ELECTION EVOLUTION

The main reason our government is screwed up is because our politicians are screwed up. They have tweaked our system of government to their advantage and to fit their purposes, from campaign finance to how they campaign, right on through to how they do their jobs after they are elected. Our election process has evolved into a scenario where the ONLY time we see our leaders in our communities is when they are trying to get the job.

I can't really believe I am writing this since I grow weary of politics and hate politicians invading my home thru their ads on television. I plan to DVR any television shows I watch as the election grows nearer, so I can easily fast forward through all the propaganda political ads which are filled with mind swaying(sometimes numbing) half truths. I also hate the invasion of local and state election political signs throughout our communities and most times their commercials are the worst.

I wonder if political leaders and people seeking political office should always be speaking? It seems in order to know what the will of the people is,....they should be listening. Maybe politicians should do what my first grade teacher admonished my class to do many many times: take a seat, close your mouths and open your ears. They should step out from behind the podium, take a seat in the audience, close their mouths and open their ears as a parade of constituents speak about what they want from their representative. Knowledge is power, and KNOWING what the people want is essential to doing what the people want,...and how can they know that, except through asking, and LISTENING?

I have no grandiose delusions that the ego maniacs who run for office would embrace this idea,...though it isn't new, but may be new to them. No, they would most likely break out in hives if we asked them to listen rather than speak because the job description of a politician is more about WORDS,...and less about ACTION. We didn't make this so, but rather our elected officials over the years have written their own accurate, but hollow job descriptions as talking the talk, but not walking the walk. Most would adamantly protest this real yet unwritten job description, likely with an endless barrage of words,....but with tellingly ironic little action.

Once elected, we only hear press releases from our leaders. They are very eager to get in front of the camera's for a press release, but are no longer concerned with meeting the people where they are and hearing from them first hand. As a matter of fact a press release is how one party communicates with the other party to let them know what they are thinking! Come on! DC's not that big! What happened to sitting down and talking in person? What happened to phone calls, teleconferences, video conferencing? What happened to all of the things they incorporated into their political campaigns to seem real with the the voting public? They seem to quickly abandon them once they HAVE the job. Yes, politicians love to lecture,...but they don't care to communicate. Active communication is a two way street which involves both speaking and listening and usually ends with an action.

Communication has never been politicians strong suit. Mark Twain said that politicians could speak for hours on end, without ever getting rid of an idea. They love to hear themselves speak,....and that's pretty much as far as it will go. They don't communicate with each other,...nor with us,...their constituents. Again, they love to lecture, each other and us, but seem to be weak communicators,...only wanting to selfishly speak and hardly listen.

Yet there have been times when we see an endless stream of politicians getting to know the public; glad handing, kissing babies and holding town hall meetings,....but, notice,.....these are ALL strictly centered around them re-upping for another term, or getting a new job, and rarely occurring outside that situation. But then, all of that stops. They stop desiring to know what Americans think. They no longer solicit our input,...but hole up in their offices taking calls from their donors and their party, but rarely others. They are less concerned about what the people want and more concerned with doing THEIR OWN will, rather than the will of the people. Shouldn't they continue their nationwide hand shaking, town hall meeting and baby kissing tours AFTER they are elected,...or at least an electronic version of that? How else are they going to know the will of the people in order to do it?

Maybe they don't care about the will of the people. Their behavior is all about looking like the "regular guy" with their chambray shirt sleeves rolled up and a hard hat on,...but again, that's only during election season. These guys are actors and no different than their glamour, spot light seeking counterparts on the other coast. They are experts at telling a story so vividly that we want to believe them and most of the time we do. But those story lines soon prove to be as fictional as any fantasized tale we see on screen at our local cinemas. With super PACS and big corporate donors,..constituents have taken a far back seat and are way down the line on political leaders' list of people to serve, at least behind themselves, their party and their donors. Our Supreme Court made an already fertile field for political corruption, even more fertile through enabling with Citizens United.

Our nation would truly be better served if our leaders would harken the advice of my first grade teacher, Mrs. Chambliss: take your seats, close your mouths and open your ears. I won't hold my breath,....and everyone should write that 100 times on the chalkboard during recess until you learn this appropriate behavior whenever politicians are involved.

unHAPPY HOLIDAYS

I'm not Scrooge, but my sense of wonder at the season of Christmas is MIA. I love the music of Christmas and have been known to listen to it long before or long after the holiday. I love the greenery,...I wish we could have a live tree, as we did early in our lives, but, for us, a fake tree makes more sense, since we are visiting relatives in the southeast for at least a week or two during the holidays. I do miss the evergreen smell, but I can get a candle to reproduce that fragrance. Maybe that's a symptom of what has become my attitude at this time of year. I only feel pressure of the rush,...to get our decorations up, to make plans about when we will be at my parents house and Amy's parents house,...to find just the right gift for all those on my list,....to balance make sure of the funds in the bank, not only to fund Christmas but to pay property taxes before the end of the year, so we get the tax write off, so that it will help fund Holden's tuition next year in hopes that, along with my bonus, check, if it comes on time, will be enough. So you see,...behind my calm demeanor of "laid backness" this is the fury,.....so maybe what's really inside is cracking the facade. Maybe my joy of the seasonal decorations has been robbed by seeing it as just another facade,....that is almost like the passing smile of a stranger,...it's sweet and kind and causes a brief moment of joy and inspiration that the world is maybe not so bad, but then creeps in the doubts, was it real, was it just an involuntary reaction, does it really mean that the world is good and not bad? I do love the idea behind Christmas, that God did send His One and Only child to our rescue,....but I have lost the ability to connect that with all of the trappings of the holiday season. It was so much easier when Holden was small and believed in Santa,....which is really not connected to the reason for the season. I should go see the new Christmas Carol animated movie today to possibly wake me up to a new vision of the holiday,.....that the season is really not about me and all my worries,....that though they are here every single day,....that there is something GREATER THAN me and my difficulties to celebrate.

To be informed or not to be informed,...


I think it was Lincoln who said that a house divided cannot stand,....or was that someone in the Bible? It's almost the same,....I don't think Lincoln said anything that was stupid,...nothing on record, at least. No matter, the words are wise.

At this juncture, our nation seems divided. Sometimes it seems minimal, other times it seems like an impassable gulf between the two sides of conservatives and liberals. Recently, the gap has widened to a point that's almost scarey. It's reminiscent of that division over state's rights vs. federal rights.

"My way or the highway-ism" seems to be ramping up again on both sides of the aisle,...which is totally unAmerican. "Compromise" is a word of which our nation seems to have forgotten the definition,...much less has the ability to implement. Yet in the history of our union, Compromise was one vital thing our nation was built upon. It's not a dirty word for weaklings, and right now it needs to be brushed off and placed back in its rightful place in our American Patriotic Vocabulary.

Obama is supposed to speak to school children this week. There are some parents planning to keep their kids out of school because they don't want them to hear Obama's propaganda. Certainly they have a right to do that,...but is exercising that right, RIGHT or WRONG?

I can't remember a time when I believed that something a politician, not to mention The President, would say would effect my son negatively. Even if I didn't agree with what the President was saying,...that my son would listen to him in the first place would say to me that he was desiring and willing to be involved in the process, and listening to the speech would give him a crucial tool to be involved in the process,...information. This tool would allow him to discuss intelligently the ideas mentioned and formulate and express his own individual opinions about the content of the speech. It would not require that he agree with the President, but just listen. Become informed. Had I not allowed him to hear the speech or had he NOT actively listened, then he would be less equipped to be involved. I would rather him listen and be involved.

ACTIVE LISTENING by kids is always questionable. Though they may seem to be listening, may not be. Certainly they can surprise us at times with what they hear and retain and regurgitate, but if a man in a suit is giving a speech,....chances are our kids attention is only half there, at best. If it's a speech by someone with whom they identify(kids usually don't identify with the President, see them as cool),...then they are more apt to be actively listening. Now, if the political message is put into the lyrics of a Pearl Jam song, then we could count on them being nigh totally tuned in.

What do we think the subject matter of Obama's speech will be? Something detrimental to our children's well being? Will it be some mind controlling message about becoming pro abortion or supporting gay marriage or, God forbid, becoming a Democrat? Probably not.

Aside from the content, are Obama's persuasion skills THAT powerful? Is he that slick of an orator that he could command the complete attention of school children of all ages across the nation for whatever length of time he chooses to speak? People, he's good, but he ain't that good. If he can hold their attention and get his message across, then, he is definitely the best leader our nation has seen. Again, his countenence commands a certain amount of attention, but is nothing that special that would prohibit the eyes of our kids from glazing over after about 5 minutes.

I guess the scarey part of all this for me is that some of these people making these statements and threats about removing their children from school next week seem as though they won't acknowledge Obama as the elected leader of our nation. They seem to see him as only the mouthpiece of liberal Americans, whom they see as wayward Americans, since they don't see eye to eye with them on every issue or the most critical. Some wish to believe O to be the source of all of our nation's problems. The guy who has been in office less than a year is the creator and is liable for our nation's predicament more than the guy who was in office for the past 8 years? That just doesn't logically calculate for me. And seems a revisionist history at best.

Did anyone think about removing their child from the room when George H. W. addressed school children in 1991? I never thought once about prohibiting my son from listening to W., whom I didn't see eye to eye with on many things, was speaking. I had the right,...but never exercised the right, because I thought it would be wrong to not allow him the right to listen for himself, to process the information so that he could think and intelligently discuss and come to his own personal decision of whether the President was right or wrong. To be informed is right, to NOT be informed, is WRONG.

Cats World

So last week, in preparation for hitting the gym this week, I walked ar

ound the neighborhood.  It was great, serving a few purposes,...it allowed me to clear my head before the day, pray, observe some nice trees, plants, landscaping and lots of cats.

I don't know if my cats have heightened my awareness of other cats, but there seem to be a lot in my approximately one mile course which I kind of plotted on the fly.  Obviously cats, quite different from the dogs who smell me 2 blocks over and begin their alarm/alert routine, look at me with a "what the hell are you doing on my street?" look and most of the time never speak.

Cats quietly stare, keeping an eye on me until I am out of sight. Dogs seem to want broadcast an alert for the cavalry to come get me,....cats seem to be gathering information about me so they can call in a hit on me in the night, under the cloak of darkness. Or they could just be wishing that I would stop obstructing their view and move out from the front of their big picture window television set.

I speak to some of the cats on my route, but they rarely reciprocate. If I approach them they usually run.  But if they ran out to greet me, I would probably run. That hasn't happened, most likely will not either.

Whether they are viewing the world from the window sill or from an old metal lawn chair under the live oak, my glimpse of the neighborhood cats makes my blood pressure drop just to see their beauty, and their aloof attitudes toward their surrounding domain.  I wish I had just a touch of their attitude/character to display in my world.

Sudoku Psymon

So I have just started doing Sudoku. When I initially saw Sudoku, I immediately thought: Numbers, NO. Just as fast as you say those two words, I thought them and turned my attention to something else. I would say, I just don't do anything having to do with numbers,...that's not fun, that's work. I could as easily balance my checkbook and have just as much fun(I say no as quickly to that activity and rely on the internet to keep me updated through my online account).

I was asking my colleague in the office next to me about her opinion regarding the Jumble puzzle,...words I can do,...numbers, no. She then said she doesn't do words, but does Sudoku, but she actually said that she does SuDUKO. I asked, you mean SuDOKU,...and she looked at it and said,..I can't believe I have been pronoucing it wrong for this long. I said it's not a big deal, so I began calling it what she had, SuDUKO,...she said NO, you have to pronounce it correctly or I will never say it the right way. Anyway, she gave me the basics of Sudoku and I began playing.
Well, just in the past two weeks, I have attempted the puzzles every day. some I have completed successfully, some I have come near to completing only to find two identical numbers on one line,....and that's a BIG no no. That means something's wrong. That means if one number is wrong then many others are potentially wrong. That means that I pull my middle finger behind where my thumb joins my hand and quickly release it,...thumping a huge hole in the Sudoku puzzle. It's finished, I am finished. I will try again tomorrow.

On recent Saturdays, while my family has been away, I get up early and do the Sudoku or get my yard work done because it's going to be unbearably hot later in the day. This Saturday, I brew some coffee, grab the bag of shortbread that you may read about below, a pencil and begin to work the Sudoku puzzle on the kitchen table,...our ONLY table. I only get a few answers on paper, it really takes some figuring with some puzzles, most puzzles. If there were adding and subtracting involved, I would NOT be working these things, but it's all about patterns and that kind of challenges me. Early in the puzzle, deep into figuring what numbers I can fill in and the numbers I have to place in the upper left corner as possibilities, our male cat, Psymon, jumps up on the table(not supposed to be there, per Amy, but both cats know I am a pushover in that regard). He makes a pass purring, switching his tail, rubbing against my head that's down concentrating on the puzzle. Psymon makes another pass going the other direction. On his third pass, Psymon gets as close as possible to my pencil in the middle of writing a recent found discovered permanent number on the paper and my head, facing downward in concentration, and he parks his rump right on the paper and the Sudoku upon which I am focused. I gently pull it out from under him or shove him away(gently) and begin concentrating again. Psymon begins his same process again by passing by twice, switching tail and purring and again sits right in the middle of the section of newspaper upon which I am working. Worst of all, he doesn't even help with the answers, but sits as close as possible hoping that his fur that's rubbing off may provide some inspiration or correct answers. I have kind of figured that Sudoku Psymon is working on his own puzzle. And he has solved it rather quickly. His quandry is how to get me to pay attention to him. He has found a good solution that works every time.

Shortbread Cookie Time!

I have not a scratch of food in this house. Family out of town, so I decided to have a little experiment,...see how long I could go without going to the grocery store. We have none of the stuff we usually have in the house to grab and eat quickly, which may be a great thing,...but not even fruit. I love fruit, especially apples. I honestly think an apple a day keeps the doctor away. At least I feel much better about myself when I am eating apples daily.

Last night at 11 PM I am craving some kind of sweets, so I look at two recipes, for sugar cookies and shortbread. My intention is to make sugar cookie dough and for none of them to make it to the oven,...but taking a slight detour to the refridge where they will cool off and acquire enough density to go under the knife and then into my mouth. Well, I check the recipe and it calls for an egg, guess what,....no eggs in the house,...I would have to nullify my experiment by going to the grocery for eggs, if I made them. I had breezed by the shortbread recipe, remembering it for possible future use,...and it came in handy. I had a little milk left in the fridge, but the recipe didn't call for it. I checked it out anyway, good thing the recipe didn't call for it,...I almost puked due to the smell and am struggling right now with just a fond memory. Poured that out in the sink and washed it down thoroughly. Thought about pouring someone's cologne down as a chaser,...it wasn't mine,...but I decided water would do an adequate job, with time.

Well I read the ingridients and saw that I had everything needed to make the recipe. 2 sticks of butter, check, 2 and a half cups of all purpose flour, check, 1 cup of corn starch, check, 1 cup of powdered sugar, check. Tossed it all in a bowl,...then read that I was supposed to put the butter and sugar in first and use electric beater to whip that to a creamy consistency,...oops,..so Greg improvises, determined to make this work. I got a big potato masher out and started muscling all that stuff into a mixture. After about 15 minutes of struggling, I looked for the electric beater,...found it, couldn't find the beaters. Said some choice words and went back to the potato masher. After 15 more minutes, decided to use the best mixer known to mankind,...hands. It was a nice texture,...like really dry play dough,...it was moist, yet brittle. After mixing it up a little more, decided to preheat the oven and put this mistake to the test.

Got out the cookie sheet with edges,...dumped the contents of the bowl on the metal sheet and began forming it and mashing it down,...trying to get it to a thickness that I know shortbread that I have bought has normally. After I was please with the look and the thickness, I put it in the oven.

The recipe said leave it in until golden brown. Almost immediately, this incredible smell filled the house. I thought, damn, did I cause that incredible baking smell with what I put on that cookie sheet? Wow! I had not even tasted my wares, but was already shockingly impressed that the smell was in keeping with something that should taste pretty good.

300 degrees was what the oven was set on and the recipe said it should stay in 25 to 30 minutes. I kept a close watch on the clock,...senseless to come this far and burn the product. I went over at 15 minutes, no golden brown showing yet,...went over at 25 minutes, it still looked the same! Left it in for 15 more minutes,...well, just beginning to see the edges brown a little. Decided that maybe it was just too thick and needed more time,...decided to leave it in 15 more minutes, which would mean it stayed in the oven a total of one hour.

It looked good coming out of the oven. Got the pizza cutter and began cutting the slab of shortbread into reasonably sized cookies,...not perfect, but tried to stay near to the size of the previously cut cookies. I was also pleased with the way the pizza cutter went through the shortbread slab. No breaking or crumbling,...great. I was kind of afraid extreme crumbling would occur, but thank goodness it did not. So, I immediately picked up a small outer piece, tossed it in my mouth and immediately began juggling it with my tongue, trying not to spit it out, because in my haste to taste, I failed to remember that it had just been removed from a 300 degree oven where it had been for one hour and was still able to sear the flesh on my tongue or the hide on the roof of my mouth. I have kind of perfected juggling hot food with my tongue because of my overly anxious nature to sample my cooking as soon as possible, so with that skill, I escaped injury.

Wow, it was not bad and was actually good. It seemed akin in a variety of ways, to other shortbreads that I had eaten, flavor being the most essential. Density was good, consistency of the cookie, the way it broke apart in my mouth were all signs that my latest cooking project had been a success.

Hopefully there will be no delayed signs of a bad batch, because right now, I think I did a good job. Just don't want to be doubled over tonight in excruciating pain as the shortbread makes it's way through the normal paths the rest of the food I eat traverses. So from a tall guy, try the short bread recipe. Easily impress those who know you don't usually cook.

Shooting Range

I had good intentions of going to the gym after dropping my son off for his youth group trip. I was dressed and ready to go straight from the drop point. Only thing was, I am weak when it comes to early morning interruptions of intended plans when the interruption includes breakfast with a friend and the original plan included running. So I easily opted out of exercise for breakfast. After all it is the most important meal of the day. So at the restaurant I gave the appearance that I had been involved in some positive physical activities, but alas, it was a mere facade.

I enjoyed eating and chatting with a friend from work and his son. In the conversation over breakfast the topic of guns was broached. And it was decided that we would head to the indoor shooting range after breakfast was wrapped up,...not leftovers, I mean just finished, completed. My friend and his son stopped to get ammo, so I went home to change OUT of my athletic attire, though I would have been fine, just athletic looking.

I met them at the range and they were signing in and choosing a pistol to rent to shoot. They chose a Sig 226 9mm. I had only shot a 38 but had seen my Dad shoot his 357 magnum, both were loud, the overwhelming wall of sound alone seemed effective protection. We had ear plugs that were foam which you roll between your pointer and thumb to make smaller so they will fit in your ear canal, then expand to fill the canal and block the sound,...worked well, but you must just leave them alone,..if you touch them they will shrink and have to expand again, and the noise of people in other lanes firing their weapons reverberates in the enclosed room seemingly magnifying it. I was a little jumpy as it was, with muffled sound, but if the plug had not fully expanded, leaving a space in which sound could travel, then it increase the possibility of me not having to wait to go the the bathroom.

My shooting seemed to be up and to the left, so if I aimed down right, I would hit the center of the target. There was a little recoil, the pistol held 15 bullets in the clip and it fired easily and rapidly if you needed. We asked about the safety and one of the cowboy looking clerks said there's no such thing as a safety. He said people who use a safety are using it as a substitute for THINKING. I see the point, but I would still want a safety for people who should not EVEN be THINKING about shooting a weapon and who might not be able to figure out a needless crutch like a safety.

I was a little frightened by being this close to something that could kill me, but at the same time, it was kind of a rush. The range sold Osama bin Laden silhouettes, and so my friend bought three. He sent Osama down the lane on the zip line to about 9 feet. Brian said that most crimes happen within 9 feet, don't know how he hears this information, but it sounded good to me and I ain't looking it up. Osama was carrying what looked to be an AK47, so in real life, our aim had better be good from the first shot. Brian did knock him right out with the first shot to the skull. We were safe. All troops can come home. We can stop looking for him in Pakistan too. We not only found Osama on American soil, but found him conveniently in our lane at the gun range and we quickly took him out of commission. Can't wait for the fake reward money.

Well, having fought our imaginary war on terror, and emptied many a cartridges of 9mm ammo, and done it all in the air conditioned confines of an indoor shooting range, having accomplished so much, I felt it was time to take a nap, so I headed back to my military compound for a little siesta after a new experience.