Multiculturalism my ass!

A question about multiculturalism was asked on a writer’s website I frequent. The person wanted to know if there was a market for multicultural-specific stories. She liked writing about multi-race characters and under-represented ethnic groups. Fine...write about them, but don’t make it an issue by pointing it out! Let your story stand on the plot, not a sympathetic agenda.

Nothing irritates me more than people who insist on packaging our citizens into neat little categories with the intent of creating more groups to feel sorry for, or to use differences to further their agenda. It makes me want to grab them by the throat and inform them that we are all Americans, not hyphenated objects in need of sympathy, understanding, or special treatment.

Whenever I’m asked on a form to identify my race, I refuse to answer. I even refused to answer that question in the last census. The census takers didn’t like that one bit. They sent a couple of threatening letters and called on the phone, trying to get me to answer. I only told them where I lived and that I was an American citizen. They finally backed off.

The Constitution provides for counting citizens, but it doesn’t require the government to gather data that should not even be considered when laws are applied. Justice is wearing a blindfold for a reason and we’d all be better off if we did likewise when dealing with our fellow Americans. We will never resolve our racial, ethnic, cultural, or sexual issues as long as the professional scab-pickers insist on trying to split us into camps.

Tar and Feathers?

Governors selling senate appointments. Financial executives and corporate CEO’s scamming stockholders and the public. Unions demanding pay for not working. Election officials fixing elections. Congressmen taking bribes. Politicians of all stripes involved in scandal after scandal. What in hell is happening to our country?

I’m convinced that we might as well forget about letting the law deal with this scum. They are seldom prosecuted, even more seldom convicted, and if convicted, they get a slap on the hand or a few weeks in a federal resort prison.

Maybe the time has come to resurrect the punishment of tar, feathers and a rail for these miscreants. Make it a new prime-time reality show. Let everyone watch them toppled from their towers of public trust and humiliated before the entire world.

God, I must be getting soft…instead of hot tar, make that Super Glue. Just as hard to get off, but without the burns.

This Will Test Your Gag Reflex

With the collection of corrupt politicians, unions and businessmen making the news this week, I’m too disgusted to even comment. Then I read this speech given by a Dutch citizen in New York. It should strike fear in the hearts of everyone.

http://www.conservativeoldhippie.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1487

There is another thread on this website about the movie he refers to in the speech.

While you’re at it, check out this website:

http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/

Let there be lights!

Finally got all the Christmas lights up, so I’ll post a photo of my efforts before the thunderstorms hit tonight.

I don’t know why the camera takes such fuzzy pictures. It used to take outstanding pictures, but something is amiss with either the camera or the operator…probably the operator.

I also got the bird feeders up today. I’ve seen quite a few Goldfinches around this week, so maybe we’ll attract some of them to the thistle feeder. They seem to be the only birds that like thistle seeds.

The other feeder has a mixture of sunflower seeds, cracked corn and millet, so there should be several bird species feeding from it.

There aren’t nearly as many Cardinals here as there were in Denton, so I don’t know if we’ll attract as many to our feeders. At the old house, we’d have as many as a dozen male Cardinals feeding at one time. There are loads of Titmice and Chickadees in the woods around us, so we should have a bunch of them hanging around. The Chickadees are my favorites, but they usually grab a single sunflower seed and fly off to eat it, so I can’t watch them as much as I’d like.

It will be interesting to see if we attract different birds in this part of the state.

Fence is Up, and Christmas Lights are Going Up

The winds moderated today, so I managed to get most of the Christmas lights hung...at least the ones that require climbing a ladder. After a few dozen trips up and down the ladder, I'm totally worn out. I used to get all the lights up in one day, but this time it's going to take two. Getting old isn't fun, but I guess it beats the alternative.

They finished building the back fence today and it looks nice. Now I wish the neighbor would finish enclosing his back yard. Three of us have built fences on three sides of his house, so all he has to build is about 60'.

I know his old Yellow Lab, "Scooby-doo", would love having a big yard to roam in.
The poor dog is tied on a long cable all day long while the family is gone, and sometimes he's out there until late into the night. I feel sorry for the old guy. About a month ago, his leg became wrapped up in the cable and I had to go over there and untangle him. He couldn't move at all, and when I got him loose, he was limping really bad. I was worried that his circulation had been cut off for quite a while and that he might have seriously damaged his leg, but after a few days, he recovered.

Why Can't Those Idiots Run a Car Company Efficiently?

Last night, I was assembling an artificial Christmas tree we recently purchased. As I was doing so, it reminded me of why the auto manufacturers are having a difficult time making money these days.

The photo shows the safety warning tags I removed from the tree and the associated wiring for the pre-installed lights. These are not all the tags that were attached; they are only the ones that would be visible when the tree is standing. Nearly as many more are tied out of sight inside the wire bundle. Each end of the wiring had five tags attached near the plug and receptacle.

If it takes this many tags to warn me about possible tree hazards, the number of government mandated features and standards on a car must be monumental. Just off the top of my head, I can think of enough to stagger the imagination: CAFÉ numbers, emissions numbers; bumper height, rollover standards, front, rear, and side crash protection, air bags, head and stoplight light intensity standards, seat belts, headrests, door locks, power window switches, shift lockout, anti-skid brake system, rollover prevention system, brake light location, inside trunk release, and even hood ornaments.

This does not include all the demands placed on the manufacturing facilities. OSHA and the EPA control things like stair heights, ventilation, painting facilities, parts and material storage, use of solvents and adhesives, clothing and safety equipment, and even how everything is labeled and how the records are maintained.

I just touched on the things required by the federal government, and you can add state and local demands to the mess, as well as the idiotic union work rules. It’s a damn miracle that cars don’t cost twice what they do, and it really ticks me off to watch those politicians bloviate about the stupidity of the auto industry CEOs.

Windy Wednesday

We had another one of those rare early winter days today. It hit 77F this afternoon, but the strong south wind was annoying. We've had four straight days of strong winds, so I still don't have our Christmas lights up. I have no interest in climbing a ladder with 35mph gusts trying to blow me over.

This will be the last year for our outdoor lighting with the big C9 bulbs. Clear replacement bulbs are becoming nearly impossible to find, so we're buying a few strings of LED lights when they go on sale after the holidays.

We had a fence building crew out yesterday. They're installing a wooden fence across the back of the lot, and up one side. The kids in back of us will be mad without a way to cross our lot to visit their friends across the street, but They can complain to their dad. I offered to install a gate if he paid for it, but he didn't seem inclined to do so, so they can walk around.

Next Saturday is the Lindale holiday parade, but rain is forecast and I already put the top up on my Valiant, so I won't be participating this time. Hope the rain holds off until the afternoon since there is a Special Olympics wheelchair event scheduled right after the parade. They're bringing in over 100 wheelchair-bound kids, so it's a pretty big event.