To My Friends in Connecticut and Maryland

To my friends in Connecticut. I was re-reading my copy of the Constitution and Bill of Rights today and found some interesting facts about rights.

The Second Amendment of The Bill of Rights written in 1764, most everyone already knows pretty well: 

“A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.”

Article 1, Section 9, paragraph 3 of the Bill of Rights has a one sentence clause, which is not superseded by the Constitution, states: 

“No bill of Attainder or ex post facto shall be passed.”

For those without a dictionary, Attainder means: 

“confiscation of rights or property”

Ex post facto means: 

“events that have already occurred as well as to subsequent events that will occur in the future.”

So by that set of laws on the books in our nation’s capital no one can take away your right to bear arms nor your arms which are your property.

Bureau of Land Management -vs-Cliven Bundy

The government continues to overstep its bounds more and more under this administration. We live under Constitutional Law but we have dozens of Bureaus who write hundreds of “Regulations” under which we are to abide. I for one, am fed up with federal “Bureaus” telling us how we can live our lives. 

The fiasco of the Bureau of Land Management started in Nevada against Cliven Bundy may not end well. Even though Newsweek reported that the U.S. had ended its standoff after about a thousand protesters showed up in support of Bundy. 

To quote Newsweek: “Anti-government groups, right-wing politicians and armed gun-rights advocates camped around Bundy’s ranch to support him in a standoff that tapped into long-simmering anger in Nevada and other Western states, where vast tracts of land are owned and governed by federal agencies.” The BLM was sent there to round up 1,000 head of cattle. How many were actually rounded up is unknown. They did give the Bundys back 320 of their cattle after being backed down by a large force of protesters and a television crew which eventually showed up to film the event.

Now I protest the term “right-wing” politicians or anything. The term “right-wing” has a way being translated as Bible thumping, gun toting racists for political reasons. Gun toting, yes, I carry a gun, I carry a Bible and I am not racist. I believe, as Martin Luther King said “a man should be judged by his character, not by the color of his skin. Turning the other cheek is well past in this day and age of government tyranny. Our fastest time for a police to get to me is more than 20 minutes so I am alone with any assailant for at least 20 minutes and by then he has done his harm to me and gone. The police then can only write a report after they ask a dozen questions. I know that because my house what shot twice by some nuts driving through my neighborhood shooting just for the fun of it. The police said that without a license and make of the car they would probably never find them. By the time we got out the front door they were gone and the police couldn’t do anything. 

But I digress. The Washington Free Beacon reported earlier that the BLM “will not say if they have euthanatized any of Bundy’s cows in the roundup” “Amy Lueders, the Nevada state director for the BLM, said in a conference call Thursday evening that the agency does have a ‘protocol’ but would not release any numbers for animals they have found dead or that they have euthhized.” “So, we do have a protocol in terms of when we would euthanize animals,” she said. “But we don’t have ay answers at this time in terms of numbers.” Considering that BLM brought in back hoes, one can only assume they were there to bury dead cows when they killed “euthanatized” them. 

The animals were being herded using helicopters and this is calving season so many mother cows with calves became separated. The calves separated from their mothers, by natural instinct would go into hiding and if their mothers are not free to find them they will die of starvation.

According to BLM, 352 cows were herded into a holding area. Their original plan was to round up 1000 cattle. I have also read unsubstantiated reports that more than 200 cows were put down, euthanatized is the word BLM used, I think the word should be “killed”. I believe the number is probably higher due the lying nature of our political leaders and their appointees. 

In my opinion, I believe the cattle were shot by Rangers who were unfamiliar with the proper way of herding cattle. One report I read said the cattle made threatening moves toward the Rangers trying to herd them into the holding area. Being raised on a farm, I know cattle have to be herded in a friendly, non threatening manner or they will turn on you. Some Rangers supposedly were attacked by the cattle so they euthanatized, “killed” them for their natural instinct to threaten anyone trying to herd them without necessary experience.  Leuders said, “We will euthanize an animal during the impoundment if they exhibit dangerous characteristics, threatening the health and safety of the employees.” 

Darn right, if cattle do not know you and you approach them in an unfamiliar manner they will try to ram you, that’s why they have horns on their head ─ for self-defense. Unless you are a cowboy and can lasso them and take them down to the ground, tie their, then the only way to “euthanize” a cow is to shoot it in the head. I doubt if any of the Rangers were cowboys and knew nothing of how to handle cattle.

Over two hundred armed Rangers, including snipers, along with K-9 units were deployed using brutal force against the protesters who rushed to the Bundy family’s aid. The force, included the use of Tasers on some of the protesters. K9 dogs were allowed to get within inches of protesters but no dog bites were reported. One fifty-seven year old lady with grandchildren was thrown to the ground for trying to video the fracas with her cell phone. But it was only after a television cameraman and reporter showed up did the rangers begin to disperse. Bad publicity would be detrimental to what they were doing.

There is a lot more I could write that was gleaned from reading the various news reports but my main point is that I believe the force behind all this government control is the more likely the “Green” movement. They pretend to be concerned over a Mojave Desert tortoise which they claim is an endangered species. They’re never mentioned in any article but their reputation of having farms and private lands rights infringed on by some federal bureau because of something totally outside of their desire to protect "mother earth and all its inhabitants from mankind". Only recently, a farmer dug a small farm pond on his land and it suddenly was declared a marshland. He was penalized and told his pond (marshland) was now under the government marshland control.

My point: This government is out of control. The Constitution means nothing to them. They rule on a whim, and it seems that their whims change pretty much daily. Reportedly this excursion into Nevada costs taxpayers three million dollars all because Cliven Bundy owes the agency one million in taxes and penalties for allowing his cattle to graze on federal land. The Bundy family has been raising cattle on this ranch since 1870 and just now the government decides to force him to pay the one million dollars in fines and taxes. He decided to protest this outrageous taxation policy of the government. So the government agency decided it was worth the three million just to show him the government means business. 

The arrival of about a thousand armed militia men arriving from all parts of the United States has made the government stand down. Yes, at this day and age the second amendment is causing men from all over the United States to form militias. That is supposed to be kept hush hush but its out of the bag now. The government for now will stand down but. Yes, the government will stand down for now but I seriously doubt if they will stand down for long. It is not in their nature to accept defeat from a taxpayer. 

And besides that, I had much rather have steak on my dinner plate than Mojave Dessert Turtle.

Theory of Relativity 40 Years Later

Having spent many years traveling around the world while serving in the Military Service, I recently returned the a town near where I spent the first six years of my childhood to settle down and enjoy a more relaxed middle life. Now was the perfect opportunity to visit places which had been only a memory for so long. Places that were so dear to me back when I was discovering such amazing things as caterpillars, butterflies, bumble bees and June bugs.

Grandpa, as I remembered, had a big farm with a cow, a horse, a pasture, a big lake, chickens, a big house and a large field that was almost always planted in something. I spent many happy hours there chasing butterflies and June bugs or throwing rocks into the lake. I especially liked going to the barn to watch the evening milking. I was never awake early enough for the morning milking. I always carried my little tin cup with me to get it filled with milk, warm and fresh from the cow. The only farm chores I was allowed to help with were feeding the chickens, gathering eggs and picking tomatoes. "Only the red ones please." grandma would say.

Dobson's General Store and Post Office, where grandpa went to get his mail and buy just about everything else he needed, was only a short distance from my grandpa's farm. It was a huge place with great long shelves and tables lined up creating long aisles. There was a huge pot-bellied stove right in the middle-most part of the store where the local men would sit around on cold, rainy days talking about farming, politics and playing checkers.

The tables were always stacked high with overalls, socks, brogans, shirts, shoes, bolts of cloth and just about any thing people needed back then. The shelves were stacked with assorted canned goods, sugar, flour, salt and other food items. A glass-covered case of pocket knives was conspicuously displayed on the front counter next to the huge cash register (The kind with large numbers that popped up in a glass window on top.) The huge glass cookie and candy jars with their shiny tin lids were placed on a shelf behind the cash register well out of reach but not out of sight.

In the rear of the store to the right were nails, hammers, saws, chains, hinges and all manner of hardware items for repairing almost anything around the farm that was broken. Hanging from the ceilings and walls were plow points, harnesses and all those amazing implements used for tilling the soil, as well as lanterns, like the one grandpa carried to the barn to see how to milk before sunrise. The left rear corner of the store was caged-in and served as the post office.
I visited what was once my grandpa's farm and found that while not much had changed, somehow everything looked different. The fir st thing that caught my eye was the lake. To my amazement it seemed much smaller. It was more a farm pond than it was the lake of my childhood memory. The pasture seemed smaller too, as did the field that once produced an abundance of fresh vegetables. The big house that my grandparents lived in now looked very much like and ordinary six room frame house painted white.

A mile up the road I found Dobson's General Store still standing and to my amazement, open for business, I stopped and went inside and see what it was like now. I immediately recognized the elderly lady behind the now modern checkout counter as Mr. Dobson's daughter even though she was now grey-haired and 40 years older. After reminding her whose grandson I was, she remembered me. We talked at length about the days gone by and as we talked, I surveyed the interior of the store, comparing what I was now seeing with memories I had filed away in the archives of my mind 40 years ago. Nothing inside the store was as I remembered. All the farm implements were gone, the post office was gone, the tables stacked high with clothing articles were gone, and the building that a six-year-old could get lost in was now filled with pre-packed quick food items relevant to the 1980, stacked on modern shelves or hung from pegboards. The pot-bellied stove was gone, having been replaced by central heat and cooling. The store seemed much smaller somehow although I'm sure it wasn’t. I could now stand at the front counter and survey the entire store. Somehow the world of my childhood memories had gotten smaller.

I sat quietly in the evening hours of that day, contemplating all that I had seen. I was unable to think of a reasonable explanation for the difference between what I remembered and what I had seen. I began to wonder if it could possibly be true. Is the size of the world relative to the age and physical size of the person viewing it? Could it just be possible that Einstein was so caught up in his theory of relativity that he overlooked another important fact, that the size of the world is relative to the size of the individual viewing it?

Turkey or Eagle, That Was The Question

On July 4th, 1776, the Continental Congress appointed a committee made up of Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and Benjamin Franklin to select a design for an official national seal. None of the designs suggested were acceptable. Benjamin Franklin said the turkey should be our national symbol because at the time he thought it was only native to the United States. Lady Liberty holding a shield of the 13 colonies was suggested but then rejected. 

The Alaskan Bald Eagle

It was William Barton, a Philadelphia artist who produced a new design that included a golden eagle. The golden eagle was rejected because it flew over England. Then the great bald eagle, which became our national bird was selected and accepted thinking that it was native to North America. It was not until much later they discovered it also is found in Canada and parts of South America.

Benjamin Franklin objected to the bald eagle on the grounds that it was an aggressive bird which would take food from lesser eagles and falcons rather than fend for itself. He was apparently not aware that the great bald eagle is an aggressive hunter which dives down on small rodents and animals on the ground grabbing them in their claws, carrying them to their nests to consume them and share them with their young.

As a patriotic American, I love the beauty of the bald eagle and think that our founding fathers made a great choice for our national symbol. 

The American Flag and Cinco de Mayo

Mexicans, for political or economic reasons, should be glad to become Americans “Citizens”. These foreigners should be required to forsake their ties to their homeland. If they are set on becoming anything less than citizens they should be required to leave and return to their homeland where they have freedom to celebrate their independence from France. Cinco de Mayo is not really their Independence Day. Their real day of Independence is September 16th. Cinco de Mayo is a Holiday  which commemorates the victory of the Mexican Militia over the French Army at The Battle Of Puebla in 1862.Their Cinco de Mayo is of no consequence to American citizens. If th

Fort McHenry Flag of 1812

e immigrants, legal or illegal want to hold on to their Cinco de Mayo and be offended by the American flag then they truly have no interest in truly becoming Americans and leave voluntarily or be deported. 

All other immigrants, Italians, Irish, Dutch, et al before them became citizens of the United States and accepted the American flag as their own and swore loyalty to it. As American citizens we celebrate the fourth of July as our independence day. If the Mexican find it in their hearts to cling to Cinco de Mayo as their day of independence and find the American Flag offensive, they don’t belong here. Make me and thousands of other Americans happy by sending them back to the land they hold so sacred and let them try and reclaim it and celebrate all of its holidays there. There is no room here for an alien, legal or not who clings to his “homeland‘s celebrations” and finds the American flag offensive.

I am repeating myself but I would like to end with a quote from Theodore Roosevelt in 1907:

"In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American...There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag... We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language... and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people." — Theodore Roosevelt 1907

Para español presione por favor el número uno.

What is this thing called Love

Yes, it is an old song written by Cole Porter in 1929 but he just posed the question, not the answer.

Never in my lifetime has anyone ever sat me down and explained just what love really is. An old farmer once told me: “love is a funny little thing, shaped like a lizard that runs around your heart and snaps at your gizzard.” The dictionary definition gives the word such a wide range of attributes that I’m no longer sure of its meaning. 

One definition of love is as  emotion of strong affection and personal attachment. Strong affection and personal attachment sounds a bit scary to me. In  the philosophical context, love is a virtue representing all of human kindness, compassion and affection. That sounds really good but I know a few human’s that kindness, compassion and affection is not in their nature. In a religious context, love is not just a virtue, but the basis for all being, (God is love), and the foundation for all divine law (the Golden Rule). Taking all that into consideration, then it would seem that love can be anything from I love chocolate cake to a strong, religious devotion to God.

The ancient Greeks decided they needed  five words for love. Agape is translated as affection of a deeper sense i.e. true love, and is the word used in chapter 13 of the Book of Corinthians, “the love chapter.” Eros is passionate love as associated with feelings of a sensual nature between a man and a woman. The Greek word Platonic is used to indicate a strong love between friends of a non-sensual nature. Philos is used to express love between friends and family. Storge, a not often used word describes love as between parents and offspring. As I understand it, Philos is probably the most preferred word used in family life.

Love, the one word in the English language used to describe every emotion that gives us any kind of pleasant feeling about almost anything from chocolate cake to the pretty girl we see walking down the street. The most miss-used word in the English language. We have been bombarded with love songs, romantic movies and television programs and provocative television commercials for years. Is it any wonder that children “fall in love” in Junior High School, I know I did. Or at least I thought I did…several times. Lucky for me I grew up. Love is a much too meaningful a word to be bandied about without serious consideration. We need to learn the difference between love and our hormonal which drive our carnal desires.

My advice to all those young kids out there who think they’re in love. “It’s just your hormones…you’ll get over it.”

Time, Space and the Big Bang

On the far side of forever where neither time nor space existed, the Creator observed the indeterminable amount nothingness before Him. He spoke, and the vast nothingness before Him became filled with ions created by the power of His voice. These ions, vibrating from the resonance that echoes throughout His being, began colliding with each other creating atoms. First came lighter atoms such as hydrogen and helium. Then as the vibrations continued, heavier atoms began to form. Then with attraction atoms of similar nuclear and atomic order and gravity, a great cloud of energy began to form. It grew and continued to grow to immense proportions. Time was still not yet. At some point in this creation process, this great cloud of energy blew apart in an explosion that sent matter away from it’s center at speeds greater than the speed of light. As things began slowing stars, galaxies and things yet undiscovered were finding their place in the great universe. Now, with everything in its place and in motion, time began.

The Creator, for reasons known only to Him, began adding the planets. He added one particular one called earth. It was a very wet place where He separated the waters from the firmament, creating seas and dry land. He set the moon in just the right place to control the tides and give us the four seasons. After He filled the seas with fish, the air with birds, and the land with animals and plants, He saw that it was good. Then, for reasons known only to Him, He created man. In His own image created him, male and female created He them, and said it was very good.

It’s been thousands of years since the Creator has had such a close, personal relationship with his creation. After all, He did give man dominion over everything. In other words He left us in charge. Maybe we should take our job more serious.