Quotes from the West End

Today we stop for a moment of reflection and prayer for our fallen husband, father, grandfather, and great-grandfather on the anniversary of his passing. Gilbert Paul Lafferty Sr. was KIA a St Vith Belgium 24 January 1945, fighting the greatest evil of the 20th Century. Giving his life as good men do, for that what is greater than themselves. Thank you We all should aspire to be such. .

The joy of discovery and the promise of knowledge to come.

Bad men, doing bad things, to other bad men, for the greater good. Albeit a dubious greater good

We all have demons that drive us to do what we do, and put us where we are, and don't want to be. 

Lee Marvin: "What is on your mind other than 100 proof women, 90 proof whiskey, and 14 karat gold."

Burt Lancaster: "you just wrote my epitaph."

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Giving to get is not giving of the heart, it is giving of the wallet.

I always say that I am in fact literate, in spite of going to public school not because of it.

Antithesis: Through the fog of Transparency

Made all the bad choices to get here. Here is where I want to be, the good place.

25 Years in Exile.

When I was a child the greatest baseball player was Pete Rose. We all emulated him to no end, from running hard around the bases, the head first slide for those of us who were brave enough or just motivated enough to do that. Pete was a winner personified. So we wanted to be like him. Then came the gambling.

Banished in 1989 for life for gambling, on baseball, Rose has been all over the map with as many reasons, and excuses as Major League baseball has been with bad decisions and hypocrisy. There is no doubt that Rose bet on baseball, and the ensuing 25 years is enough punishment. Baseball in its hypocritical wisdom has gone beyond the original crime, and taken it to a personal level that doesn't pass the smell test. A. Bartlett Giamatti, and his vindictive minion Bud Selig, the former, once the Commissioner of Baseball, and the latter the current Commissioner of baseball, have pushed their puritanical morals on Rose and judged him harshly. With all the scandals in the last 25 years, performance-enhancing drugs or PED'S is the most egregious blind eye that Major League Baseball has ever turned.

Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Hypocrisy and the NFL

So Jim Irsay owner of the Indianapolis Colts gets a 6 game suspension and a $500.00 fine for several counts of misdemeanor drunk driving. It appears that he violated the personal conduct rules. The NFL say's that the owners have to be held to a higher standards than players. Where do I begin with this tripe the NFL calls a punishment. Here goes anyway. First of all, players should be held to a higher standard because they are the public face of the team and the league. I see Andrew Luck jersey's not Irsay jersey. Second and more important is I guess it is less egregious to slap your wife around in a hotel elevator than it is for a known drunk to drink and drive. While both are bad choices, wife beating is bad and shows a lack of character. Rice gets a two game suspension for an act that is so morally and socially unacceptable as to border on evil. The punishment fits in one but not the other when both are equally bad. The NFL punishment system is a joke, and old Rog is a piss poor leader. I mean Welker gets caught doing PED's and gets less time. How pathetic is Roger Godell that he can't see that It is a shame that an organization like the NFL has so much influence, and then fritter it away because the misogynist path they have taken. A path that our youth need not emulate. Wife beating should be punished in the most severe way possible. 2 games isn't enough. For the NFL to have any credibility they need to make the punishment so severe so as to deter the bad behavior in the first place. They say they are out to help women, with all that breast cancer awareness show last year. While that is good, and I applaud their commitment, but that is indicative of the two faced hypocritical misogynist mindset they have at the NFL. The whole organization is just as worthless as Ray Rice, because by giving him a token two game suspension they de facto condoned his behavior. That is why they will go broke if they are waiting for me to spend any of my money paying those worthless twits at the NFL. Just Random thoughts from the West End.

Ray Rice and the NFL

Well what do you know about that, the Baltimore Ravens as a franchise and the Bisciotti's as a family had the social and moral courage to do what the gutless National Football League would not. Fire Ray Rice for his actions. The NFL then suspended Rice "indefinitely." He should be never allowed to play football again. A steep price must be paid by this man for his actions. I generally don't support ruining a man's livelihood if he is being punished by the law, but there are certain offenses that require serious consequences. We as a society need to punish child molesters, elder abusers, and women beaters. We cannot let these crimes go un or under punished. These must be met with the loss of freedom, money and reputation. The death penalty for ones character. The loss must be tangible, and catastrophic in nature. A slap on the wrist for these crimes should no longer be tolerated by us as individuals, us as a society, or us as Americans. Maybe if we do not tolerate this behavior then these athletes and their employers won't either, and will punish more harshly. Ray Rice is worthless as a human being, and always will be, maybe later on he can and will redeem himself, I don't know, we are a country of second chances, and he may be back. As for now he needs to pay, and so does the NFL. The NFL is such a myopic organization that they border on the stupid. When drug offenses and dog fighting get more time than the beating of a human being then something is wrong with the thinking. That is where the NFL has to pay a cost, even if it only is in the form of publicity. That may be the best way to change their thinking considering they operate on publicity. Have a nice day all.

Liberals

 I have no problem with liberals, I believe that some of their ideas have merit, and some don't. I voted for Clinton twice. Mainly because I don't like those sons of bitches in the Bush family. I refuse to vote for one and never have and never will. It is just Liberals seem to think because I don't agree with them on every issue, that I am some hick or a Tea Party Conservative. Well I don't like some of them either.

I am not a one issue voter. I vote for the person who I think will help me and the country most. Mostly what is good for the country is usually good for me. When it isn't then I vote for what is good for me. I had an Uncle in Korea, one in Vietnam, and two grandfathers in WWII, one of which was killed in action in Belgium at the Battle of the Budge. They sacrificed for my right to vote, the least I can do is appreciate and exercise those rights. So I do. They have their opinion, and have a right to it. I have a right to mine. Neither is any more right or wrong than the other, Like it or not I will fight for their right to express it. Along the way if I disagree with it I will say so. Just because someone is Liberal, Conservative, Tea Party or whatever, doesn't mean they are all bad. When I was 7 I read the "I have a Dream Speech," one line from Dr, King stuck out from it for me. The line: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character." That is how I judge all people. By the content of their character. Skin color and or sexual orientation mean nothing to me, because I simply don't care. I hate no one, I intensely dislike. You will never see the use of the word hate in any of my posts. Hate is a powerful word that need be used only for the truly evil in this world. I don't dislike because of politics. Politics for me isn't personal. Although for some it is.

Conservatives

I wrote a blog on Liberals and now in all fairness I should write one about Conservatives. Like liberals, there is some issues I agree with and some I don't. First of all, I am a Christian and I don't feel the need for my politics to be dictated by my religion. I believe that the Supreme Court misinterpreted the Constitution concerning separation of Church and State. The First Amendment keeps the government out of church, but not necessarily the church out of government. As for abortion, Roe vs. Wade was decided on the right of privacy, which in the Constitution doesn't exist. I do not  believe that it is the government’s authority to mandate what one does with their body.

I believe that an abortion should be illegal after the second Trimester because at that point the baby can live outside the womb. If not then laws that protect pregnant women from violence are moot, and that can't happen. Unless there is some medical emergency and rape and incest. If a woman wants to abort a baby, she can do it long before the second Trimester. Partial birth abortions except in the case of a medical emergency should be outlawed, because that is barbaric and is murder. Abortion is a right, but with all rights it has limitations, but not so many and as strict as to de facto outlaw it. The only people who need free anything from the government are the elderly and the young. Everyone else can go out and earn it. The people should help themselves with a little assistance from the government. 

As for the Immigration issues. All I have to say is that; while we are a nation of immigrants and haven for those immigrants from oppression and genocide, we are also a nation of laws. Illegal immigrants come here because of the rule of law and how that makes for a better life. To come here illegally looking for protection under that very law is racist and counter-productive. We as American citizens have to abide by the law, all the law, we don't have the choice to pick and choose which ones to obey and not to obey based on whether we like it or not. We live in an advanced society, where we enjoy protections and rights, the only thing we have to do is obey the law and we can partake of those rights and protections. What kind of message does it send to a person when we let them break the law to come here and live? Not a good message. 

Baseball owners were making money hand over fist and to keep this up some condoned or outright encouraged PED use among the players. That is why they took so long to ban them. It wasn't until after the U.S. Senate got involved that PED'S were outlawed. After baseball had made all the money they were going to make. None of those players were banned for life.

In 1999 before the second game of the World Series at Fenway Park in Boston baseball trotted Rose out with the All Century All Star team because the sponsor wanted him there.

 It just seems that baseball doesn't want anything to do with Rose unless there is something in it for them. Pete was correct when he said, "If baseball can't use me they don't contact me." I guess that kind of sums the derision That Rose encounters from MLB, and Bud Selig.

While Rose is not a perfect man, none of us are, it just shows how personal this issue was.
He has made his mistake that stems an addiction that overpowers even the strongest personalities. If baseball wants to ban him for life, because of gambling, or because of a book or denial or whatever reason, they should do so, and get on with their life. 

They shouldn't call him when they need him just to make money off of him. That stretches the credibility of MLB. Then again considering the debacle that has been MLB the last 25 years MLB can't stretch something they don't have. The lying two faced hypocrite Bud Selig needs to take his fake morality and go away. He isn't any better than Rose, and he has as Commissioner taken Major League baseball with him.     
   

Monday, September 1, 2014

Minimum Wage

In the 1980's Reagan gave the rich tax breaks so they would take the money saved and hire people thus stimulating the economy. It was called Trickle down Economics. In the 1960's Johnson perpetuated the welfare state, started by Roosevelt to help the poor. So I have been told that if the minimum wage is raised, that more poor people will not be on welfare, and they will put more money into the economy thus stimulating it. Isn't that called trickle up economics and hasn't it been tried before? Like 50 odd years ago? So am I to believe like the rich the poor will spend the money to stimulate the economy, instead of spending it on items that don't figure into the economy? Hmmm, are the poor people any different than the rich people? Just a random thought from the West End.

Tuesday, August 26, 2014

A Changing Yuma

This week begins the changing landscape at 16th St and 4th Ave here in Yuma Arizona. The building formerly a doctor's office and another building formerly an auto parts store and a deli are now gone, razed and hauled to the recycling mill of our memory. The round building that once housed a bank and gold pawn shop are next  along with the an old grocery store and movie theater next on the block sometime later in the year. With the Mortuary being the last vestige of Yuma the way it was. The retail shopping mall Southgate, has already suffered the same fate as the others.

All of these buildings hold memories for those of us old enough to remember and those of us young enough to wonder. Christmas time was the best time of year at the mall. The Christmas tree salesman in the parking lot by Sears. The decorated light posts. The Christmas music while you shopped in the mall. The package wrapping tables for the gift wrapping challenged. All of this with a winter chill in the air.

The Palms mall is nice, but it doesn't have the feel that Southgate had. Same can be said for both of the theaters, The Plaza Theater was warm and cozy, not like the new ones, cold and antiseptic. I guess that life, sometime, when we weren't looking, stopped being warm and cozy. Then slowly, to our chagrin, became cold and antiseptic, when we weren't looking.

The landscape changes, but the people and climate don't. It has been this way for the last 40 years that I have been here for the good and the bad. Every so often a little piece of Yuma disappears, and is replaced with a newer more advanced piece. I am not so sure that change is good for all. Different is good, I am still out on change though. I understand that change and progress are inevitable and a part of me embraces that, but a part of me also wishes that the change wasn't all that fast or all that permanent. I like others have memories of Yuma from the last half century, so I guess we will have to make due with those memories.  

 I am all for helping the poor, but we need to help the poor in this country first. If someone can't work for whatever reason, then put them on some sort of disability. Bringing people in just to make the rest of us pay for them is wrong. I feel bad that their country is bad, but they can't break the law in coming Here, and then expect that same law to apply too them they must abide by all law or go home. To do less diminishes the respect for the people and the law.

·       So the end is finally here for Saturday morning cartoons on broadcast t.v. Another part of childhood has gone away, for the nearly 50 set. Gone is the Christmas break in school, riding in the back of pick-up trucks, drive- in picture shows, and now Saturday morning cartoons, among other things that were around when we were young. Government interference, political correctness and apathy has rendered these mainstays of our childhood to the dustbin of our fading memories.

·       When I was 6 and in kindergarten in 1970, it was the first year of Sesame Street. Our teacher Mrs. Greene would feed us milk and cookies, then lay us on the floor on our big beach towels and we would watch Sesame Street. It was educational and fun too. On the weekend, my mother would wake up and field day the house. While I sat in front of our brand new 19-inch Quasar color t.v. and watched, Scooby Doo, The Wacky Races, and my personal favorite, Penelope Pitstop. I witnessed the beginning of the end for Saturday morning cartoons in the early 1970’ and didn’t even realize it.  The breakfast of choice for this particular Saturday morning cartoon warrior was Captain Crunch with Crunch Berries in a mixing bowl that a couple of hours later I would get to lick cake batter out of. This, interspersed with work with my father and his dump truck, was my weekend childhood life for the majority of the early 1970s., and it was great.

·       I witnessed the beginning of the end of Saturday morning cartoons in the early 1970’ and didn’t even realize it. In 1974, live-action “cartoons” became the rage. Shows like, “Run Joe Run, The Shazaam Isis Hour, H.R. Puff N Stuff, and Land of the Lost, were exercises in education and morality, with a heap of adventure thrown in to hold our attention. Little did we know?  

·       As for the government; there is enough educational t.v. on that it doesn’t need to be mandated. Political correctness aside, I watched the cartoons and I am not a violent criminal,  nor am I something society can do without. I am a well-adjusted, responsible, law abiding citizen.  So, the violence in the cartoons didn’t have an effect on those of us who were raised correctly.  

        The problem with cancel culture is that it looks at right and wrong through today's mirror of fake tolerance, and dubious moral indignation, instead of through the looking glass of greatness and, dignity.

·       As with all good things it had to come to an end, as everything does. It is just a shame that my grand-nephews, and grandson will never know the joys of a childhood just sitting around 1 morning a week and just being lazy, before going out to play. Today is all about sitting around all the time and letting the t.v. raise the child instead of the parent. I was fortunate that my parents were hands on in the raising of my baby sister and I. Cartoons need to be educational today, because some parents have abdicated the raising of their children to the influence of the t.v. specifically, and the media in general, social or otherwise. So maybe it is good that Saturday morning cartoons have gone away, now maybe some other medium can now be blamed for the decline of our society.

     There has been a great deal of conversation about the vices virtues of libertarian and progressive political thought. The current incarnations of both schools of thought, while popular are a far cry from their beginnings. The progressives have strayed from their Robert LaFollett roots as have the libertarians from their beginnings later in the century led by Barry Goldwater.

·       I have seen the passages in the Bible, but God also hates a whole string of others, he has Commandments that say so. If you believe that you can get to heaven through Jesus, and are repentant for your sins, then one should be included in church. If we excluded all who sinned, church would be empty. No sin is worse than any other, Christians are supposed to be understanding and forgiving, not judgmental and accusatory. More of us should act like the former and less of the latter. 

 The only way to understand one another is to know onw another, and the only way we know anything about each other, is through education