ONE SIZE FITS ALL…AND OTHER FABLES

ONE SIZE FITS ALL…AND OTHER FABLES

        It might be just my imagination but the world, and in particular the United States, seems to be drifting to the conclusion that one-size-fits-all…and nothing could be further from the truth.  Let’s look at a few examples of this wrong-headed thinking, and perhaps the hottest topic in that area is the bathroom and who uses what.   If ever there was a topic where one-size-fits-all doesn’t work, it’s that one, because if that were true there would be no need to have separate facilities for males and females.

There would be just one facility for everybody.  Think of the money that could be saved by building just one restroom at a sporting event, in schools or at the local shopping mall.  Then, you wouldn’t have to declare that today you “think” or “feel” like you’re the opposite gender because the one facility would be there to utilize regardless of your sex.   We’ve already heard of males going into female restrooms, but you will hardly ever hear of a female going into the male bathroom…they’re just not that interested in us.

        Peace…now there’s a word that conjures up all sorts of things.  To dictators it probably means that they, and they alone, have the final word on everything…and that’s peaceful for them.  Nobody would question anything because they’d be killed or at the very least, they’d disappear and never be heard from again.   In a democratic society like most of the civilized world, it mostly means a time when there is no war…at least none in which that particular country is engaged.   For one particular religious cult, Islam, it can only be achieved when all the world has submitted to it, and until that takes place, true believers will be at war with “the West”, or civilization as we know it.   Even the United States, in its sometimes misguided efforts, has tried to bring some sort of democratic government to places where tribal, religious, or ethnicity differences simply would not allow it to work.   One-size-does-not-fit-all in governments either.

        Closer to home, we have Obamacare, or the Affordable Care Act(ACA) which is the official name.  If ever there was a failure of the thinking that one-size-fits-all, this would be it.   To lump large numbers of people into some sort of health “class” is simply ridiculous.  Even in a marriage, which would be the smallest “group” that one might encounter, there are bound to be differences in health, and healthcare.

As it was explained to me, the eventual goal of the Affordable Care Act, was to have a single-payer, and that would be the government.   If there are healthcare differences between just two people, can you imagine the differences that might exist between millions of people?   Certain conditions which existed prior to coming into the ACA are to be covered, others which are contracted after joining the ACA are not covered.   Right there you can see that the one-size concept cannot work.   People, by their very nature, are individuals and even though large portions of the population may ACT like sheep, they’re not really.

        Being retired from the Navy I’m especially upset about trying to make this distinctive, sea-going branch of the armed forces look like the ground-based ones.   The Coast Guard as well as the Navy are wearing camouflage which is, in my not-so-humble opinion, stupid.  There is no place aboard ship where camouflage is going to blend in, which is the basic reason for wearing it in the first place.  If based ashore, there are other uniforms for work and dress.  Personally I favor the old dungarees and chambray shirts with either white or blue “dixie cup” hats.  It takes more than a shoulder patch, or a pin on the chest to differentiate one service from another and to say that they are all the same is doing a great disservice to each of our armed services.  Down to police departments in different cities, the uniforms are different, so why try to make it one-size-fits-all in our military?

        In the upcoming presidential election we definitely have a choice.  If there is ever a place where the concept of being different from anyone else is important, it’s here.   Whichever person wins out, and I hope it’s the person I prefer, the government is going to take a turn in its direction.   The Republicans started out with seventeen candidates and now have one.   The Democrats started out with four and are down to two, but there are those that will say it’s really only one.   Let’s suppose that we only had a one party system, and that could probably only occur if we had a dictator, albeit a benign one.   That one party could decree that anything it said would become the law of the land, regardless of whether it was good or bad.  Wow!  Talk about one-size-fits-all being a failure, that is a prime example.  No matter who the dictator is or was, sooner or later the people rise up and change the leaders, if not the entire form of government.  A prime example of this is the American Revolution, and following close on its heels, the French Revolution.  One-size-fits-all indeed!  Not here, not now, not ever.

        Wake up America, your country needs you…desperately.

3 COMPANIONS…

3 COMPANIONS…

Companion.  The word conjures up all sorts of pictures, doesn’t it?   A man can have a woman as a companion, with or without the benefit of being married…and the same goes for a woman.  In these times such partnerships, even a companion of the same gender, is not unusual.  Room-mates in college, or in the business world, sharing expenses and experiences.  That is not to say that I either approve or disapprove of same-sex partners, it’s just a fact of modern day life, that’s all.   In my Navy career there were many such companions, buddies we called them, and we were thrown together because of the work we did, or the places we went.  Many life-long friendships have come out of my Navy years.

            There is the relationship of a man, or woman, to a dog…and these companions are, for many, the only true friends they may ever know.  Nothing that I can think of is more relaxing than sitting in your favorite chair with your dog beside you, or in your lap.  You give a dog, as an example, the time you can spare, the love you can spare and, now and then, the food you can spare.  In return he gives you everything…companionship and love…perhaps the truest love there is because it’s given freely with no thought of anything but pleasing you.  I have had many dogs in my lifetime, and notice I didn’t say I owned them because you don’t own a dog…you and it are a living partnership and when one dies it is no less a heartbreak than if one of my children had died…they are that much a part of me.   The one wish that I might have in the case of my dogs is that they lived longer than they did.

            Some people think of horses as good companions, but although I like to look at them, they don’t strike me as a companion…unless of course I’m a cowboy riding the range.  In that instance, a horse is not just a companion, it’s an absolute necessity and if you find yourself out in the wilderness, you’d better take really good care of that four-legged baggage carrier…it might be many miles to the next watering hole or town.   We had what we called a “lookin’ horse” once.   Nobody rode her, she was just to look at and looking at her made you feel good.  Mariah was her name and she was pretty gentle but we were not riders.  She would come to the back fence in the morning and my wife would bring a tray on which were two large mugs of coffee and two sweet rolls, and they would share a morning treat.  She had three acres of area in which to roam and every once in a while we could see her rolling in the pasture.

            On these three acres we had chickens, ducks and geese…as well as the horse and a very nasty goat.  Our original two geese were bought as babies, so my wife became their mother and they would follow her everywhere, and that included into the house.  Eventually the male became the dominant bird of the place and we called him The Boss.  His attitude clearly indicated that we were trespassers on his land and he would make mock attacks toward us to frighten us away…but we had learned how to grab him by the neck and hold him still until he decided to allow us to go into the backyard and gather whatever eggs we could find.   With a mixed flock of fowl we often had eggs of different sizes and the goose eggs were the best.  One egg was a meal!  As time went on we lost a bird now and then to something…we never found out what, but we suspected it might have been a fox, as one had been seen in the neighborhood.  Eventually we lost them all.  I wish we could have lost the goat!

            We got the goat because we thought we’d milk her and possibly make cheese out of the milk, but she turned out to be pregnant and when she had the kid she turned even nastier than ever.  The kid was born dead, unfortunately, and we had to lure the goat away from the body so we could bury it.  You didn’t want to turn your back on this goat because she would butt you and with enough force to knock you down.  One experience with her was enough and we learned to leave her alone.  As it turned out, one of our friends said they wanted a goat so we got rid of her.  It was not a sad parting, I can tell you.

            So you see, as was said in the beginning, there are all sorts of companions, just as there are all sorts of people.  There are people with whom you want to, and do, spend your life, and there are others that have an effect as they pass through your life ever so briefly.   A companion, human or animal, seems to make life more bearable and, sometimes, more enjoyable to the point where, like me, a trip down memory lane makes me happy.   If you don’t have a companion, get one…of some sort, because you’ll find that life is that much better with one.

A TRIO OF RANDOM THOUGHTS…

A TRIO OF RANDOM THOUGHTS…

            The madness that is the state government in California has once again been made known to the residents of that state.   On Tuesday, May 10^th of this year, the California Assembly passed a bill Monday that would require all single-use restrooms in business, public and government establishments to become gender-neutral.   AB 1732 requires all single-use restrooms in the establishments to be identified as "all-gender toilet facilities."   A looney-tune member of the legislature, one Philip Ting, had this to say about the bill, "California continues to move forward, be forward thinking - think about how we can be more inclusive and frankly, more tolerant.  My hope is that we de-politicize the bathroom issue.”           

            If the bill became law, it would give the state the power to decide how individual business owners and public entities should best serve their customers.   The gender inclusive restroom bill would inconvenience far more people than gender specific restrooms did.  Women,specifically would be inconvenienced.   Not many women would want to use a bathroom that had been used by men.  There are other, unintended consequences to this bill, if it becomes law.

            As I understand it, a person just has to believe, or “feel” that they are of a different gender that day and they can use the bathroom of the other gender.  Let’s carry this a step or two further.  How about boys showering with the girls in high school or college?   Can a woman play on a man’s sports team simply because she feels like it that day?   In my not-so-humble opinion, this whole transgender thing is nothing but trouble and the only ones that are going to profit in any way from it, will be trial lawyers.

            The number of so-called “refugees” in Europe makes the Police shake their heads.   It was reported back in April that Police have uncovered a large and growing network of Islamic State fighters, at least two of whom came to Europe as “refugees.”   French and Belgian authorities have found that the scale of the threat of terrorism could be much bigger than they had previously thought. They’ve found that the members of these terror cells are mostly young Muslim men from the Brussels suburbs of Molenbeek and Schaerbeek and many were former criminals often involved with petty thefts and assaults.  

Many of the attackers in Paris committed suicide and blew themselves up. One fled the scene of his crime and hid away with his cousin. He was killed in a police raid five days following the attack.   After the attacks police had a major question: How large was the network that participated in the attacks and were there more sleeper cells in Europe waiting to strike?   Many of these men are currently being sought by police, but unfortunately police often have no idea if they are in Europe or in Syria.   Their names, which cannot be verified, are assumed to be aliases as authorities are currently unsure of their true identities.

This next piece came to me from one of my readers and he asked me to pass it on, and I am.   My Grandfather watched as his friends died in WWI.    My Father watched as his friends died in WWII and Korea.  I watched (1st hand) as my friends fought and died in Vietnam.  I watched as our friends and children fought and died in Desert Storm.   I watched and waited while our friends and children fought and died in Iraq.   None of them fought for or died for the Mexican Flag or any other foreign flag…Everyone fought for and died for the U.S. Flag!

            In Texas, a student raised a Mexican flag on a school flag pole; another student took it down.  Guess who was expelled.  The kid who took it down.   Kids in high school in California were sent home on Cinco de Mayo because they wore T-shirts with  the American flag printed on them. Enough is enough.               

This message needs to be read by every American… and every American needs to stand up for America.   We've bent over to appease the America-haters long enough.

I'm taking a stand.   I'm standing up because the hundreds of thousands who died fighting in  wars for this country, and for the U.S. Flag, can't stand up. And shame on anyone who tries to make this a racist message.             

Let me make this perfectly clear!   THIS IS MY COUNTRY!   And, my making this statement DOES NOT mean I'm against immigration!   YOU ARE WELCOME HERE IN OUR COUNTRY.  Welcome!   To come through legally: 1. Get a sponsor!  2.  Get a place to lay your head!   3.  Get a job!   4. Live By OUR Rules!   5. Pay YOUR Taxes!  6. Learn the  LANGUAGE like immigrants have in the past!   7.  Please don't demand that we hand over our lifetime Savings of Social Security Funds to you.   If you don't want to forward this for fear of offending someone, then YOU'RE PART OF THE PROBLEM!   When will AMERICANS STOP giving away THEIR  RIGHTS?   We've gone so far the other way...we’ve bent over backwards not to offend anyone...But it seems no one cares about the AMERICAN CITIZEN being offended!   Wake up America, your country needs you…desperately.

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WORLD WAR 3…IT’S HERE

WORLD WAR 3…IT’S HERE.

          Regardless of which side of the political aisle you are on, you have to realize that we ARE at war…with Islam.  Oh wait…it’s only the radical element of that cult that’s at war with us, right?  WRONG!   Islam, to the true believer, does not negotiate…about anything.  It’s their way or the highway, and when it’s their way it will be littered with headless bodies, charred remains and mutilated corpses.  This CULT, and that’s what it is, may be ruled by a few thousand die-hard fanatics, but that fanaticism reaches out to whatever “moderate” Muslims there might be and scares the you-know-what out of them so they cower and don’t say anything to anyone.   To be sure, there’s some Muslims that do speak out, but they are few and far between and a lot of them may be apostates-in-secret as well.   If you’ll allow me this comparison, think back to World War 2, if you’re old enough to know it as anything but ancient history.  You DO know about that war, don’t you?  I digress.

          In WW2, we were fighting Germany.  We did not separate the “good Germans” from the “bad Germans”…they were all bad to us.   What we knew back then was that the nation of Germany was at war with us and we with them.   It was a shooting war, it was a bombing war and, on their side, it was an outright murder war.  Sometimes when they captured Allied personnel they were not sent to any work/concentration camp, they were shot right where they were captured.  Our prisoners, on the other hand, some of them, came to camps in the United States and once the war was over, decided to stay, got married and became American citizens.  The point here is that Islam is like the Nazis, and as a matter of fact the two collaborated during that war.  There is a pretty famous saying about history…it says if you don’t pay attention to it, you’re going to repeat it.

          In the years between the two World Wars one might have gotten the idea that all was right in the world…but it wasn’t.   There were little skirmishes going on here and there…more so than the two shots fired at Archduke Ferdinand and his wife, killing them both, that started World War 1.  In the United States during the period of peace between the two World Wars we relaxed and felt so good about ourselves that we drew down our military strength drastically.   Although we were sending materiel to our allies overseas prior to our entering the war in 1941, we apparently didn’t see the need to bring our own armed forces up to a wartime strength.   Our Army trained with broomsticks for rifles, they used automobiles as substitutes for tanks and much of the other gear, including ammunition, was left over from the first World War.  The Navy was sailing on some ships that were built prior to WW1.  There was an Army Air Corps, which was considered only good for patrol and reconnaissance, and a Marine Corps which was primarily for show at our overseas embassies.

          In short…we were not well-prepared for war when it came to us.   We are not now well-prepared for war, which is already here, whether you deny that or not.  Islam has but one goal and that is “peace” throughout the world…but that “peace” can ONLY

be achieved when the entire world is under the thumb of Islam.   In case you’ve forgotten, or never knew, Islam means submission and Muslim is one that has submitted, and a cult, according to the dictionary is “a religion or sect considered to be false, unorthodox, or extremist, with members often living outside of conventional society under the direction of a charismatic leader.”   Could it be any clearer than that?

Islam has been at war, truly, for 1400 years, and down through those years has had various clashes with “Western” civilization.   Sometimes they won and sometimes they lost.   In places where Islam has been, all previous forms of worship are destroyed because it is the theory that, before Islam, nothing good existed.  Even today, tombs, artifacts, anything of historical value to some other group, is being destroyed.

          So, here we are in the 21st Century and trying to get along with fanatics that are locked into the 7th Century.   Are they compatible?  No, they’re not…and not because we in the 21st Century wouldn’t accept them, but because those barbarians from the 7th Century won’t accept us.  It’s rather one-sided when you get to thinking about it, isn’t it?   We cannot, however, go out and have mass executions as they do…that’s simply not the “Western” way.   The concept of “turn the other cheek” is not going to work with these people either…when you turn your head they’re going to try to cut it off…that’s what they do.  We cannot also round them up and put them in concentration camps while we sort out who’s who…but that might turn out to be the last resort.  People more brilliant than I am are working on this problem and it will be interesting to see the plan when it’s proposed.   In the meantime, wake up America, your country needs you…desperately.