for a dear friend of mine, living in a far off land, who was going through some very rough times.  At the same time I bought this little 91 page book, "God Is Up To Something Great", by a pastor I'd never heard of, Tony Evans.

Well, the book of encouragement got sent to London (with my stupid assurances that I wasn't trying to convert her, just bring comfort)  and the little pocket book got put up and never read.  So a couple months ago, my friend, Lesa, and I cleaned out the "junk room" in my basement and I came across the little book.  I brought it upstairs and propped it up with my telephone book & things here beside my computer, where it has sat all this time.

A couple days ago I opened it.  Today I finished it.  Yeah, it was only 91 pages, but the heaviest 91 pages I've ever read.  And talk about timely!  If I had read it in 2002 when I bought it, the message would have been lost on me.

I'm not going to quote the whole book to you, but I am going to quote the one verse that hit me the hardest, and was kind of like my light bulb moment:

Jeremiah 29:11 - King James Version
For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.

Rev. Evans Version
For I know the PLANS that I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a FUTURE and a HOPE.

That about says it all, doesn't it?   Well, it does to me.

VERY frigid here today!!  Nate had to use the torpedo heater on his truck to get it to start since he forgot to plug it in last night.  Diesel, not Prius *g*

So, I think I am being pursued.  By a man.  A non-married man at that!  What a concept!! *L*  My sister & brother in law worked with this guy for 15 years before their shop was shut down and this past summer they'd call me & say they were meeting John here or there, why didn't I join them, so I would.  Then before Thanksgiving they all came over here, I made lasagne & we played euchre.  So a week or so before Christmas I get this text message from a phone number unknown to me and it turns out to be John. He had asked my brother in law for my number.  And he's been texting me off and on since then, we played cards at my sister's a couple weeks ago, and last night we IM'd for a while and he asked if I wanted to go to a movie this weekend.

So this should be interesting (I sure say So a lot, huh? *L*)  The thing about this guy & I is that we would agitate each other.  He'd be like...surly and I would play off that to irritate him.  I think it's an act, the surliness, but we'll see *L* 

He's 4 yrs younger than me 

Ok, I want to get some things done around here today so I will leave you with something fun.  You kids enjoy your day!!  

Go Hunter! Go Hunter! Go Hunter! Whoooooohooooooooooo!! *L*

Hank Williams Jr & Hunter Hayes
by hotrockers

You're traveling through another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind. A journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination. That's the signpost up ahead - your next stop, the Twilight Zone......

Imagine, if you will....

A 38-year old mother of two dies in February 2005 after her sport-utility vehicle crashes in Highland Heights. (Around Cleveland Ohio)  The Cuyahoga County Coroner's office later determine that she lost consciousness while driving after being given a cyanide pill.

A 40-year old father of two, and husband of said woman is charged with her death.  Soon after being questioned by police, he left the country. He was arrested in Cypress in October 2006. Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason spent the last two years fighting to have him extradited. This had been stalled because the former emergency room doctor at Akron General Hospital faces a life sentence if convicted of aggravated murder.

Law enforcement officials brought Dr. Yazeed Essa from Europe and booked him into Cuyahoga County Jail tonight to stand trial in the death of his wife.  His bail was set at $75 million.

Essa left the country because he feared his Arab-American heritage would preclude him from getting a fair trial, his lawyer said. Essa chose to return to fight the charges after Barack Obama was elected president because he sensed a shift in the political climate, Bradley said. If a man named Obama could be elected president, Essa reasoned, perhaps he could be judged fairly.

Hmmmm....

So the job I'm trying to get at the hospital...I checked their job website and found that very same job was posted for public consideration the day after I passed all the tests.  Not sure what that's all about, I emailed the girl who interviewed me and all I got back from her was "I am still interviewing.   I did not forget about you".  And no little smiley face this time.  Hate that.

But, as luck would have it, the lady who suggested I interview for this job (the interviewer's boss) called my friend this evening for a little chit chat and was ticked off that I hadn't been hired yet.  She was going to leave a message on my interviewers voice mail when she got off the phone with my friend.  She was also ticked that my friend hadn't told her what trouble I've had trying to get the HR girl to send me the tests and things but I told Lesa (my friend) to make sure that she know's I don't want anyone forced to hire me.  They do or they don't.  I can keep looking.

Not that I want to keep looking, but you know...How fun is it going to be to go work for someone who was forced to hire you.  I'm gonna say not much.

Not much else going on.  I had a rough day yesterday....one of those pity party things.  But I finally got on the treadmill and snapped out of it and went into my former office and worked today for about 4-1/2 hrs.  I'm closing the year for them, reconciling all the taxes and all that jazz, so....it keeps my mind busy, which I need.

Well, Sadie is outside giving me her "I am ready to come in Mom" bark so I must be going.  You kids enjoy your night.  

 

 

So...I'm sure some of you have noticed my uncharacteristic silence on the subject of our next President.  Uh huh, don't let the silence fool ya, I've been pondering on it to the tune of it's the end of the world as we know it, it is the end of the world as we know it..... 

I can't end that with and I feel fine...Probably and I am scared covers it a lot better.

It scared me when I saw interviews with O supporters....they didn't know ANYTHING, I mean, let's forget knowing any facts about O himself, I feel like I'm at least half way informed and I don't know anything about him....these people knew nothing about who was already in office, who was running with O, NOTHING....they just liked the words "change" and "hope" and, oh yeah, we're making history by electing the first black President.  Well whoopty doo!  It takes more than what he offered to be elected president of your local PTA, for crying out loud.

But, whateva, he's in as of next Tuesday and we'll see if we can survive the next 4 years.  Or probably 8, since the same idiots will be voting then too.

What concerns me most is not the stupidity of the people.  It is the failure of our government to uphold our Constitution.  I capitalize that because it's IMPORTANT, dammit.  Contrary to the seemingly popular belief of our legislative branch, the Constitution is THE authority of these United States.  Not the parts you agree with and want to uphold, but the entire document.

So.  What are the requirements to be president of the United States as set forth in our Constitution? 

Article II, Section 1 - The President:

"No person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty-five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States."

Natural born citizen.  Hmmm.  How does one prove that they are a natural born citizen?  Well, it's simple, they produce a birth certificate.  Not a big burden for most of us.  If you've lost yours you can get a certified copy for about 12 bucks.  So...why was some digitized "certificate of live birth" accepted as proof of citizenship for Mr. O?  And if he is a natural born citizen, why is it such a big deal to provide a birth certificate?  I mean really, its a simple thing that would stop a lot of lawsuits, but still he doesn't produce one.  That makes me think there isn't one to produce....and therefore, he's not eligible to hold the highest office of our country.

Here are the requirements for a simple passport, and an Ohio drivers license.  Don't produce a birth certificate? Don't get a passport or license.  Pretty simple.

United States Passport requirement:

*A certified birth certificate has a registrar's raised, embossed, impressed or multicolored seal, registrar’s signature, and the date the certificate was filed with the registrar's office, which must be within 1 year of your birth. Please note, some short (abstract) versions of birth certificates may not be acceptable for passport purposes.

Ohio Drivers License requirement:

The following are acceptable primary documents: driver’s license from any state, with photograph, current or expired not more than six months; birth certificate, either an original or certified copy, with a seal and issued by an appropriate governmental agency;

Here's another little excerpt from the United States Constitution for your reading pleasure:

Before he enter on the Execution of his Office, he shall take the following Oath or Affirmation:

"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."

Pray tell, how does one swear to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States if they've already disregarded it in pursuit of the office they're being sworn into?.  And, more importantly, and the whole point of this entry - What other provisions of the Constitution will be disregarded in the future?  Our freedom of speech? (See the Fairness Doctrine)  Our right to bear arms?  (Check the NRA for O's gun control voting record)

So....Next Tuesday begins a new presidency.  Who knows if this man is legitimately our president, he's what we've got, for good or bad.  I don't wish him failure - what would that mean for our country?  But I'm going to be watching him and praying that he doesn't take us down the wrong road.

This video is Alan Keyes, who I don't know anything about other than he ran for president in some states.  Regardless of who he is, he makes some good points that every American should take a minute and think about.  Or they can keep chanting "change, change, hope, hope, change, hope" with the rest of the sheeple.

In a democracy, the people get the government they deserve....de Tocqueville

(Note: We are NOT a democracy, but rather, a republic.  I just like the quote and think it fits here)

You kids enjoy your day.  

Funny, no matter what thought rattles around in my head, there's a video to go with it     This isn't the song that was accompanying my thoughts, but its actually better....And it's Al Green, try to beat that!

Boy, do I have it in my lower back today.  How come?  Hmmm....I slept too long?  Slept the wrong way?  Had plans to start an exercise dvd this morning?  Probably all of the above    Well, it's alright, it gave me the opportunity to sit and go through some papers that needed going through.  So my desktop and my counter top look a lot better and I no longer have to dread looking through it all and finding something important that I had previously overlooked. 

This being off work thing has me all discombobulated.  I'm a very anal organized person, usually.  Everything has a place and everything in it's place.  You know the type.  I always open all the mail and put the bills in the little stand up thingy to be paid, file things from the insurance company, throw away the junk.  Now?  I throw it in the pile.  Unopened.  Maybe for weeks.  It's a wonder I've avoided utilities being shut off.  

When I first was layed off I would get up at the same time in the morning anyhow.  Not like I had anything pressing to do, but I did it anyhow.  I got so much accomplished, Nate's bedroom painted, walls washed down, closets cleaned out, etc. etc. etc.  Now I set my alarm for 7 and hit the snooze till 8.  Usually don't hit the shower till 9 and if I'm going into the office that day, I can't get out of the house before 10.  Yikes!  And ya know, the less you do, the less you want to do.  I don't know how anyone can stand to stay home all the time like this, it's making me insane. 

Speaking of going into the office...I did 3 days this week and let me tell you, I woke up this morning feeling better than I have in a while on a Saturday morning.  Mentally, at least *L* (see above paragraph about my back *g*)  It actually feels like a weekend instead of just another day at home.  So much of my identity is tied up in my job.  Not sure if that's a good thing or not, but it works for me.  I need to feel productive, and that really is above and beyond the financial reward, which I need also, but....doing nothing is just not me.

So...Thanks for all of your thoughts on the previous entry.  Wild One, I like that Proverb also.  I'm glad to hear what I had already suspected, that everyone repeats themselves to God.  I liked one response that theorized that we repeat for our own comfort, not because we think God didn't hear us or that we don't have enough faith.  That makes sense to me.

I guess I should clarify that I'm not praying for any job in particular, just for A job.  Whichever one He knows is best for me, no matter what it looks like to me.  When I get an offer I'll know it is from Him and the one I should take.  I also understand that God does things in His own time, but, being the pitiful human that I am, I can't help but remind Him that I only have 10 weeks left of unemployment 

Alrighty then, I need to try to finish putting Christmas stuff back in boxes so Nate can take them to the attic for me.  We didn't put a tree up this year....I still can't believe that.  But we went to my parents for Christmas so it isn't like we didn't celebrate around a tree, just not one in our home.  Boy, when I type that out it sounds so sad, but I did decorate around the house and it wasn't sad.  Really.  Honestly.

You kids enjoy your day! 

 

.....and let God

Is that even humanly possible?  Can you guys do that?  I mean, if you wake up in the middle of the night and hear someone breaking into your home, can you just say to God one time "Lord, please let the shot gun be loaded", or do you keep repeating it in your head until you've shot the bad guy and then switch to "Praise God, Thank You, Jesus!"?  And do you only say that one time?

Oh, if only I had stayed in church from the time I went as a child...I'd be an expert on this by now.

Yep, I'm waiting on the hospital to call and offer me the job.  Yep, I've prayed about it.  Yep, repeatedly.  Is that wrong?  Does this show lack of faith?  I keep remembering reading a verse in the Old Testament (that now I can't find to share with you all) but I swear it say's something about us starting to sound to God like clanging brass because we keep asking Him for the same thing over and over again.

I don't want to irritate Him.  I really do not want that big hand coming down from the sky and whapping me across the back of the head "I heard you the first time, Terri!".  That would be bad.  But do you think He feels like doing that? I mean, come on, if you're a parent, or anyone else that's dealt with a 3 year old who really really wants something, you can see where a whap across the back of the head would relieve your stress.

Maybe He doesn't like how I pray.  I have never been a get down on my knees pray-er....maybe I should be.  I talk to Him all the time..sometimes out loud, sometimes just in my head.  And right now, in my head, is this irritating chant "Please Lord, I need a job, please Lord, I need a job".  Hmmmm....maybe I need a whap on the head.

Thoughts?  Suggestions?  A 2x4?

 

 

Well, in lieu of an actual entry (I don't have the energy to reproduce what I wrote earlier *L*) I'll leave this for you...It's long, but.....good.  And in case you don't know who Gary Graham is (I didn't), it's this guy:

And, yeah, I did the Snopes.com thing...it's not listed

One Pissed-Off Dude by Gary Graham

I’m an American. This has always been my favorite label, but of late even that has seemed to mean less and less. Being called an American used to carry with it a certain pride and esprit de corps that now apparently is dated and passe. How else can one explain the rash of America-haters in our midst who only claim pride in America if a Leftist resides in the White House, and can only back a war effort if the decision to go to war was that of a Democrat.

I’m a Conservative. And I am also an actor who lives and works in Hollywood. Many of my friends advise me to keep that on the down-low, advise me to not speak up lest I scuttle any future employment prospects, so predominantly liberal is the entertainment biz. And yet I persist.

You see, I’m one pissed-off dude.

I’m told I’ll hurt my career if I continually spout off about Liberalism — which I see as a growing cancer in our society. Worldwide, I’ve seen Liberalism metastasize into virulent incarnations of Socialism, and, left unchecked, even into its malignant cousin, Communism. Only the arrogant or the somnambulist would think such a thing could never happen here. It’s a matter of increment. Once a group organizes into a coalition, it’s a short step to claiming the right to the property of another group. All that is necessary is for an individual’s right to personal property to become a secondary concern. The ‘needs’ of the group must supercede, dontcha know. It’s a vicious cycle – wants become needs become rights. The fact that the thievery is done at the behest of a ‘civilized’ government does not sanitize the crime.

“At least the highwayman has the decency to wear a mask.” – Author unknown.

So I’m told I should shut up. I make my living in the Hollywood community, and Hollywood is by and large run by Liberals. I’m told I need to stay quiet when the Left has their way over issues that affect my daily life. I’m told I need to learn how to get along with the Left, learn how to compromise. I need to be more open-minded. I need to be more tolerant.

I say F T S. Ask your 9-yr-old if you have trouble deciphering that. (No, wait, don’t.)

I don’t want to get along with the Left. I want to take them down. I want to expose their idiocy for what it is and reveal it as a harmful, dangerous succession of lies and deceptions. My friends say that that effort, aside from being fruitless, will cost me work. It will cost me my career. And I say Wait-a-minute, Bucko. Those folks who founded this country were willing to risk not only their careers, but their property, their families, their very lives…the least I can do in standing up for our precious freedoms is risk a silly television career. Not to compare myself with the brilliant thinkers who declared themselves independent of England and framed our Constitution…but those were some pretty pissed off dudes too. Compared to that, loss of a little TV or movie work seems pretty inconsequential. So in honor of Pissed Off Americans past and present, I rant.

I’m pissed off that everyone seems okay on having to press one for English. We’re supposed to be tolerant and understanding that maybe some folks who now live here (legally or not) might have trouble understanding what I’m saying to them if I speak in my native tongue, regardless of the extra cost to the rest of us. FTS.

I’m pissed that my sweet well-wishing friends and acquaintances now say “Happy Holidays” instead of Merry Christmas. Oh, we don’t want to offend the non-Christians, they’ll say. Again – FTS. ‘Happy Holidays’…nice and non-specific, soothingly generic. In keeping with the spirit of the season, I try not to show it – but I roll my eyes. Jeez, could you be any more spineless? Everybody walk on eggshells for the rest of your lives, living in perptual fear someone who holds a different religion, or sexual preference, or nationality is going to suffer some little offense if you actually wish them a lovely Christmas. “Oh we don’t celebrate Christmas.” “Oh, I’m so terribly sorry, I don’t mean to offend you. Please enjoy the Holiday of Winter Solstice and Earth Renewal Day or whatever your heart leads to celebrate, if indeed you are even feeling like celebrating anything.” Shut up! Smile and say thanks. Happy Hanukkah, Merry Ramadan, Soulful Kwanzaa…whatever. Smile and say Thanks.

Can we all stop taking ourselves so damn seriously for half a minute? Hey – life ain’t a popularity contest. So grow a pair. Speak your mind and if someone can’t handle it, request that they take a hike. How the hell did we ever survive life before the all-knowing, all-caring ACLU began to run interference for all our tender sensibilities? It’s a wonder any of us grew up without some crippling psychosis that drove us to chop up our grandmother. I’m old enough to remember when Common Sense ruled the day. (*cue the Cranky Old Man music)

It irks me that Democrats are always looking to raise my taxes. I’m patriotic if I take it up the bum and don’t squeal. What’s worse, they don’t even have the integrity to call them taxes. They call them ‘fees’, or even, ‘contributions’. As I learned the word, a contribution is a volitional act. Left to free choice, I say I choose to not contribute more than I already do. Let all those who say we are overtaxed stand up with me. Those who think different can form a line to the left…and we on the right will leave you completely free to contribute more. Raising taxes takes food off my family’s table. I regard people who advocate doing so in the same vein as I would the burglar I confront in the dead of night – an enemy.

I’m pissed that I study the political issues of the day, educate myself, stay informed daily by a multitude of news sources from all slants…and yet, come election day, my informed vote is cancelled by some numbskull who votes for the nicest smile, who doesn’t know who the current vice-president is, or which party controls Congress, and what’s more, doesn’t care. Am I the only one who thinks a basic intelligence and general knowledge test should be a prerequisite for voting for our leaders? No? Too radical a notion? Well, then, why not just make the winner of American Idol president and save all the drama? Everyone can text in their vote. And Paula, Randy, and Simon… the new cabinet. “Tonight the State of the Union speech will be sung by the President, backed up by Rascal Flatts…and special guest duet with Secretary of State David Archuleta…”

I’m pissed off by how soft many in our nation have become. How whimpy the tone, how spineless the resolve. What happened to that brutally real notion that people should be held responsible for his or her actions? Nowadays, it always seems to be someone else’s fault, whatever it is. Got a life of poverty, it’s rich folks doing it to you.

Alcohol addiction, substance abuse, your mother never said she loves you. Having trouble finding work, it’s the white, black, purple guys keeping you down. Your car company is going under, it’s the unfair business practices abroad and an economic downturn. Hey, nimrods – newsflash. LIFE IS HARD. The End. Get used to it, suck it up, get some spine, invent some if you have none, and GET ON WITH IT!!!! I’d like to offer, in utter compassion, and speaking on behalf of at least several like-minded bretheren out there, a class-action BITCH-SLAP to every mamby-pamby, limp-wristed douche-bag of a complainer who has the audacity to hope that we hard-working, God-fearing, America-loving taxpayers should be forced to give you one penny of our income to enable you further in your responsibility-shirking, self-destructive habits. Get your collective shiite together, friends. I am not, nor are my friends, my brother’s keeper. Though my heart is open enough to come to someone’s need should an honest and sincere calamity befall a brother or sister… when did destitution become a virtue? Did my snooze button malfunction causing me to oversleep a couple decades? When did begging become a noble venture? You see them standing there bravely, “God bless”and something about ‘can’t find work’ scrawled on their cardboard. Victims of society, of Bush/Cheney, of Ronald Reagan, of any heartless Republican administration. And worse – hey, I’ve seen the sign people on the offramps, I’ve seen the green flow as we assuage our prosperity guilt – these guys are cleaning up! Am I in the wrong business? When, dear friends, did panhandling become a lucrative industry? FTS!

(Side note: I’ve personally offered several of these beggars who had written “Will work for food” to buy them lunch if they’ll do some yard work and fence painting for me, and the reaction was always the same. Hell no! They just want cash, right now! Hmmm…and yet the sign said… Forget about the begging, whatever happened to truth in advertising?)

Who can identify virtue, when there is no shame?

And speaking of shame…have you on the Left no shame when it comes to calling evil EVIL? What’s in a name — a terrorist by any other name is a ‘Jihadist’. A freedom fighter. A rebel. But when are we going to admit that there is an evil movement out there dedicated to our destruction. And it ain’t Sarah Palin and George Bush. It’s radical Islam and they want to cut your personal head off simply because you’re not throwing in with them.

You’re not on your knees worshiping their boy Allah, so for this you and everyone like you all over the world must die and die now. But wait, it’s a ‘religion of peace’, we’re told. Wow, not the last time I looked. If Islam is a religion of peace, where are all the peace-loving Muslim leaders decrying the radicals’ murderous actions? The beheadings, the suicide bombings, the IED’s, the blowing up innocents on buses? Where are the peaceful Islamists’ protests against Hamas, Hezbollah, Al Queda, et al? You are a frog in a pot, Lefty – being boiled slowly, apparently too slowly for you to notice. Too much Climate Change on your mind to notice that the barbarians are at the gate. When the Nazis stormed into Jewish homes in 1939 I’m sure there were more than a few head-in-the sand myopic residents screaming about the troopers tracking mud on the carpet. If only they had had the ACLU to save the day… Human rights and clean carpets surely would have abound.

Speaking of climate change, while we’re at it…if the argument is over…and the facts are clear…how is it we can predict the climate twenty years hence, when we can’t even predict with much accuracy if my ass is going to get wet attending my friend’s kid’s Bar Mitzvah next weekend. When did we give the title to anyone with a PhD in front of their name the added moniker of ‘Soothsayer’? I read Paul Erhlich’s book, THE POPULATION BOMB in the early ‘70’s and it scared the begeebers out of me. By his prediction, each human being in 2008 would have less than a square meter of space to live in. (William F. Buckley voice: “Ahh…Mr. Erhlich was unavailable for comment, ahhh… but stressed the importance of keeping his line clear, lest the Nobel Prize committee call.”) And Mr. Gore – I do believe in Climate Change. It’s called summer, spring, winter and fall. Happens each year whether I drive my SUV or not. FTS!

Before I came up with the inspired notion of tossing my life away and becoming an actor…I was fully ensconsed in the science department at the University of California, Irvine. I know the way it works. The professors confided in me. You need a problem to study, better yet a crisis, or you don’t get funding for your research. It’s that simple. One professor of botany told me that these very high-tech ultra-violet cameras we were frolicking through the fields looking at flowers through cost the University $200 thousand dollars. Off my open-mouthed gape, he shrugged, “Gotta spend the money, or next year they cut us back.” So yeah, you’re going to find a ton of scientists who swear we’re killing the planet…and we desperately need another three million dollars to study the problem.

I’m confident I could find two hundred accredited scientists to join me in an exhaustive study to find out why belly button lint is demagnetizing the moon leading to global flooding…if only Bill Gates will step up with some coin. FTS!

Lastly…can we finally be done with all the hatred? George Bush is very soon to be out of a job. Time to let up on him a bit, don’t you think? Erase the hate, Lefties. You can stop proclaiming him to be the anti-christ, evil incarnate, the boogeyman, Darth Vader, or the Heartbreak of Psoriasis. The guy did his best. Like him, don’t like him, he kept us from attack for seven-and-a-half years so let it go. Your guy is in now, so relax. Have fun again. Laugh without derision. Smile without the snide. You remember how? Take off your flak jackets, it’s going to be okay. Our brave warriors did some serious ass-kicking in the Middle East, and though there’s no shortage of crazy Islamo-fascist bad guys yet to come, at least they know who they’re f*cking with.

Somehow along the way, so many of you forgot one simple, undeniable tenet: We’re the good guys. We’re not imperialists, or else we would’ve nuked the oil countries into radioactive dust, then moved in and taken the oil. We don’t ‘torture’ prisoners, or lawyers for the Gitmo ‘detainees’ would have CNN photographing the horrid scars and missing limbs. We don’t bully smaller, less developed nations. On the contrary, we expend our more precious asset: the blood of our brave, bright and courageous young men and women – all in committed effort to free them from despotic, brutal dictators. We are not brash. In 1991 we amassed a coalition of 34 nations before we acted to oust Saddam Hussein from Kuwait, and this after months and months of negotiations and U.N. resolutions. Twelve years later after waiting six months and seeing fourteen U.N. resolutions ignored by Hussein, George W. Bush had accrued a multi-national coalition and a majority vote in Congress before sending troops into Iraq. We are the big dog on the block. And yet we ask no penance from lesser countries. Instead we offer aid in the form of cash, medicine, and humanitarian help. When we go after bad guys in war, we don’t carpet bomb, or blow up civilian-filled buses. We have smart bombs that pinpoint targets to limit collateral civilian casualites. We’re the good guys. Only an entrenched self-loathing hatred of America will prevent you from seeing that. If that’s the case, you have my sympathy. But don’t let the door hit you on the way out. And yes, this is our country, whether a Democrat of a Republican occupies the White House.

Yeah, a lot of things piss me off. But I’m a ridiculously happy guy. I’m blessed with a wonderful family, terrific friends (many, many of them Liberals, oh yes), a strong Faith in God and a sweet certainty that this nation is on the side of good in the world…and that that good will overcome the bad.

I was asked by the founder of this site to write an article… an ‘opening salvo’. Considering who might read it, and who in Hollywood might be incensed, the temptation to parse words and couch my opinions was strong. But the guy in the mirror counsels me the loudest. I was always impressed with John Hancock, when, reminded that signing one’s name to that Declaration in Pennsylvania could very well lead to their deaths…solemnly stepped forward and with grand flourish signed his name in huge, legible script. In that grand spirit…

I hereby declare my independence…from the small-minded, America-hating, race-bating, Christian-bashing, class-warfare-waging, politically-correct, collectivist, Liberal Hollywood establishment.

Anybody got a problem with that, I’ll mapquest you directions to my front door, we’ll settle it like men.

Signed,

GARY GRAHAM

I just typed this long entry and decided to save it "Private" because I'm on the phone & didn't want to lose it...and guess what?   I LOST IT!

Sorry, feeling silly and couldn't find Gene Autry's version on Youtube *g*

hehehe, you know you missed me!!!