Friday, October 29, 2004

Generic Holidays?

Every year it’s the same thing. Parents trying to prevent the celebration of Halloween, or trying to keep Christmas from coming like some twisted followers of the Grinch.

I’m really tired of hearing that Halloween is some affront to Christianity when if fact it was the one God following people that started “All Saints Day” from which Halloween eventually sprang forth (see my article entitled “Halloween a Religious Holiday?” found on this website).

Just as equally stupid are the folks trying to have things like Christmas trees removed in various venues and going out of their way to not acknowledge some of our more popular holidays.

We need to declare a few holidays as religious exempt. The two that come to mind are the two I just mentioned, with the addition of Thanksgiving and possibly Easter thrown in for good measure.

Does this mean that certain religious cults cannot still claim these holidays for their own twisted agenda? No, I still stand by your freedom to believe and act as silly as you want.

I just want some holidays to become more generic to the masses in the United States, so everyone can enjoy these holidays without the fear that they are doing something wrong.

Let’s go down the list of holidays that currently cause conflict in our society quickly and see what the heck I mean. Forget about what you now believe about these days, and let’s reshape them into what they really are currently about. We’ll start with Halloween since it’s coming up first.

Halloween – Night to dress up in costumes, act crazy, have parties, and eat junk food. It’s about things that go bump in the night, and being scared. It’s a fun night that allows us to let ourselves go, and perhaps live in an alternate reality for just one night. You can dress up as a nun, witch, soldier, or any other thing you’d like without any recourse. For one night, it’s okay to pretend to be something else, or to make fun of someone else based on a costume.

Thanksgiving – On this day we are reminded what we should be thankful for. Perhaps we should also turn some attention to those less fortunate then ourselves. It is a day to eat turkey and other great food! It is a time to meet with family members, and gather to catch up with each other and to watch football.

Christmas – A winter day that many of us use to remember our immediate families. We gather to exchange gifts, have a good family time eating great food, going sledding, or doing many other family fun things. This day should stand for bringing good will to everyone on the Earth. Peace, love and joy are the underlying themes for this holiday.

Easter – Another family day to gather and celebrate the Spring. This is a great time to celebrate the sunshine and life by coloring eggs, going on a picnic and having Easter egg hunts.

Now you see, there is no need to pollute these days with specific religious overtones.

All costumes on Halloween would be accepted no matter how they looked. Christmas trees, wreaths, snowmen and Santa Clause will be accepted anywhere. The Easter Bunny will never be banned, and Pilgrims can still be shown having dinner with Native Americans.

For those of you who are of the religious mindset, there is no reason why you cannot continue your confused and distorted view of these holidays and celebrate them how you have always chosen. You would just no longer have the right to ridicule others that do not want to celebrate them the way you do.

Anything that is of a specific religious symbol in nature, such as a cross, manager scene, pentagram, etc… must still be left to places like the lawn of the church or a home.

By creating generic holidays that are acceptable to everyone, Jewish kids can finally enjoy a Christmas tree, wacky folks can wear wild costumes one day a year, and we can all hug the person in the big furry Easter Bunny suit without worrying how this will reflect on our religious beliefs.

So if you’re more worried about political correctness then having a great time and enjoying a customary holiday season, lock yourself in your home and shut the heck up. We don’t want to hear your whining about how offended you are with the Christmas decorations at your kid’s school.

Happy Holidays!

Thursday, October 21, 2004

Mirror Mirror On The Wall

Nobody can predict the future, so of course I view this as yet another challenge and I will attempt to do just that.

This seems like the most energetic year I have seen for an election. People who have never registered to vote are doing so in great numbers. States are starting their voting early, and after the fiasco of the 2000 elections, it's gearing up to be more of a battle then an election.

Cheap shots are being fired from both camps, and the satirists and comedians are enjoying the rich volume of material to keep us all laughing at the expense of the politicians.

The Democrats and Republicans both have an army of lawyers ready to continue the combat well into the next year if need be. Unless there is a landslide win, be prepared for a long haul in trying to clean up the mess and ensure that the right man was chosen.

Now I’ll demonstrate my future telling ability. I won't bother trying to persuade you to vote for any one candidate, and I won’t try to tell you who will win. Besides, if you read my website frequently you know my stance on that subject. What I am going to do is to tell you what I think each candidate will do if they win on 2 November 2004.

If George Bush gets a chance to take the reigns for another four years I think you’ll see the fire being turned up another notch on the war on terror. Things are sort of in a holding pattern now leading up to the election. No sense in rocking the boat or he would lose the chance to finish what he started. So, like a good politician he has held back, and is biding his time until after the election.

Once the election is behind him, I think the president will once again come out of his corner swinging. Not necessarily with military force, but I think you’ll see him remain tough, and start to deliver some ultimatums to Iran and North Korea. I believe he truly would like to settle those two issues diplomatically, but I also feel if it comes down to the wire, he’ll whip out a can of wup-ass on them as well.

John Kerry in the White House, what a scary thought, but it could just happen.

I think the country will be in for a shock if John Kerry brings home the gold. Even John Kerry, I don’t think, realizes what he is up against.

He can’t go into the White House doing half of what he thinks he will be able to accomplish. He’ll have to deal with the war on terror just like President Bush has had to do. About the only way to do this is exactly how we are dealing with it now. Point blank, I don’t think John Kerry will be able to bring anything new to the table.

So, all of you who believe that John Kerry is going to roll into the presidency and be completely different, you’re 100% wrong. There is no different way to deal with our current predicament. For all of Mr. Kerry’s scare tactics that he will bring our soldiers home, save social security, and make the lame walk again, these are all just inept boasting that is far from a reality.

There you have it, my thoughts on what will happen when the smoke clears after the elections. In a nutshell, nothing drastic will change regardless of who is steering this ship we know as the United States of America.

The only real changes will be that Bush will continue to lead this country in a strong, resolute manner, while Kerry will finish what Bush has begun, then sit on his hands for the rest of his presidency and claim success for the climbing economy and other things that President Bush and his administration have put into motion.

Come back to this article around June and see how close I am to what is happening to whatever president we have.

I’ll be waiting for you…

Thursday, October 14, 2004

Breathing New Life

Why are all of my posts so old at the moment?

I am currently moving my articles from my website to this blog location to increase the exposure.

Slowly over the next few days you will begin to see all of my older articles being placed online here in this blog. When finished, I will continue to duel post my articles both on my site and on this blog. In addition to hopefully getting more readers, it should also help to serve as a backup for my writings.

Enjoy!

Wednesday, October 13, 2004

Farewell Superman

When I was growing up I enjoyed reading comics. It is great to be able to lose yourself in a good story of good versus evil. Costumed characters would save the city from villainy, not for fame and fortune, but because it was the right thing to do.

Television and movies have kept up the tradition by moving the two dimensional comic book heroes onto live action representations of our favorite defenders of justice.

Very few super heroes achieve more status then Superman. He was faster then a speeding bullet, more powerful then a locomotive and able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. There is probably not a man alive who at one point in time did not pretend to be Superman.

Christopher Reeve got the opportunity to be Superman for a brief moment in his portrayal of the man of steel in several movies. As you watched Mr. Reeve on the silver screen he seemed to embody the very soul of who Superman should be. The casting for the lead was perfect.

The movies were fun, but when Christopher Reeve became paralyzed from falling from a horse the real test of his metal was at hand.

Christopher went through the typical emotions of someone in his condition from depression to even wanting to commit suicide. In the end, his super human qualities broke free and he not only chose to go on living, but to do so with the will even the real Superman would be proud of.

Like the comic book hero, Christopher did not give up. He began to fight for his life, and continued to do so for many years to come. He would not accept that he would never walk again, and maintained a physical therapy regiment that would ensure his muscles would be ready when the day came that he would once again stand.

I’m not going to pretend I knew Christopher Reeve past anything that you have no doubt heard about him already. I will say that every time I have seen Mr. Reeve on television I would be pulling for him. My insides would yearn for the day he would once again stand and prove the doctors wrong. After all, he was Superman!

In the end, it turns out that Christopher Reeve was just a man physically. What his accident did do was to prove to the world that in his spirit Christopher Reeve was truly Superman. Not only did he fight his injuries head on, but he championed the cause for research so that perhaps one day others would not have to go through what he had to endure.

My daughters always ask me to tell them my own personal Superman story, and I guess this is as good as time as any to share my day as a super hero.

I worked for a pet shop, Wildwood Pets, while I was in high school. During one of my work days I was in the store and I heard the squeal of car brakes. I looked out the window to see that a car had just missed running into another car in the parking lot right out front of the store.

As I watched one of the cars continued spinning in circles backwards, and I thought that maybe there was some lunatic at the wheel trying to ram another car or something.

Then I saw him.

Standing on the seat of the car careening backwards was about a three year old little boy, and nobody else was in the car!

There were people watching along the sidewalk, but nobody was doing anything.

To be honest, I have no idea what went through my mind, or if I had a rational thought at all, as I literally burst through both glass doors, pushing them open with such a force that the little cowbells crashed into them and added to the affect.

I ran out into the parking lot and right along side the driver side door. I paced myself with the car while hanging onto the door handle. I finally got the door opened, jumped in and hit the brake.

Looking at the kid I asked, “Are you alright?”

The mother ran up to me saying, “Thank you, thank you for saving my son”.

All I did was give her a look that said, “What the heck were you thinking!”

I’m still amazed that the car never actually hit anything in that parking lot, or ran over me. If I tripped I would have gone right under the wheel. Luckily my brain was not engaged and I just reacted instead of thought about it.

For a while after that the mother would bring me cakes and cookies.

There was no story about me in the paper; I didn’t really share it much with anyone unless for some weird reason I would think about it. I did tell my kids once because I was explaining how dangerous cars were, and now they want to hear about it every once in a while. I guess it’s the whole “Dad is a hero” thing.

The point is I did not actively seek recognition because I did a good deed. I did it, and went on with my life. Granted it isn’t three purple hearts, but I’m sure I could have gleaned five minutes of fame with a local news station if I wanted to toot my own horn.

Superman may have crossed over, but his spirit lives on in all of us. Christopher Reeve was not only Superman in the movies, but in real life as well. He has left his mark on this Earth as only a true super hero can.

Farewell Superman, you will be missed.

Christopher Reeve
September 25, 1952 - October 10, 2004

Monday, October 04, 2004

Desperately Seeking The Presidency

So Mr. Kerry, you want to be the president when you grow up.

It’s a noble and lofty goal to be sure, but do you understand what it takes to run the United States of America? Have you considered our current world situation and thought beyond your own existence on what a transfer in leadership at this time would entail?

Let’s take a look at your performance during the first debate.


When asked if you could do a better job then President Bush in preventing another 911 type of attack, you arrogantly said that you could.

After the 911 attack, President Bush created the Department of Homeland Security, he signed the Patriot Act, and has led this country in an offensive against terrorism ever since.

We are facing a large mass of religious zealots who want us all dead, and yet in over two years this country has not seen another occurrence of a 911 style attack.

I’m not saying the enemy will not figure out a way to attack us again, but the fact that it has not happened yet speaks volumes for the job that this current administration has performed.

In fact, I believe a true test will be the days leading up to the election. If ever the terrorists were going to hit us, these last few days will be the time.

So Mr. Kerry, how can you stand there and claim to do a better job then 100% of preventing another 911 style attack on this country?

There are so many examples of John Kerry and his flip flopping decisions that I won’t do a list of many of them here. This has been one of the largest jokes he has been attacked with throughout this campaign second only to his Purple Heart fiasco.

Have you seen the shirts that say something like, "I voted for John Kerry, before I voted against him."? Too funny.

John Kerry participated in Viet Nam for four months and during that time received three Purple Hearts. This is extremely suspicious for anyone, much less someone who has such a drive to build a political career.

During Viet Nam he kept a journal and interviewed himself on camera. How many of our soldiers were fighting with the thought of one day using the war as a political opportunity?

An ego like Mr. Kerry’s has no place in the White House.

I was floored when I found out the John Kerry wanted us to join that silly world court. This is the most ridiculous thing that has ever been offered to the United States. To turn over our citizens to be tried by a world kangaroo court is ridiculous!

Would you like to be hauled off to some world tribunal to have your fate decided by a bunch of countries who despise Americans? I didn’t think so, but Mr. Kerry would serve you up on a silver platter!

It was funny to hear Mr. Kerry attempt to ridicule President Bush for not providing our troops with proper equipment. This coming from a political party that does nothing but cut the military in both man-power and equipment any chance they get.

How hypocritical is it to vote against nearly every piece of major military equipment that is currently being used, then claim that the president is not providing our military with good equipment?

And while we’re on this topic, John Kerry made fun of our plan to attack Iraq as some kind of bumbling loosely thrown together street game. I would ask Mr. Kerry about how he would explain how such a horrible military plan took over a country as quickly as this plan did and with very few casualties.

Sure we have had many casualties since then, but this is now a different kind of war. The attack plan for Iraq was excellent!

Before you get into one of Mr. Kerry’s other battle cries that there is no plan for a withdrawal, what the heck do you call what we are currently doing over there? This sure seems like the exact plan the president laid out for us when this whole thing started. In fact, how else would we be doing what we are doing?

It was almost laughable when John Kerry dropped the name of a few military folks who were backing him. I almost generated a tear when he told of a few soldiers asking for him to help their situation in Iraq.

Give me a break.

The fact is that probably 99% of the military want nothing to do with this man becoming the commander in chief. So what if a few sniveling kids fresh out of high school want their mommies and some general is disgruntled or is getting some sort of political kickback for letting him use his name.

Point blank, no matter what tidbits Kerry throws to the media, the military wants nothing to do with him.

Mr. Kerry’s grasp on world affairs seems a bit shaky as well. It was almost embarrassing when President Bush on several occasions had to correct Mr. Kerry on how the world leaders would view certain actions, or what would happen if he implemented his plans for Iraq, North Korea, and Iran.

Obviously we do not know if President Bush is 100% correct in his analogy, but I tend to give the win to the current president who is dealing with these world leaders on a day-to-day basis. Can we afford to place our eggs in John Kerry’s theory basket right now?

Senator Kerry’s plan for Iraq is to strengthen our military, form alliances with other nations, cut off terrorist finances, strengthen our intelligence, reach out to the Muslim world, train the Iraqi forces to defend themselves, and prepare for the Iraqi elections.

Have you heard this plan before? Gee Mr. Kerry, your ideas are so original they sound just like what President Bush is currently doing. What the heck sort of unique plan do you think you have come up with? Seriously this man is getting to be a laughing stock even within his own political party.

Simply put Mr. Kerry, you have demonstrated little knowledge on international affairs, you have continuously voted to cancel many of our major military programs, and you seem unable to formulate a decision and then stick with it.

A majority of the men and women you desire to lead as commander in chief not only don’t think you would make a good president, many of them, past and present, actually despise you for what you have done during the Viet Nam war.

Let’s not even go into your dubious purple hearts that you parade around like a Miss Universe sash.

A true leader does not run around saying that he wants to be a leader, and lying about heroic deeds, or changing his mind with the political wind. No Mr. Kerry, a leader leads by example. Have you heard this before?

What would the example be for the office of president? I would say that choosing a path that you feel is right and staying the course regardless of the adversity might be one way. Sound like a president we all know?

If this article seems one sided, it’s only because President Bush has a track record already, and John Kerry must prove himself worthy to take the reigns of this country in a time of conflict. So far in my eyes he has not.

We all know what President Bush has done for this country and the world. People who say outrageous things like the president is lying, or is not genuine about anything he does or says, I challenge them right here to bring up their concerns within the forums and let’s discuss your feelings.

I would caution you to state your opinions with facts, because I will be attempting to show you the error of your ways.

Does this upset you? Good, it should. If you believe you are right in your thoughts, then you should have no problem with showing me my errors.

In a month, a very important election will be held in this country. Do not place your vote based on hearsay and commercials. Base your vote on knowing the topics, and in understanding what is best for this country in its time of need to remain strong and resolute.

Vote for a president for his strengths, not because you dislike the other guy.

Politics and Common Sense

  I realize the two terms seem at odds with each other, but let me explain where I am going with this.   During President Trump’s ter...