Me 'n the boyz........

Rusty had a traumatic day yesterday....
starting at midnite when he got too close to a skunk which got him locked out of the bedroom.....then, I left them both at home when I went to Kellye’s.....only partly becuz of the odor.....he & Willy have found mud at Kellye’s and it’s too much trubble early in the morn to hose ‘em off.....besides which, Willy is short and the mud gets up to his belly.....finally, yesterday afternoon, I gave Rusty a bath which pretty much took care of the odor but seemed to traumatize him futher.....I must’a hurt his leg ‘cuz he gimped around the rest of the evening and into this morning....Pore soul.....it’s hard to explain to a dog why he’s being pushed aside.....I mean, he duzn’t understand the ‘hull skunk odor thing in the 1st place.....
Nuthin’ new on the political front.....Obama’s still the annointed one....’sfunny, I don’t profess to understand why people believe he’s a Muslim just becuz’ he’s got a Muslim name......’Course, I also don’t understand why other people see him a candidate for change and why that’s s’pozed to be a good thing..if age teaches anything, it's that change for the sake of change is dumb.....His platitudinal speeches remind me of high school valedictories .... I don’t think there’s any there, there!......’n I don’t understand why anyone capable of tho’t would want him as President.....I mean, I don’t like Hillary....Heck! I don’t like either one of the Clintons but, I c’n understand why a lot of people do like them....I saw Hillary sipping on a beer and doing a little dance...so what? I bet a ‘burger ‘n beer with Bill ‘ud be fun....I wudn’t believe anything he said, but it ‘ud be fun....
On that proverbial other hand that I’m so fond of, ‘burgers ‘n beer are always better than wine ‘n caviar.
Well, in my world anyway......Justin Other Smith
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Midnite encounter.........

T’is the middle of the nite.....Rusty wants out......not unusual so I get up and Willy and I accompany the intrepid poodle out the door.....but wait.....sumthing lurks in the dark.......No! Yes! It’s a (GASP)........SKUNK!....../
So, here I are at three minutes after midnite.......Poor Willy didn’t get close.....well, not too close.....and I ain’t ‘zackly sure that Rusty akshully got a direct hit.....on t’other hand, we weren’t twenty feet from the side door so the skunk smell is with us......I think the dogs are gonna have to be locked out of the bedroom, at least for the nite.......Millyrose just walked thru the room, put a hand on a hip and said, “I think he got him.” And disappeared into the bedroom, closing the door behind her......it's maybe gonna be a long nite.....Justin Other Smith

'N the allternative is........

"I yam what I yam" Popeye
“I reminisce about the days of old with that old time rock ‘n roll........” Bob Seger
Back in the ‘way back when’ time, life seemed so much simpler....In the here ‘n now, life is sooooo complicated....
I wuz talkin’ to an old friend who complained that he wuz just sittin’ around gettin’ fatter, that he cudn’t do what he used to do an’ didn’t p’tickly want to do what he was able to do t’day.....seems he never planned on living so long.......I had to agree with him as I never, ever pictured myself as growing old.......I knew that aging is inevitable, a part of the process of life.....but, what you know intellectually doesn’t always compute emotionally...
When you’re young, you’re young forever.....it’s hard to look ahead and your only reference about what’s to come is what has been and there ain’t that much what has been behind you......, at least, near as I c’n figure out, what I’m saying is that foresight is based on hindsight....

Keep your ear to the ground, your nose to the grindstone and your eye on the prize....win, lose, or draw, you’re gonna be uncomfortable. Justin Other Smith

Fortyniners........

Well, Millyrose and I are ‘fortyniners now.....Oh! Not the kind that trekked out here in search of gold...Nah! We’re the real deal t’day.......Married for fortynine years.....HAPPY ANNIVERSARY US........

What do the simple folk do?.......

Is Obama leading or being led; is a trip down the garden path anything like stepping thru the looking glass;.........

“What do the simple folk do,
to help them escape when they’re blue?” Lerner & Loew

Obama was at a Chrysler plant, appealing to the simple folk when he was asked a question by one of those snotty news persons, y’know the type.....big hair, microphone in your face.......just another pushy female, y’know what I mean......
”How are you going to save their jobs?” she asked.
“Hold on, Sweetie......” said Barack to the blonde newswoman.....who later stated, and I quote........
“This Sweetie never did get her question answered.”

I’ve never been wha’cha might call a big fan of Geo Bush, but y’can’t blame him for ever’thing....even a stopped clock is right twice a day....He made a speech in Israel t’other day where he referred to Hitler and Neville Chamberlain, and said that appeasement doesn’t work. Becuz...(surprise-surprise)... you can’t really trust the bad guys. Most of us simple folk learn that in Grade School but Obama supporters immediately cried “FOUL!”.....as did several bigtime Democrat politicians.....Pelosi, Reid, the baleful Kerry,......Even Hillary took a shot but a very quiet one given the howls of anguish emitted by her colleagues...
Ain’t it funny how Hillary turned into a (gasp) conservative......I wuz tryin’ to figger out how she got that way......I mean, according to true conservatives, John McCain ain’t....and Hillary is way to the left of him....
I’m thinkin’ that the Liberal Elite of the Democrat Party must be in a parallel universe if they actually believe that most people in this country are like a flock of sheep blinded by the Guiding Light of Liberalism and just waiting t’be sheared......
On the ‘that was then, this is now’ front, if you’ve been watching NBC (no news is good news).....Ya just gotta wonder what’s going on in the collective mind in the ivory tower.....
Brian Williams, whose credentials far outweigh his performance, seems to have bought into the Obama (annointed by God and NBC......) Camp, and that’s just sad...I’ve been watching NBC news for ‘most as long as I c’n remember and f’r the life o’ me, I can’t recall any previous anchors being so wimpy....I mean, anyone who gets to be the boss anchor on NBC just has to have an ego so large that they wudn’t take guff from anyone....
I read a columnist who said, “this election will prove how smart, or dumb, American voters are.” ‘Course, almost ever’ newspaper columnist in the ‘hull country thinks that means ‘smart’ Americans will cast their vote for the very first African American to run for the office of the President. Only problem is, Obama ain’t the first African American to run......and given the genetic makeup of this diverse country of ours, it’s entirely possible that at least one of our former Prez’s has had a modicum of ‘colored’ blood, least that’s what the ubiquitous ‘they’ used to call it....I dunno if it wuz ever a law or not, but they used to say that it only took one drop of Negro blood to classify a person as a Negro. The Broadway musical, ‘Showboat’ had a character who commingled his blood with that of his mix’t race wife and wuz declared Negro and had his ‘white’ rights taken away.....wudn’t surprise me if there weren’t some people who still think that way....America, the United States of, at any rate, ain’t such an old county but we’ve done a lot of very dumb things in our short history......God willin’ an’ the crick don’t rise, we’ll do a lot more....... ‘Course, in the here and now, Obama seems to be a thoroughly nice fellow.....smart and personable, ambitious and upwardly mobile....a pleasant kind ‘a guy.....can’t bowl, but what the heck? Neither c’n I.....

Would'ja?.......

"Picture yourself in a boat on a river, with tangerine trees and marmalade skies......"
If you had the chance to do it all over again, would’ja?
I mean, if you c’d do it over, maybe erase some of those itty-bitty little mistakes that’cha made......would’ja?
Maybe make just some minor changes so that you wouldn’t have to relive some of those more embarrassing moments......would’ja?
If life came with do-overs? How many do-overs would you like to have? How many would you need?
‘Cause if you made changes, would you still end up in the same place? Would you even want to end up in the same place?
If you made the changes and ended up in a different place, would you like the chance to maybe live that life over? Would’ja?
Prob’ly a good thing that life don’t come with do-overs...
we’d be tripping over ourselves all the time, criss-crossing time, so to speak, changing our lives to make us better....better looking, more heroic, more successful, richer, thinner......Why, we could change our lives so much that we’d probably be somebody different altogether.....or p’haps......that’s what life is........maybe? What d’ya think?

A bold new concept........

“to boldly go where no man has gone before....”Gene Roddenberry

I’ve been attempting to spend myself out of debt but it doesn’t seem to be working. I’ve contacted the prospective employers of my children and explained that I need an advance on their future wages in order to balance my deficit budget but none of them seem willing to cooperate.
I figure I must be doing something wrong because the concept of a deficit budget seems to work so well for our Legislators. Perhaps one of them could take the time to sit down with me and point out just where I’m going wrong. Maybe we could co-author a bill that would force all the prospective employers of my children (and maybe my grandchildren) to each contribute a small amount to help reduce my personal deficit.
I’m sure that if every working person could balance their personal budgets in this fashion, none of us would complain about paying increased taxes.
Justin Other Smith

“TRUTH AND THE AMERICAN WAY”.....

“Truth is mighty and will prevail. There is nothing the matter with this, except that it ain’t so.” Mark Twain
The problem with lying, even when you’re very good at it, is that when you least expect it, it’ll sneak up on you and bite you in the butt.
I’ve found that truth is ever best, unless you’re a politician, in which case, none of the rules applay. Politicians don’t lie. They ‘mis-speak’ and adjust the facts accordingly. For the rest of us, we start out lying and learn that without the proper education, lying is very difficult. For one thing, it’s hard to keep track of all the lies you tell and sooner or later, you’re gonna get caught. And when you can’t lie your way out of whatever mess you’ve created, why you just throw yourself on the mercy of the court. And for reg’lar folk, there’s darn little mercy. It’s just easier to tell the truth. You don’t ever have to apologize for tellin’ the truth and you never have to tell another truth to cover up for the first truth you told.
You can be too blunt tho’.....You need to be careful about that. Kids often blurt out uncomfortable and embarrassing truths. By the time you’ve grown up, you’re s’pozed to have learned a modicum of diplomacy in dealing with the truth cringe.
Diplomacy is an interesting word, whatc’ha might call a ten dollar word for liar. Most people are just garden-variety liars. They generally learn to lie at home, then by the time they get to kindergarten and grade school, they learn how to do it better. Heck! that’s what schools and colleges, them institutions of higher knowledge, are for.
It ain’t an accident that the most skillful diplomats come from the most prestigious universities, where the elite meet to hone their skills. You got to hone a knife blade to make it sharp and you got to hone your skills as a liar if you want to be a leader of people. These bastions of intellectual wisdom put such a fine edge on these future leaders that the average person will never quite understand what they say. They’re diplomats.
“It’s another fine mess you’ve got us into.” Oliver Hardy

Comfort food........

People talk a lot about food. Well, people talk a lot about ‘most anything but food seems to be a favorite with just about everyone. There’s a lot of diversity in this country of ours so naturally there’s a lot of diversity in food......at least, the food people talk about...
In the southwest, ya get a lot of talk about chiles, whether they’re hot or not, how healthy they are for you and whether they’re a miracle cure for what ails you...
Like olive oil....olives are a miracle food for much of the world, at least that's what the magazines say....
Ya got your rice and beans.....your curds and whey....you got cow and sheep and pig and chicken...you got fish and shellfish and even kelp.....you got grains and brains and a little bit of ever'thing.....’cause people are omnivorous....we'll eat anything and everything......
And in this country, we got regional food.....we got yankee food and southern food.....we got nor’easter food and, I guess, sou’wester food.....and the twain meets all the time....every region itself gets subdivided.....like TexMex and CalMex and if the shoe fits, we'd prob'ly eat that too......
Now, I’m a Kentucky boy myself.....I grew up on po'k chops and fried chicken, on biscuits and gravy and cornbread and beans.....
Did j’a ever wonder what went into the making of ‘good’ cornbread......Oh, I know that what a body thinks is good food has more to do with how they wuz raised than anything else...and if y’all wuz raised on Yankee Johnnycake, well I’m just that sorry for you ‘cause you’re prob’ly never gonna appreciate southern cornbread.....and if you’re just young, if that’s what your problem is, why they ain’t a ‘hull lot c’n be done about that either.....Heck! There’s only two cures for youth.....one is to get older and the other is....well, let’s just say it’s drastic......Sum problems just can’t be fixed with a dish of soupbeans and cornbread.....it’s like having a slice of cornbread without butter....it ain’t natural.....I’ve had people actually swear to me that margarine is not only better for you than butter, but that it tastes better also......You just gotta feel sorry for people like that....in the first place, butter is made by cows, not chemists...that fact alone should be enuff...
And I’ve had people that grew up in ‘corn’ country, y’know, like Ioway and Illinois, where the corn grows as high as an elephant’s eye....I’ve met a lot of those people that really believe that ‘field’ corn is as fit for people as it is for animals.....you’d think they never heard of sweet corn...and there ain’t many things in this old world that taste better than an ear of sweet corn, slathered with real butter and a little salt.....and that’s a fact....now, you know it is........it’s like a peach, fresh and ripe, right off the tree....there ain’t much that c’n compare with that...
But, I digress......I started out to tell about cornbread...
good ol baked in an iron skillet cornbread.....you got to have that skillet poppin’ hot with grease when you put your batter in so’s it’ll get nice and crispy brown while it’s bakin’......’n you got to use white cornmeal ‘cause the yellow has too strong a taste.....’n you c’n put just a little bit of flour, if you want...keep it from being too crumbly...You need an egg and a touch of salt and buttermilk.....if you ain’t got buttermilk and you just gotta have cornbread, why you c’n sour up some sweet milk with a little vinegar but it ain’t really the same.... Cornbread and biscuits are what’cha call ‘quick breads’ because it don’t take very long to make ‘em.....Heck! You even got biscuits in paper cans (don’t that make a lot of sense) for the truly lazy....’n I s’pect you c’n find frozen biscuits if you look...that’s just sad. Now, any fool that c’n read c’n follow a recipe and make themselves some cornbread but, biscuits are a different story....recipes for biscuits are easy to come by but that don’t mean that just anyone c’n make biscuits.....Nosirreebob......it takes the soul of an artist to make ‘gooooood’ biscuits.....If you ever watched the Andy Griffith show, you understand the difference between good and gooood....... My Momma made good biscuits but my Aunt ‘Billie, God rest her, was an artist.....she used to serve her biscuits under a netting...you just had to lift it ‘n the biscuit would float up to meet your mouth......and that's a fact!
Justin Other Smith

Faith of Our Fathers......

a short commentary by Justin Other Smith
(maybe a little on the heavy side)

As a young man, I was taught that faith can move mountains, and over the years I’ve learned that faith, plus the indomitable human spirit and a few tricks of technology really can work miracles. We can move mountains. And conquer the oceans and fly a space ship to the moon and beyond.
But in the process of expanding boundaries, technology has also created greater barriers than any mountain or sea. The gulf between the haves and the have-nots is greater than the Great Wall of China, wider than the widest ocean, higher than the highest mountain, more difficult to bridge than outer space.
While the world hasn’t actually grown smaller, technology has made it seem so. From our living rooms, we can see starvation in Africa, floods in China, earthquakes in the Mideast and war and murder in every corner of the world. From the rain-forests of the equator to the frozen poles, we are witness to places and people on an unprecedented scale in human history.
The technology that has given man the power to create miracles has given rise to a new faith in self. Cast in God’s image, we have become Godlike, assuming dominion not only over all the fish and fowl and beasts of the earth but over nature as well, bent on tweaking God’s handiwork, creating an even more perfect Eden.
The winds of change are blowing in a new world order and the unknown both titillates and frightens us. Human life is a paradox. We search always for new ideas, new ways of doing things. We seek to explore the unknown in this world and others. Yet, the more things change, the more we want them to stay the same. “Better the devil that we know,” we say, as we hold on to the familiar with all our might.
We are curious about other peoples and cultures, intrigued with the exotic, the fascinating sights, sounds, and scents of all those faraway places. But we seem to prefer them as tourist attractions. In living technicolor, as it were. And of course, all those peoples and cultures are just as curious as we. And just as standoffish.
In the beginning, we are told, there was a void and God created the heavens and the earth and humanity or vice versa. Perhaps that’s why we keep asking which came first, the chicken or the egg.
Whether you believe the children's version of Creation or the adult tale of Evolution doesn’t matter. When Adam was created out of the primordial ooze, God was there. He’s always been there, always been the hope of mankind. But, we’re taught to be suspicious of things that come too easily. If it seems to good to be true, then it must be false. Nothing good comes without a price. All our belief systems tell us that salvation must have a higher price than simply believing. Caveat Emptor and all that.
And so wary mankind invented religion. Or should I say, religions, because, amoeba-like, once religion came to be, it began to split and multiply. A multitude of religions. A veritable plethora of Gods. A ritualized system of sacrifice and reward leading humanity down the garden path to salvation. And every religion believed that their path was the right path. The “My God is bigger than your God” path.
And they all set out to prove that theirs was the true path to God and Salvation. And the good life here on earth. Like the farmer who doesn’t want to own all the land in the world, just that which borders his property, so the missionaries fanned out around the world, sword and shield, fire and brimstone, saving souls, no matter how many died in the process. Jihad, Intifada, Crusade, Inquisition. Repent and be saved! Convert and live! Accept on faith the holy word of God! Or else!
Except, according to the scriptures, God has given us free will and free will has given us doubt. Doubt has given us religion and every religion has a holy book that contain the scriptures that are the inspired words of God, and which provides us with a road map, the one true path to salvation. And we’re told that the book and the map have been provided by God and we should accept on faith everything contained therein. Methuselah lived 900 years. Jonah was swallowed by a great fish. And regurgitated to tell about it. So was Pinocchio, but that’s another story. It’s nice to have all the answers. Rather like the lawyer who doesn’t need to know the difference between right and wrong so long as he knows which book to look in to find a precedent to support his allegation of the moment. If we believe, the way is clear. Faith is the answer to every question.
The teaching of faith as the means of getting to salvation is common to almost every religion. The road to Heaven is an obscure and rocky path full of obstacles and the way is clear if only you have faith. Faith is the beacon that lights the way, that eliminates the potholes and dead ends and turns the path into a superhighway that runs straight and true.
And if you drive a horse that is easily distracted by events around him, you simply attach blinders to the harness so that only the forward view is unimpeded and the horse will then plod forward undistracted. Religion is often the blinder for humans allowing for an undistracted route to the promised land.
We can worship at the altar of our desire, be it Muslim, Christian, Hindi, Buddhist, or Wicca. We may be Atheist, Agnostic, or Animist. Or whatever else we’ve been able to come up with in our benighted past or what might develop in the future. We have only to believe in what we’ve been taught. And, as we believe, so shall it be.
Assuming, of course, that our particular religion is the only path to salvation and all the other religions are misguided and their practitioners have chosen the wrong road, the road to perdition. And of course, it’s our duty, our sacred cause, to show them the error of their ways and point the unbelievers, the misguided, on the one true path to everlasting salvation. Even at the point of a sword. Or, an atomic warhead.
Which, of course, leads to a quandary for the simple reason that every religion of humankind assumes that they are the one and only highway to Heaven and that all around the world, every culture has their own holy book, the inspired words of ......

God or Allah or Manitou.
Henry, Hank, or maybe Sue.
In a pinch, I suppose,
Just about any old name’ll do.

The eminently quotable Wm. Shakespeare said,“A rose by any name would smell as sweet.” We have free will, and If we want to suffer for our faith, that’s all right with God. And if it’s okay with God, it should be okay for all of us.
But....., since we’re all different people with different languages, it only stands to reason that we all have different names for God. How do we know who is right and who is wrong? Or are they all the same, a rose by any name? Who gets to go to Heaven and who has to go to Hell? Do all roads lead to Rome? Do all dogs go to Heaven?
Or is Heaven exclusionary? Well, of course it is. At least, that’s what every major religion in the world teaches. That only good people get to go to Heaven while bad people have to go to Hell. Santa Claus knows who’s naughty or nice but the rest of us seem to be pretty confused. The Christian Bible says, “Judge not, lest thou be judged” but the Christian leadership seems very judgmental. So too, does Islam and Judaism, and probably all the other religions also.
Makes you wonder, is there a Christian Heaven, a Jewish Heaven, a Muslim Heaven? How about a Heathen Heaven? Does God exclude all those people that seem never to have heard of Him? Or are they considered among the ‘innocents’ who have a free pass?
Since the Jews are considered God’s Chosen People, where do they go? A good friend of mine, a sometime, part-time preacher of the Christian gospel assures me in all sincerity that God has reserved a place for His Chosen People. Is Heaven ghettoized, segregated? Where do you put the Brit’s as opposed to, well, almost everyone else?
These may seem to be trivial questions to those whose faith is super-strong, to those who live a life without doubt, but what about the doubting Thomas’ among us, the millions, perhaps billions of people who are riddled with doubt about almost everything from belief in an unseen deity to whether organic food is really and truly organic or just a marketing ploy?
And what about the great archaeology find purporting to be the coffin of Jesus’ brother, James, offered up as proof of the existence of Jesus?
I don’t know about you, but I’ve never doubted the existence of Jesus. Call it the brainwashing experience of modern education or whatever, but I believe that a man called Jesus walked the earth. As a matter of fact, I’m pretty sure that Jews and Moslems also believe that was true. I don’t think whether or not Jesus lived was ever a question.
The divinity of Jesus, however, has been questioned since he prowled the landscape of Judea claiming to be the son of God. But since Jesus supposedly spoke in parables a good bit of the time, was he saying that he, alone, was the son of God or that we are all the children of God?
Was he perhaps speaking of a brotherhood of humanity; that the Colonel’s lady and Rosie O’Grady are sisters under the skin, that our differences are simply cultural?
Are the religions of mankind all water drawn from the same well but using different containers?
In the brotherhood of man, our differences draw us together while our similarities push us apart. And one of the things we hold in common is our hunger for mortal salvation and our attempts to cheat death through faith in religion and that basic tenet of civilization, our universal faith in God the Creator, seems often to be the biggest obstacle to brotherhood.
The simple facts seem to be that we are born, we struggle to live and we die in relative anonymity. Billions of us, and nothing particularly unique about any single one of us.
We’ve spread the world over, fouling our own nests, destroying our own habitat by sheer weight of numbers, strutting in our innate superiority, secure in our belief that we are cast in God’s own image. Like birds of a feather, we flock together in our inherent ignorance of self, indistinguishable one from the other save our plumage.
I have to seriously doubt that we are cast in the image of ‘God’ simply because in all the years that humankind have been the dominant (?) creatures on this earth, no one has ever been able to prove the existence of a Godlike creator.
And I say dominant only because we believe ourselves to be dominant; the disappearing mammals, the whales, bears, etc., probably believe themselves to be dominant. I suspect that ants probably consider themselves to be the dominant creature. And they may be right.
At any rate, the question of whether God invented Man or vice versa may well be moot. If we destroy ourselves, will we not also destroy God?
Factual stuff, self! Like so much of our world. The ocean tides. The change of seasons. The sun and the moon and all that we see and touch and taste and feel. The sum of our knowledge of ourselves, of a totality of ignorance so vast that it’s incomprehensible, an infinity wherein we can find no beginning, no ending, of an acceptance that we can only achieve through faith.
The faith of our fathers, that implicit, inexplicable something that we hold in common with all humanity through all our yesterdays.
That belief which sustained our predecessors, those shivering, naked apes that fought for survival in the vastness of prehistoric earth.
That simplest of answers for the most complex question we can pose ourselves.
Faith!

The Sword and the Crescent.....

When the Arab nations justify the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center as simply retaliation for America’s support of Israel; when the Arab people celebrate this heinous act of terrorism for the television cameras; when they proclaim their hatred for America around the world; it shouldn’t come as a surprise to them that America will strike back.
And the Arab insistence that this is a religious war brought on by Christian determination to destroy Islam is almost criminal stupidity, fostered, I suppose, by their remembrance of the ‘Christian Crusades’ of the 17th Century.
We in America are told ad nauseum that Islam is a religion of peace, that Muslems (or Moslims, take your pick) wish only to coexist peacefully with their neighbors. Every day, we are told that. And every day, we see on television Muslems celebrating the death of innocent Christians and Jews. We see Muslem priests exhorting the faithful to become martyrs to Allah by blowing themselves up and taking as many Christian and Jewish men, women and children with them as possible. This is not my Christian understanding of peaceful coexistence.
America is a land of immigrants; a land where multi-ethnicity is the norm rather than the exception; a land of tolerance and acceptance for all peoples. America is not without fault, of course, but it’s the only country in the history of the world that not only publicly acknowledges those faults but strives to overcome them. America is the greatest nation in the world not because of our prosperity and power but because we are a melting pot of people who, if we are to survive, must coexist in all our diversity.
Of course, America supports Israel. Israel is our friend and ally and has proven it many times. Israel is surrounded by Arab States whose stated aim is the total destruction of a Jewish State and has maintained a policy of terrorism for more than fifty years to achieve that aim. Whatever Israel may have done, right, wrong, or otherwise, was only done in retaliation. All that ever needed to be done to stop the conflict in the middle East was for Arabs to halt their campaign to destroy Israel.
And all that is needed now to stop the conflict in the middle East is for the Arab world to forswear their Jihad against Jews and Christians. America has never been a colonial power and doesn’t seek to become one now. Our population comes from all over the world, from every corner of every nation in the world, and someone in this country has relatives in the ‘old country’ wherever and whatever that old country may be and if our government seeks to overtly exploit any nation, then the American citizen who has relatives in that nation will most certainly complain, and in complaining, find sympathetic ears.
I keep hearing that Islam is a peaceful religion that does not advocate violence but the images on television belie that. When I see Muslims celebrating terrorist acts of violence, the bombing of the Cole and the World Trade Center; when they consider suicide bombers to be martyrs and reward their families for the ‘sacrifice’ of their children, then I think there is indeed a basic difference between Christians and Muslims, indeed between almost every religion in the world and Islam. All the other religions of the world celebrate life and Islam alone is the only one that seems to celebrate death.
Certainly, I can’t imagine any Americans taking to the streets to publicly celebrate the death of Saddam Hussein or bin Laden. They might think it would be a good thing but they wouldn’t celebrate it any more than they would celebrate the execution of any other murderer. But in Muslim countries, the people publicly celebrate the death of an American and they go into an orgiastic frenzy at the death of a Jew.
And we are told that the Muslim world despises us, that if we crush Saddam Hussein, the Muslims will unite against us and Islam will once again sweep the world and destroy all who stand against it.
Wow! The sword and crescent sweeping out of the desert. Or, wait a minute. That was a movie.

Oz or Wonderland?......

And Confucius said, “Remember, wherever you go, there you are.”
And I’m wond’ring.....are we in Oz or Wonderland, or some combination thereof?
John’s in Kansas but there are some high winds blowing so you never know.......
Speaking of high winds blowing: Hillary is crowing after her huge win in West by God Virginia, reciting Yogi Berra’s mantra, “It ain’t over ‘til it’s over.”.....And she’s right. Dick Morris has been saying for weeks that it’s all over for Hillary but the other day he did admit that if the negatory news surrounding Obama had surfaced prior to the Iowa lemming run, he’d be ancient history by now.....instead, like Willy Loman, he’s out there riding on a smile and a shoeshine and doing very well, thank you! But after you’ve made the sale, you must deliver sumthing.....on the proverbial other hand, given the tho’t processes of the liberal elite, that might be enuff.....I think the Democrat party may be so frightened of the ‘Black’ reaction should they nominate Clinton that they’ll go ahead and run Obama in the gen’l election coming.....P’haps the Liberal Elite ‘ud rather have a Republican Prez that they can blame than to take a chance on one of their own.......at any rate, the Republican Presidents that we’ve had lately didn’t ‘zackly win so much as the Democrats lost. Makes a body kind’a wonder why?
Later y’all........Justin Other Smith

On the fringe.......

I’m a Republican and a centrist. I certainly believe that it’s possible to be a Democrat and a centrist altho’ the lunatic fringe seems to be the tail wagging the dog among Democrats. As a centrist, I happen to believe that extremism is dangerous and that moderation should rule the day. “Moderation in all things.” saieth the Sage. Just don’t ask me what sage ‘cuz I dunno....I can’t keep up with all those spices.........
Anyway, I ain’t a believer in fringe politics. I do believe that fringe politicians have their place in society though I’d rather not see ‘em in charge of anything more complex than paper or plastic.........
I figger they’d be kind’a useful the way fence posts are helpful in determining the middle of the road after a fresh snowfall an’ the only thing y’can see is white... If you find yourself veering too much to either side, you’re apt to find yourself stuck and in need of an expensive tow.....
As a Republican centrist, I’m a believer in personal responsibility....If you want to gamble away everything you have, that’s okay with me...just don’t ask me to bail you out when you’re broke.....if you buy a house that you can’t afford and it gets foreclosed....well that’s tough... if you build a house in a floodplain and it gets flooded out.....Hey, don’t ask me to pay for your loss.....If a tornado or hurricane wipes you out, I don’t have a problem with using taxpayers money to help get you back on your feet....if it’s a force of nature, an act of God, a calamitous situation of widespread destruction; that’s one of the reasons that governments exist.
Government is supposed to be of, by, and for the people.
If you think that the government telling you whether you should use paper or plastic to bag your groceries is an infringement on your personal liberty, then you should bring your own bag.
Justin Other Smith

Letter to SacBee......

My Mother used to say, “If you can’t say something nice about someone, you shouldn’t say anything at all.” That’s pretty good advice but I’ve never known anyone to actually abide by it.
I’ve always felt that if you didn’t have anything to say, you probably shouldn’t say it. Of course, I’ve never let that stop me.
The Sacramento Bee is and has always been, a partisan newspaper. The Sacramento Union (the demise of which, I still mourn) was also a partisan newspaper. Nothing wrong with that.
Some of my best friends are Democrats. Heck! Some members of my family are Democrats. And there’s nothing wrong with that.
But when the Sacramento Bee prints an op-ed piece in support of racist bigots like Jeremiah Wright (Wright wasn’t wrong....Bob Schmidt, May 10) they have left the realm of partisan politics and followed the rabbit into Wonderland.
Bigotry and racism is no more palatable from black Americans than from white. Sowers of discord like the Rev.’s (?) Wright and Phelps, Farrakhan and Dukes, should be denounced by the Bee, not given a bully pulpit to spread their evil.
Shame on the Bee. And shame on the McClatchy family.

Judgment call.........

So...one of the dumbest things I’ve heard about this race.....according to Dick Morris, Hillary is trying to throw the race to McCain so that she’ll be able to run again in 2012......Morris is generally pretty bright but this statement of his has to make you wonder about his judgment.........
She’s staggering, she’s against the ropes, but she ain’t down and she’s still throwing punches.....in the lexicon of ‘Ol Blue Eyes, she’s one tough broad and Yogi Berra sed , “It ain’t over ‘til it’s over.”
Morris also sed that Netanyahu would be elected PM of Israel and he’d do a George Bush pre-emptive strike against Iran.....ya gotta remember that Morris was a dirty tricks strategist for Clinton (operative word being ‘was’) and now he’s stumping for Obama...Morris is smart and devious and ya just gotta wonder what his personal agenda might be.......Mark Twain said, “Truth is mighty and will prevail. There is nothing the matter with this, except that it ain’t so.” Now, Mark Twain was what you might call a ‘purty good country liar’.....sort’a like my old man.....Dad told stories, what my darlin’ Millyrose called Kentucky Shine-on’s, and they might or might not have had a grain of truth in them....Dad never said...He just told his stories and left the believing up to his listeners......
I think that Politicians are a lot like that....they’re what you might call......’born diplomats’......It ain’t a lie, it’s just being diplomatic. It’s a skill that some people are born with. It’s honed to a keen edge in our institutions of higher learning and it ain’t an accident that the most skilled politicians come from the most prestigious universities. These bastions of intellectual wisdom have developed diplomacy to such a degree that the average person will never quite understand what the skilled politician has said. For the public to prize this quality says much about the shallowness of our specie. It’s no accident that actors are held in such high esteem in our society.
When I wuz a boy in Kentucky, people used to say about the weather, “If ya don’t like it, wait fifteen minutes & it’ll change.” Kind’a like t’days political polls......if ya don’t like the last poll, give it fifteen minutes........
but enuff politics...at least for awhile.......
Wellllll.....TGIF.....
“Well” said the Duchess, “there’s a moral in every story. You just have to find it.”
Justin Other Smith

And the news is.......

we’re told that the Democratic party is seeing an unprecedented number of young registrants and they’re going to make all the difference in the upcoming Presidential election......That may be so but, the problem as I see it is that the ‘young’ registrants don’t really understand the process......I’m not at all surprised at that....what is somewhat surprising is the fact that so many ‘older’ people who should know better are arguing that Hillary should step down for the good of the party.....and that doesn’t make any sense at all.
The primaries were never intended to choose a candidate.....historically, primaries generally supported someone from a particular State...A ‘favorite son’ or in todays PC speak, maybe ‘favorite person’ is more apropo. In either case, it’s only been in recent years that the process has been co-opted. Historically, candidates have been chosen at their respective conventions. I understand that young voters don’t remember and consequently believe in the one person, one vote idea of democracy should be the rule. But we don’t live in a democracy because democracies don’t really work. For an example, you only need witness the Democratic Primaries that we are presently enduring. Who’da tho’t a simple majority would be so hard to attain? Well, our founding fathers not only thought so, but knew so. And that, boys and girls, (surprise..surprise) is why we live in a republic.
So, for all those people who say that Hillary should quit, I c’n only ask....WHY?.....she hasn’t lost....she just hasn’t won.....and neither has Obama. It’s called, “The Democratic Process’ and it’s doing what it was designed to do........decide on a candidate.
So, it ain’t over ‘til it’s over, the good book do declare,
“Now, Lord, Lordy, Lord, if you can’t help me,
Fo’ goodness sake, don’cha help that bear.”
At any rate, it looks like the Democratic Primary is goin’ down to the wire, neck and neck, Hillary and Obama goin’ toe to toe all the way to the bitter end...maybe the bitter end to the Democratic party as we know it....I can’t figure out if it’s Creationism or Evolution in action. Where’s Darwin when you need him....Justin Other Smith

Brawl & all..........

I wuz just thinkin'......
This’s gotta be the most innarestin’ Presidential Primary in the ‘hull seventy years that I’ve been around this ol world....I believe that Brother JeremiahWright might just have tossed a monkey wrench into Obamas campaign...I ain’t saying that he’s wrecked it...Obama is still ahead, he still has the bulk of the votes already cast & he still has sumthin’ of a headlock on Hillary..... BUT she’s kickin’ & scratchin’ & spittin’ in his eyes & tho’ there’s a lot of looky-loo’s eggin’ both of ‘em on, there ain’t no referees to call foul....& in my long experience of brawling, them as hits & keeps on hitting, gen’ally wins in the end. It’s also been my experience that everyone gets hurt in a serious fight.....the likely winner in the Obama/Clinton brawl will be John McCain.
Which is okay by me.....he’s a gutsy SOB & he’s been around a coupla years longer than me.....Obama bein’ just too durn young, far as I’m concerned.....T’other day somone on teevee was making a big deal about McCain having a 100% disability from the Navy & still able to hike the Grand Canyon....as tho’ he was some kind of scam artist.....I guess y’can spin almost anything just about any which way you want to go with it.....Cindy McCain inherited a lot of money & I s’pect her hubby could forgo his Navy pension & his Senate salary & not starve to death.....On that proverbial other hand that I luv to talk about so often, McCain earned his pension & he earns his Senate pay.....& after the punishment he took at the Hanoi Hilton, just laying around & watching the telly would be accomplishment enuff....the fact that he’s campaigning for President & taking heat for being able to hike the Grand Canyon is testament to his physical & mental tuffness......& I wish him well.
I watched both nites of Bill O’Reilly’s interview with Hillary.....I gotta say that I tho’t he did a pretty fair job of it.....He was respectful w/out being soft & he wasn’t ‘all up in her face’ as some phrase it. Next week, he does McCain.....haft’a wait & compare....wonder if Obama will come out to play.......”It’s a long, long time from May to December, and one hasn’t got time for the waiting game......”
Justin Other Smith

Ships & seas & sealing wax......

Religion is a very touchy subject for so many people..... s’almost as bad as politics....’cept politics is safer....not by a whole lot but where politics c’d get you a black eye, religion gets a lot of people killed.....
T’day, we got the Muslims against the world.....I think it was way back in the 15th or 16th Century was the last time the Muslim world attempted to convert the rest of the us by fire & sword....didn’t work then, don’t think it’ll work today either...but that ain’t what has me thinking today...
Nope, Jeremiah Wright hisownself is what got me to wondering this time.....He calls himself a Reverend & I s’pect he may be or might have been, but after hearing just a little bit of what he’s had to say, I have a hard time thinking of him as a spokesperson for God....anyway, he claims, as do some of the black pundits who defend him, that the ‘Black Church’ is different than the ‘White Church’.....more of a forum for social change, more political, a place where black ‘folk’ c’n speak their mind w’out fear of ‘us whiteys’ sellin’ them down the river & I have a problem with that...first of all, I find the concept of separate but equal churches abhorrent. Next thing, he’ll be demanding separate but equal bathrooms, water fountains, etcetera.....I bet there are a lot of really nice people that attend the Rev. Wrights Trinity Church of Christ but, somehow, due to what I’ve heard of his sermons & what I’ve heard of his makeshift apologies, I don’t think I’d feel welcome there. Becuz......well.....Black Churches are different, y’know......
At least, that’s what Wright & Farrakhan & Phelps & David Dukes & Osama bin Laden & the idiot with the unpronounceable name, the President of Iran would have everyone believe......
And it ain’t true. It ain’t true. The world has consistently rejected the Hitlers & Mussolinis & will continue to reject the haters. I believe that any church could be a forum for social change and that anyone should be able to speak frankly not only about religion but about the issues of the day, whatever they might be.......
Now, I must confess that I don’t attend any church on anything like a regular basis. I grew up going to a Southern Methodist church in Kentucky. (During that most un-civil war between the states, the Methodist church divided) The Southern Methodist Church no longer exists & hasn’t for years. Now, it’s called the United Methodist Church. I attended for awhile but decided it wasn’t a good fit for me. I’ve attended a number of different churches over the years, the most recent Christ Unity which states that everyone is welcome, regardless of creed, color or sexual persuasion...It’s my belief that all churches should welcome everyone. Christian, Muslim, Jew. Even Episcopalians. God’s house should never be locked & the doors should be open to all.
On that proverbial other hand, I s’poze we c’ud adapt a ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’ philosphy......Justin Other Smith

Just a tho't.......

In these hard economic times when a body has to watch ever’ penny & economize the best we c’n.....if we elect Hillary as our next President, can we pay her less than what we’d have to pay Obama or McCain.....? After all, in this good ol US of A, we normally pay women less than men.......ahhhh, it wuz just a tho’t.....
McCain has proposed temporarily reducing the gas tax...just for the summer....Hillary agrees.....Obama sez it’s a crock & will cost the USA over 10 million dollars & won’t be of any benefit.....I don’t believe it’s a fix for the economy but, it’s a start in the right direction.....& if it don’t help the well to do, I don’t give a damn.....A twenty cent a gallon reduction will help me....& if they get into some of the ‘excessive’ profits that the oil companies are making....well, that won’t hurt me either....I’ve got a dinky li’l car that gets over 30 mpg but when I filled it up the other day, it cost me $39.03...OUCH!........& the mtrhome is worse... diesel fuel is well over $4. per gallon & I sure don’t get 30 mpg in it.....my son sez I should sell it but I’m not sure I c’ud give it away in this economic climate......
OPEC sez they might raise the price of Crude to $200. a barrel....That raises the stakes in the Jihad.....anyone who believes that we’re not in a ‘holy’ war with Islam maybe better rethink.....it might take a modern Crusade to bring the wrath of Allah to the sands of Araby......
I ain’t sayin’ the US of A would do such a thing but when we can’t drive our cars or heat or cool our homes, when our computers are all shut down for lack of electricity and television goes the way of the Dodo bird, we’re liable to do sumthin.........And even if we don’t, wonder what the ‘emerging’ Chinese’ll do???? Huh????.......Just a tho’t.........Justin Other Smith