Thoughts
of
an
Ordinary
Man
Ideas, Opinions and Stories that Reflect
the Thoughts of an Ordinary Man.
Probably Your Thoughts.
Jack Gorman
Copyright © 2009 by Jack Gorman.
ISBN: Hardcover 978-1-4415-0624-5
Softcover 978-1-4415-0623-8
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including
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Contents
Forward
$1200
33% Bob
911 And What to Do?
2000 Year Old Church
5030
A Layman’s Look at the Banking Crisis
Alabama 1950
Altar Girls
Ambulance Drivers
American Steel
Another DMV Story
Antidisestablishmentarianism
Arab Tricks
Are There Enough of Us
Ban Guns
Banking Crisis Hiding the Energy Crisis
BBC
Benefi t of the Sellout
Bennigans Closing
Bigotry
Black Moms
Black Wednesday
Body By Chance?
Bush Skunks Arabs?
Buy a Car for Half Price
Can Civilians Hire Hit Men to Handle Terrorist Problems?
Can Real People Make an Impact?
Canon
Charlie’s Factory
Chick Filet Cell Phone Story
Chris Dodd
Cigarettes
Debts Owed
Cops Eat Free
Demands on My Time
Desert Boots Ended My Empire
Did the Media Purposely Crush Our Economy?
Dissatisfied Immigrants
$1.35 an Hour
Even the Asian Kids Failed
Everything’s Fixed
Forget Convention
Get In the Groove
Get Out From Under My Sink
Harmonies
Hold This for Me
Home Owner’s Insurance
How Important Are Teachers?
How Serious is the Gas Crisis?
Hum Vee 12/10/04
Human Strength
I Don’t Speak the Language
I Don’t Want My Home Value to Rise
I’ll Take Both
Insurance
Irish History
Italian Food
I’ve Not Seen It
Jackson’s Setup
John Wants to be on Broadway
Juice
Kill Switches Change a Generation
Kmart, the Loss of an Empire
La La La La La
Law of Supply and Demand – Women in the Workplace
Left Handed Buyers
Let Them Eat Oil
Look For the Home in Florida
May I Say, It Could Have Been Done If It Could
Have Been Possible?
Media Words
More to a GI Than Civilians Know
Musicians Who Read and Musicians Who Don’t
Mustard on Hot Dogs and Ketchup on Hamburgers
My Local Tire Shop
My Take on Arabs
Neptune
New Homes for Gitmo’ers
New Yorkers will not Understand
Optimists vs. Pessimists
Our God is Better Than Their God
Paris in Our Backyard
Pay Day Loans
People Normally Agree
Iraqi Christian Persecution
Post Election 2008
Press 3 for Ebonics
Professor Power
Progress Over Discrimination, Grandma
Rack n’ Sack
Radar in the Tunnel
Regrets
Retire, Train, Work
Roll Your Lawn
Royalty
Sabotage Prior to the 2008 Election
Segways
Senate Priorities
SST
Stares
Stateside Fatalities
Strange Car in the Neighborhood
Suicidal Jews
Sunday Morning TV Religion
Surgeons Cut
To Sign or Not to Sign
Taking On My Own Church on Contraception
The Beatles Had Two Tracks
The Colonel Bumps the Girl
The Drug That Is Video Games
The Importance of a Car
The Musical Hook
The Newest Tax Increase
The Nuts on the Block
The Oil Situation
The Villages of New York City
Things My Kids Better Never Have Done
Think You’re a Libertarian?
Thoughts 3/31/2007
Thoughts 10/21/08
Thoughts 11/15/2008
Thoughts English POWs 4/7/07
Timing
To Each His Own
To Outsource or Not to Outsource
Total Quality
True Campaign Reform
Two Party System
We Close at Nine
What Happened to Military Credit?
What if Hendrix Played Guitar Hero
What is Owed to Deliberate Non-performers?
What Makes Music?
When God Designed Music
When It’s Yeller Leave It Meller
When the Music Clicks
Where Do We Stand in the World?
Who Controls the Election?
Who Do You Work For?
Who Should Be Able to Send American Soldiers to War?
Whoever Gets to Grandma First
Why the Need for Strong Leadership
My Thoughts on Why We’re So Fat
World Without Gas Engines
Would You Give Up Your Rights?
Yoko Ono
Additional Rants Brought On By My Personal
Distaste For A Biased And Reckless Media.
60 Minutes Does it Again 9/08
Abu Ghraib
Feeding Intel to the Enemy
Marines on Trial
Marines on Trial II
Meet the Press Hatchet Job 10/5/08
Thoughts 9/11/2006
Thoughts: ABC News Crucifying Marines
Thoughts: NBC Condemnation of US Marine 11/16/04
Forward
My desire, for quite a while, has been to write a book about my opinions of everything. Just MY OPINIONS. No references, no bibliographies, I am the only source. When I rant and rave about politics, religion, or any other subjects which are normally considered taboo in polite company, it seems that
most people tend to agree with me. Maybe they’re just being polite, but that’s a lot of polite people. News reports usually assure me that I’m wrong in my opinions but the many people I speak with on a daily basis seem to lean toward my beliefs, so I decided to compile my opinions into “Thoughts of an Ordinary Man” to see if ordinary people throughout the country tend to agree with me or if maybe I’m just nuts.
I’m led to believe that I’m an excessively pro-American, pro-religion, pro-everything conservative kind of guy but it seems to me that I am more mainstream. I love debating but rarely find too much disagreement with my humble opinions.
I am so pro-military that I find it hard not to choke up just reading about the dedication and sacrifices of our troops. Who doesn’t?
I hate to think that America should change to accommodate new arrivals when I believe that they should adapt to our culture as immigrants have for four hundred years. My question is: if their desire is for America to change then why did they leave their homeland. I also believe that Italian food should taste like Italian food and not Mexican food just because jalapeños are all the rage at this time.
It drives me nuts how some first generation immigrants arrive here with a drive to succeed and great work ethics, and the third generation becomes typical, complacent citizens who add nothing more than another body in the work force, or worse, another drain on the economy.
I am very grateful to environmentalists for adding a conscience to our nation but why the heck do they always seem to become zealots who crush our ability to prosper?
I had found it interesting to study the differences between Shiites and Sunnis for years before the current war so I felt I was able to form opinions of my own which have proven true. My cause for confusion is why our leaders hadn’t formed the same opinions. I don’t feel like a Monday morning quarterback; I just feel that our leaders should have had the same opinions.
Like everyone else, I have opinions about Catholics, Protestants, Jews, Muslims, Blacks, Whites, Irish, Orientals, Democrats, Republicans, and the media and I don’t think that my opinions will insult too many people because I think that these opinions are so close to the truth that they are shared by most honest people.
Like many, I am a casual reader of the Bible and the US Constitution and am still fascinated by both of these. I actually spend time thinking about whether I prefer the President of this great country to be a leader or a manager and I wonder why people who don’t spend time on thoughts like these have a right to vote. I also question why a vote from a healthy, jobless, non tax paying, high school drop-out ne’re-do-well cancels out the vote of a hard working, industrious, tax paying Samaritan.
If I were to read a book such as this for the first time, I would open to any chapter, any time I had a minute to spare. I have tried to write on subjects in such a way as to not expound on every avenue of every theme, but to give you fodder to ponder and compare my opinions to your own opinions.
I had recently received a birthday gift of a word game to be used on a Wii system. I believe it was a hint that I have been ignoring the video game system that has been impressing so many people, including my family. On the opening screen there is some quote from some ancient Greek regarding saying more with fewer words as opposed to saying less with more words. This struck a note with me in that the former appears to be my desire. I have wanted to reveal a thought in three to five minutes of reading; a thought which may bring you another fifteen minutes of contemplation. I don’t seem to have a fl air for easy flowing, flowery verbiage. Not being a gifted typist, and always being short of time, I have no choice but to say more with less. Although this may make for a slightly more intense read, the chapters are only a page long on average.
I have put a lifetime of personally formulated opinions in one book.
To rationalize that this can’t be all that I have experienced I will tell myself that the readers will place a million more hours to reconstitute these ideas back to their original values.
I have been casually writing these chapters as the thoughts occur to me. I’ve been jotting down notes, when a thought pops up, on pieces of scrap paper and in little note books, and then expounding on these note when I can get to a computer.
With no real sense of urgency to publish this book of ideas I’ve been watching one after another of these thoughts come to light on the news or as political platforms and decided to look into publishing so that it does not appear that my thoughts are simply reactions to, or regurgitations of, the thoughts of others. My goal is to publish only original thoughts.
Some one told me that each chapter should be a book of its own. I’m just too lazy to do the research to expound on each subject.
The books that I gravitate to are normally ones with shorter chapters so that I can read for a short time and still have a feeling of accomplishment. It’s tough living life with such a short attention span.
I’m sure that there’s a name and a drug for this condition.
$1200
Talk about naiveté; it can strike anyone. Years ago as a young airman, I felt that I was in dire need of a car. As Viet Nam was just ending, a lot of guys were looking to get back to the real world
and as the opportunities arose to go home one of my comrades was looking to sell his T’bird to get out from under the payments. The car was great. It was only a couple of years old, had a custom saloon back seat and was trimmed in crushed velvet and velour. It was quite the machine and I only needed twelve hundred bucks to own it. The problem was, I had no established credit and the bank wanted a cosigner. I called my father and explained that I was planning on getting married and needed a car, and this was the one. I had a stable income and simply needed a cosigner. After already committing to my buddy, I was crushed when my father turned me down. I lost the car and for the next twenty years I had a certain resentment for his not helping me out when I needed him.
Years later, while reflecting back over life in general, it finally struck me as to what had really happened. My father was in no better position than I was to have a bank approve a loan. He had retired with a bad pension and was poor as a church mouse. As I thought back over my childhood I had never realized that we were poor. We seemed to have as much as anyone else had and maybe even more because my mother always knew how to get the kids off the New York City streets without spending very much money.
I don’t think my old man ever made more than five hundred bucks a month in his whole life. By not telling me the truth, he let me hold a twenty year grudge. He may even have assumed that I knew our family’s financial situation.
He had been a garbage man for the City of New York and in the 1960’s he had made a bad decision.
He was at his twenty one year mark and was eligible for retirement when a major strike occurred.
On the table were the retirement conditions. Afraid that he may be required to stay thirty years or maybe till age fifty five, he elected to retire immediately. Most of his buddies were a year behind him and didn’t have the option to retire.
It turned out to be one of his worst decisions. The workers won the strike and ended up with a great pay raise and maintained their retirement benefits.
My father ended up with his five hundred bucks, and his buddies who retired the following year had great pensions and bought nice homes. My father struggled just to stay in the basement apartment.
Even if I was oblivious, he must have known we were poor.
A simple explanation would have resulted in, at worst, ten minutes of discomfort for both of us and ten more minutes of disappointment, instead of twenty years of hard feelings.
33% Bob
I’ll tell you about a crazy character I had met. This guy was retired Army and was looking to spend some money in the worst way.
His wife had decided that they should have an Acura but their credit rating said that they should be driving a Yugo.
Bob took an Acura for a test drive and was a little erratic with his driving prowess. I told him that he drove like a one legged drunk and he assured me that he was sober. He did however, have a prosthesis.
He had about the best attitude I had ever seen under that circumstance.
It seems that after retiring from the Army he took a job training tractor trailer drivers. One of the new drivers had slipped the clutch while backing up and ‘gloved’ Bob’s leg. Gloving means to slip the flesh off a leg as a glove would be removed from a hand. The gloving required the removal of half of his leg to facilitate the prosthesis. Bob came complete with 8 by 10’s of the before and after the operation in full color.
He explained the unfortunate part of living in Virginia at the time even though he was a native New Yorker.
New York is the town where one can spill a cup of coffee and be awarded six million dollars by a jury. His situation was radically different. He informed me that in Virginia, on the job injuries were limited by worker’s comp to one hundred thousand dollars.
His one hundred thousand went: thirty three to his attorney, thirty three to his wife, and thirty three to Bob. His wife had decided that his thirty three thousand would purchase the new car.
A short while after the purchase, a change occurred in Bob’s life. He told me that he was awakened one morning with a loud thump which woke him up then knocked him back out. He said that his wife had beat him on the head with his wooden leg while he was sleeping and then ran away with his leg so he couldn’t chase her.
According to him, she had cleaned out the remainder of his savings, taken her money, and ran off to Puerto Rico with her new boyfriend; leaving their teenage son with Bob.
Bob was now left with his portion of a twelve hundred dollar a month Army pension which was being split with her, one leg, a two hundred fifty pound, unemployed teenage son to feed, and no job prospects.
I ran into Bob from time to time and he would keep me abreast of his current situations. After procuring a new leg he found a job driving a handicap transport mini-bus. I haven’t got a clue how he managed this with his right leg missing and not being able to help carry the handicapped passengers in and out of the bus.
After a short while he drove the mini-bus into the side of a truck and once again found himself among the unemployed. Virginia had another unique rule which affected Bob. A retired GI is ineligible for unemployment for five quarters because he has technically quit his job. I was always curious why the attorney who took the thirty three thousand dollars for a worker’s comp case which Bob probably would have won with no assistance at all, didn’t provide follow up advice out of common decency.
He eventually ended up moving from one friend’s apartment to another and somehow, even lost his Acura.
He said that he had learned a lesson that he had already suspected, don’t piss off a Puerto Rican woman.
911 And What to Do?
It’s a strange feeling to watch a national emergency unfold and not have a planned response. On 9/11/2001 as the country watched the first attack and then the second and then the third, each serviceman knew what to do; where to report to to prepare to perform his duties.
Each fireman and cop knew where to go. All disaster preparedness personnel had a recall preparation to adhere to. Even Guard and Reservists had a game-plan to follow.
For civilians, the event was extraordinarily scary. Not knowing what was to come next and having no idea what to do or where to go can be terrifying because of a feeling of helplessness. What should you do?
What about your family? Few civilians ever make contingency plans for emergencies because you’re not taught to.
Most Americans under forty years old have never seen a discernible threat to the American population and so, have never had to even think about what to do if the situation arose.
Perhaps that is one of the reasons that so many men and women enlisted shortly afterwards. Not just for patriotic reasons, but also to become a part of the group that does not feel helpless and confused in emergencies. People want to be part of a team; and part of the team that is in control when it counts. There’s a comfort in being in the know, having a duty to perform, and having a planned response.
For the first time in my adult life, I was an outsider. I also stood by and waited for someone else to respond. With no duties to perform to help protect America, I was dependent on someone else to do their duty.
It’s not a secure feeling to be one of the masses; to have no way to help and no idea of what to do next. Thank God for the ones who do.
2000 Year Old Church
I’m asked from time to time why I still go to church. I’m given a hundred reasons why I shouldn’t. There are many valid reasons why one may question the justification for organized religion in today’s world.
Each day it seems like there is a new accusation of child molestation, sexual abuse, larceny, bilking the congregation, and whatever else can be imagined when humans are involved in positions of religious authority. I can personally cite quite a few instances.
I remember meeting someone who needed a car pretty badly but had credit so torn up that no bank wanted to take a risk on him for less than 20% interest plus a huge down payment. He bought a used Camry and promised to use it to restructure his credit.
A couple of years later I saw him again. This time he was driving a new Cadillac, trimmed in gold, and sporting some very expensive whitewalls.
I asked him how he had turned everything around so well and the answer was,” God !”.
The truth was that he had managed to buy some time on a local AM religious radio station and had set up a pretty sweet deal for himself and his wife. He was building a decent following of faithful listeners who were starting to make some substantial donations to his new ‘over the airwaves’ church. One elderly believer had recently donated a $38,000 piece of real estate.
Another preacher I had met had asked to lease a new car for him and his wife. We developed a great rapport and I joked with him about being one of the few preachers that I had encountered that wasn’t a bandit1. With not too much work I was able to qualify them with a good bank. We shook hands and I told him that I was going to have to change my opinion of preachers.
Less than a year later he returned and asked how to get his name off the contract and put it solely on his wife. When I explained that it was a very difficult request, I asked why? He said that he was about to kick his wife’s butt to the curb and wanted her stuck with the car. Good thing that I hadn’t really changed my opinion about preachers.
Many Catholics believe that the clergy had become largely homosexual, and that lifestyle violates the belief of a large portion of the congregation. It may be that the Church has become a comfortable vocation for homosexual males and that homosexual priests provide a role model which attracts more homosexuals.
Unfortunately, some of these priests became sexual predators and many lives were ruined, casting a distasteful cloud over the Church.
With these and so many other problems with clergy, I can see why so many people have lost their faith in organized religion.
My answer as to why I still attend Mass is: the Church is 2000 years old. When Jesus handed the reigns to Peter He set a standard which will continue till the end of the world. There have been many bumps in the road throughout the twenty decades such as an occasional bad Pope, an English king who kicked the Church to the curb for his personal convenience, and a number of opportunists who have lost the true path.
I’m sure that none of this has come as a surprise to God, and I consider these as a few bumps in a long, long road. Long after we are gone the Church will continue and will cycle up and down in popularity. My job today is to ensure that there are at least some people who will speak well of the true Church.
1 A term used in retail for customers with bad credit or underhanded in their
business dealings.
5030
The following was response to an article presented on a website dedicated to the ex-residents of my old neighborhood in uptown Manhattan. The article contained old newspaper accounts of an explosion in a telephone company building, on my block, which killed about twenty workers, mostly women, and injured about a hundred more in the early 1960’s.
It happened while I was home for lunch from grade school and I was probably the first one on the scene.
For the near future, the block resembled later pictures from Beirut or Baghdad.
The address of the building was 5030 Broadway.
Hearing glass shattering while home for lunch from Good Shepherd School, I ran to the street to see the results of the catastrophe. At 8 years old the
first thing noticeable was broken glass everywhere. Injured women were hanging from the phone company windows trying to escape the building. No adults were any where to be seen so I ran back to my apartment to have my mother call the police.
It was difficult to comprehend what had actually happened, even as I was able to watch everything unfold.
Throughout the rest of the day and night it was more confusion than anything else. The major questions seemed to be accounting for who might be missing.
My grandmother owned a luncheonette on Broadway, not 50 yards from the phone company building, and so, knew many of the girls who worked at 5030 and ate lunch at the store. The anticipation as the names were released was the worst.
The men of the block reacted by running into the building, as you would hope a man would react when challenged, and the women were on the spot providing aid and comfort to the injured. It makes you proud to have come from those people, in that time.
With all the carnage, in retrospect, it did not seem to have very much negative effect for the kids on the block. As time went on it simply became part of our way of life.
I don’t remember any psychologists providing counseling and I don’t remember any lingering mental problems with the kids. Everyone just adapted.
As the cleanup began and the construction went on forever, it was quite an interesting block to live on. The construction equipment and rubble piles became quite the playground.
Being that young, we were more likely to make the situation as positive as possible.
Without anyone explaining how mentally incapacitated we should have become – we didn’t.
I wonder how that would have compared to a similar event today.
A Layman’s Look at
the Banking Crisis
The government is asking for about $4,000.00 from each American family. Who gets this money that is coming from my family’s budget and why are the details so complicated that ordinary people can’t understand the situation?
How many of my family’s dollars will go to the managers and speculators, as bonuses? These maggots have been profiting far beyond the comprehension of ordinary people. If I start a business and fail due to mismanagement or if I simply mismanage my family, I don’t expect to be rewarded by someone else.
Where the heck did this $700 billion figure come from? It sounds like more money than the US has transacted from Jamestown till 1960 cumulative. It’s an ungodly amount of money. An amount so large that most people simply blow it off because it can’t be real.
$700 billion seems like enough money to pay five years of mortgage for every homeowner in default.
And, this should go to a government controlled agency to bail out known losers? Based on the proven history of other government controlled agencies it will be tripled, and we all know that.
I wouldn’t give a dime! Wall Street’s bad performers would simply fail – and be prosecuted publicly. Assets would be seized, including their protected Florida mansions which were purchased as insurance against their criminal actions. Accounts, assets, vehicles, and yachts of these perpetrators would all be confiscated and liquidated.
The CEOs would have no more assets than the janitor who has lost his job due to the mismanagement of the CEO.
People who purchased real estate far beyond their means, because they were misled by unscrupulous realtors and lenders, would be offered assistance through new mortgages for extended terms guaranteed by the confiscated assets of the criminals. These longer mortgages would offer homeowners an opportunity to maintain their homes and not become a burden on everyone else.
Only victims would be assisted. I would love to see this put to a vote before my family’s money is committed.
Any excess money from the funds confiscated from these crooks should be deposited into my 401K account to replace what was stolen by these scum.
Alabama 1950
I heard a discussion on Iraqi insurgents which answered the question I had been pondering. The subject is often clouded with talk of al-queda and other outsiders who are interfering in the Iraq problem. Those enemies can be handled.
The reason the Sunni insurgents are so difficult to defeat is ‘Alabama 1950’.
What I mean by this is: imagine an outside power such as Germany, if we had lost WWII, or Russia, if we had lost the Cold War, coming into Alabama in 1950 and setting down a new set of rules.
What if the Whites in Alabama were told that the Blacks were now in charge and their new rulings would be enforced through the power of the new conquerors.
After generations of White rule, it ends overnight.
How hard do you think those white Alabama boys would fight against Blacks and the invaders? There would be a hell of a resistance.
How compassionate do you believe the Blacks would be toward the Whites as the roles were reversed and where would the White anger be directed as their homes, businesses, and farms were confiscated?
In Iraq we were the invaders. The Sunni minority had been incontrol over the majority Shiites for many years. Power was stripped immediately from the Sunnis and given to the Shiites.
The Shiites were not prepared, nor trained to receive the power and therefore complicated the transition even further.
Picture the resistance that the Alabama boys would have offered and apply it to Iraq today. As the atrocities began to mount against the Sunnis a lot of scores were being settled on both sides.
Although the transition may have been handled differently, there is very little variation that could have been expected for the outcome.
Both sides have to adjust and some memories will never die. Think of the controversy over the Confederate flag in the Southern states a century and a half after our Civil War.
I do believe that the problems with outsiders such as al-queda or Iran may someday ease up but old memories die hard.
Altar Girls
One to the changes to the Catholic Church has been the introduction of altar girls. With less and less interest in the Church today it must be difficult to attract altar boys.
When I was a kid, many of the boys became altar boys or choir boys. It seemed kind of a natural thing to do prior to high school.
It didn’t insinuate a propensity toward a religious vocation; it was just the thing to do. Some of the parents who were directly off the boat hoped that their sons would become priests because the mother of a priest was held in high regard back in the old country and she could receive special privileges for donating a son to the priesthood or a daughter to the convent.
Each gender had a distinct path. Girls were not altar boys. Boys
were altar boys.
It does seem a bit unusual to see girls on the altar serving in a position that was exclusively reserved for boys. The Church has been making quite a few adaptations in order to survive extinction.
Some say that the Church should stand fast and if only a small number of the faithful remain then that small group of the truly faithful will rekindle the Church in the future. They believe that if the Church continues the metamorphosis, the Church will no longer have a basis from which to return.
Others say that whatever it takes to survive as a Church today is okay. Questions about gender, homosexuality, fidelity, and abortion are all on the table when it comes to surviving. It’s a tough call.
I, personally, feel that the problems of the Catholic Church today are just a blip on the radar screen. With a two thousand year history of surviving, directly back to the pact between Jesus and Saint Peter, today’s problems will pass. Every other Christian church was an offshoot of the Catholic Church. Corrupt Popes and immoral priests who had damaged the Church from time to time have come and gone and will continue to come and go as long as human beings are associated with the Church.
Through all the trials and tribulations of twenty centuries, the Catholic Church still survives. This might very well be the time when it all crashes down, but I doubt it, as long as the core stays strong.
Ambulance Drivers
Hearing the stories of bravery and integrity of modern emergency responders it puts them on a plateau above the norm. Although underpaid, it has made these professions very desirable for young men and women.
Many kids aspire to become EMT’s (the new name for ambulance drivers). It seems that the EMT’s are better trained than ever and have more life saving equipment than even hospitals used to have.
The EMT training courses are tough and it gets progressively harder and harder to advance in the career field while staying current on the new life saving equipment that becomes available each day. In an emergency you’d probably prefer to have an EMT on the scene than anyone beside an ER doc.
This is a far cry from the days when it seemed that the ambulance was there simply to get you to the hospital.
In conversation today with EMT’s the talk is usually about great stories of blood and guts where lives were saved through the quick
actions of the techs. There is a great pride in saving lives and a job well done.
The first ambulance story I can remember was from a New York City ambulance driver from the days when NYC was notorious for corruption.
The story was about the skill level of the ambulance drivers when responding to DOA’s.
The most skilled could enter an apartment and immediately size up the situation. Through years of experience and OJT it was immediately apparent where the deceased hid their money and valuables. Some people were the ‘under the mattress’ type; some were the ‘mayonnaise jar’ in the refrigerator type.
The very best ‘first responders’ were able to discern this quickly enough to pocket the booty before the police arrived and the goods had to be split with them. From the stories I remember, there was a great pride in a job well done – and done quickly.
American Steel
If you want to know what makes America great, start your list and I’ll give you a great one – American steel. Very few countries can make steel like the US. Maybe Germany, maybe Japan, but not many more. Drop a Leatherman knife in a bucket of water and take it out ten years later and I’ll bet it still looks like new. Nothing holds an edge like it.
The competitors have started manufacturing in China and they are NOT the same. They are just cheaper. They have the same old reliable names but they are junk. A person who makes a living with his tools, owns a Leatherman. It may cost more but it lasts forever.
One of the reasons that the Japanese have been able to impact the auto industry is the overall quality of the metal. The Koreans are nowhere near the quality although they may get there soon.
As we share our technology, we do tend to get our asses kicked.
The Japanese have begun to crush us in more than just electronics. The mastery of steel manufacturing has made them world class. It must be some battle for them to keep the Koreans a step behind.
I had once watched a Dent Doctor plying his trade at an Acura dealership. After pushing dents out of a number of Japanese cars, he came upon a Korean made Ford and when he attempted to push the dent out, his tool pushed right through the sheet metal and the car had to be sent to the body shop for major body repair. His profits were shot for the day and I’m sure that he never again confused a Korean made car for a Japanese made car.
The next question is: with all the advanced tech companies, such as Boeing, dealing with China, how long will it be till we lose our edge in the world of steel to China. We may then have access to good quality steel but we won’t be able to afford it, even at the reduced price, because we’ll all be unemployed.
Another DMV Story
With all the complaints I have about DMV, I had heard a great story which I still remember well. A few years ago the Virginia DMV was making some changes to save money.
The plan was to close on Wednesdays and to also close some of the DMV offices around the state2.
As this was happening I had an opportunity to speak with someone directly involved. She told me of the happenings at her particular site.
It appears that a DMV official was dispatched from Richmond to speak with the workers at the affected offices.
Upon arriving, he called the girls together for the announcements.
First, he said, DMV offices will be closing on Wednesdays in an effort to save money. Second; after next Tuesday you will no longer need to come to work because this office has been scheduled to close permanently.
As the story went; the girls huddled up for a minute and advised the DMV official of a modification. They told the gentleman that there would be a slight change to the plan; they did not feel well enough to continue to work and needed to go home sick. He could service the customers till they closed the following week.
If you’re going out – go out in style!
2 It seems to me that DMVs and ABCs are the two money generators in most states. Everything else, such as roads, schools, etc., consumes money. Why would
you cut back on income generators?
Antidisestablishmentarianism
Funny what we can remember and when we can remember it. In grade school, my mother was considerate enough to procure a tutor for me to help me overcome my desire to fail.
It was quite embarrassing for me at the time to have the teenage girl from down the block interfere with my playtime and, of course everyone on the block knew that I had a tutor.
Beside the benefit she provided to me of saving me from losing a year of my educational life by being left back, she taught me how to spell antidisestablishmentarianism.
Presented to me as the longest word in the dictionary, it seemed challenging enough to tackle. Today, every one of my kids can spell it and so can my siblings. I don’t even think there are many dictionaries left that even list the word but, if the occasion arises, I can handle it.
This could be similar in nature as to why kids seem to excel at language studies and anything else that they, themselves, decide is
worth learning.
Oh yeah, it’s a noun, meaning a political philosophy opposed to the separation of church and state.
Arab Tricks
I learned a lesson in real estate and cultural relations while selling my house. A full price offer came from a buyer who introduced himself to me as an Egyptian Christian. This was supposed to add credibility to his offer. I answered enough of his friendly questions to reveal that I had purchased another home and would be closing shortly. He appeared friendly enough and even brought his family to see the house as they made their move-in plans.
The scam you ask?
As my realtor placed all other offers on the back burner and put the sale pending sign up, the zinger came. After I committed to the new house and potentially lost my ‘hot’ buyers, he proposed a new offer that was thousands lower than his first written offer.
One thing that he learned about real estate law is that offers are not binding.
The combination of cultural low ethics and utilization of real estate loopholes is becoming a more common practice according to some realtors.
The goal is to make an attractive offer to ensure that you commit to your next house while losing your hot buyers. This often works because most Americans have a different ethics standard than some of these maggots have.
Needless to say, I dismissed this worm and kept my house on the market.
As the next culturally similar maggot attempted the same ploy I accepted his offer and requested a twenty five thousand dollar, non-refundable deposit up front. That was a portion of real estate law that he was not so schooled in and he vanished to find another honest American to scam.
Luckily, I found an honest buyer who purchased my house at a fair price. As home sales are becoming more critical today, I wonder if these ethically challenged maggots are becoming more common?
So as not to appear bigoted by a single mid east cultural experience, let me share some more mid east cultural stories.
While still living in the aforementioned house, the 9/11 tragedy occurred. A day of two later, while leaving my house to take my daughter to school, the black Suburbans sped into the cul-de-sac opposite my front door. As they stopped, the flack vested, crew-cutted agents swarmed over one of the houses. It was the first one of these operations that I had seen in real life and I didn’t have a clue as to what was going on.
A few days later, after I had a chance to read the paper and do a bit of inquiring, I bumped into my neighbor who reflected on how terrible Said had been treated.
Looking for agreement from me on the mistreatment, he was looking to the wrong person.
I explained my opinion of the situation: first, his name is Said, second, he has a mobile basketball backboard in his driveway but no kids; and he, obviously, has never used it, third, he owns a cigar store in a strip mall but I have never seen a customer in his store and he manages to afford a home in a very nice area, fourth, his house happens to be the only house in the whole development that borders on the airport runway, and lastly, the search of his house revealed ten passports which have been used for travel to Lebanon.
Unfortunately, you never seem to find out the rest of the story in these cases. Guess I should have been a cop.
Here’s another true story. Years ago I worked as a recruiter in the North East and covered many of the colleges and universities. Some times I would have some time to kill and would have the opportunity to speak with some of the students in a non-professional setting. My favorite was to speak with Palestinian students at schools such as Fairleigh Dickenson University in New Jersey.
I would start off a conversation with a young Palestinian by inquiring as to his opinion of the mid east situation. The initial response was always the same, “it is unfortunate that peace cannot exist in the mid east.”
Next, I would agree the peace should prevail because the Jews and the Palestinians were brothers who shared a common ancestry if you go back far enough. I could always see the jaw tightening a bit at this point.
I always believed that these engineering students were a potential threat.
Next I would ask why the Palestinians had never taken it upon themselves to accomplish what the Jews had accomplished with Israel and asked whether the Jews should have a stake in Israel after developing the land when no one else had accomplished such a marvelous feat.
As the blood vessels bulged in the forehead I knew that the brotherhood, living in peace line was a crock.
It didn’t take much to have a Palestinian reveal his true ambition of death to all Jews.
I could have had them screaming that out loud if I had had the desire.
I was always amazed at the training that we were providing to these kids that positioned them to inflict damage in the future. I guess the driving force was the money brought to the universities by these kids. The engineering schools were overwhelmingly foreigners because the American kids were studying sociology and psychology.
Without foreign kids in the programs the engineering schools would have collapsed. I wonder if the foreign students in the flying programs prior to 9/11 were what kept those programs afloat.
Are There Enough of Us
This is a question I posed prior to the 2008 Presidential election.
Although not a dyed in the wool McCain supporter, I did believe that he was owed a debt for his sacrifices and that he more closely represented traditional American values.
The opposition appeared to resent these values which they believed to be represented by older White Christians, and in particular, George Bush. This ended up eliminating McCain and even Hillary.
Traditional American values, from family to religion, were becoming demonized and obsolete. Believing that these values had made America strong and free, I was concerned that this freedom was neither appreciated nor understood and would be used to eliminate its very foundation in an attempt to obtain personal gain, instigated by empty promises.
According to the pollsters virtually every Black in America will be voting for Obama. This is understandable to me because of the ‘loyalty factor’.
My concern is that virtually every Muslim, every radical, everyone wanting a free handout, every terrorist sympathizer, every liberal university professor, every illegal alien who has managed to get a vote, every homeless person who is carried to the polls for a free meal, everyone who desires America to subordinate itself to UN domination, every college student who wants to be a hippy when they grow up, and everyone who values Oprah and Hollywood over traditional family values, will be voting for Obama.
To these people character is meaningless. They possess a blind faith in their new messiah which cannot be swayed by truth.
Are there enough traditional people who will show up to vote?
You’ve gotta touch everyone you know because they are
touching their people!
Ban Guns
I sometimes wish that guns, as well as many other questionable items, had never been invented; but they had. Our Constitution gives our citizens the right to bear arms as per the Second Amendment.
As a homeowner with a family I appreciate the playing field being balanced in the event some ‘crazy’ attempts to harm my family.
Being armed allows me to provide the proper protection for my family and possessions until proper authorities can respond with assistance. It also permits me to contain a situation so that a police officer will not have to sacrifice his life in order to protect mine after a break-in. Break-ins occur all the time so I am not so naïve as to think that I am immune.
Being properly armed and trained I am not as worried about protecting my family and home as I am about the efforts of some people to confiscate my weapons and tilt the field in favor of the criminal who will always have access to weapons.
Living as a sheep, at the mercy of the odds that the next break-in will be at someone else’s home instead of mine is not as comfortable as I like to be.
Why these people are so hell bent on taking my protection away absolutely befuddles me. These are normally the same people who desire lighter sentences for the criminals who would murder an innocent family.
As usual, I have a recommendation. I propose that those who want guns removed from the homes of law abiding citizens make a positive gesture to show their good intent and investment in their beliefs. Place signs on their lawns and windows saying, “There are no guns on these premises”.
In a society shaped by those more liberal than I, I would like to see a firm commitment from them to confirm their belief that all people are basically good.
I, personally, would like a perpetrator to at least think twice before entering my home. He should have to be willing to risk his life to do so because, Lord knows, there is very little deterrence in the legal system.
Banking Crisis Hiding
the Energy Crisis
With all the attention given to the banking crisis right now, what’s going on with the oil crisis? How much profit will be scammed by the oil producers while the limelight is on the banks?
I have an opinion on the energy situation. The first candidate to recommend my opinion gets my vote.
If the energy crisis is real and there is a real desire to solve it, it will proceed like this: NASA will redirect 75% of its efforts toward alternative energy solutions. 25% will remain supporting the current space obligations.
NASA has funding, America’s best scientists and physicists, facilities, and a non-profit mission directed by the US government. Command and support structures are already in place and need to be redirected to handle the proclaimed energy crisis which is proving to be a threat to our national security.
If one solution is the development of better batteries for gas-free vehicles then why haven’t we redirected our resources already?
How serious are we to solve this problem? It appears to me that the solution, so far, has been to raise the price of gas and oil to the breaking point and then to lower it slightly till the heat dissipates. It’s worked well enough so far to have us paying twice what we were paying just a few years ago and feeling happy that it’s no longer above $4.00.
A drastic reduction of oil needs will disempower our enemies and make us the world leaders again.
Until such a move is made I have to assume that the only ones concerned about oil prices and availability are the consumers.
BBC
For years I have enjoyed listening to BBC2 radio. I like it for the radio personalities and especially for the music, which caters to people my age. The personalities which appear during the morning and early afternoon (eastern US time) are great. The added benefit of listening to a British radio station is that, occasionally, American personalities are interviewed.
With the interviewees feeling safe by 3000 miles of ocean, it is interesting to hear these interviews. When the American public exploded over the Dixie Chicks’ unfavorable comments about George Bush I was not very surprised because I had become used to this type of diatribe.
While appearing on foreign radio it has become a symbol of status to demean the US.
Bonnie Raitt’s interview on the Steve Wright show was a classic. Her denigration of the US government made me assume that she would never consider returning to such a hell on earth.
The boys of Crosby, Still, and Nash have a ball knocking the US.
The British audience must have a very dour picture of us when American stars are so vocal about their distain for our lifestyle.
Randy Newman had a blast knocking the Bush Administration. He announced to a British audience that it was not the worst in history as long as you can compare it to Hitler or ancient Rome.
Antonio Banderas presented a documentary about the glory of Che Guevara. Che is hyped as a hero throughout the anti-imperialist audience. His romantic presentation of Che and Castro shows his true feelings. He didn’t emmigrate to Cuba to make his fortune though.
The British have leaned left for quite a while now and some American stars feel that they can make brownie points with the enlightened British audience by tossing their loyalties aside. Maybe these are their true feelings and they feel more comfortable with a civilized audience rather than the American barbarians. They always seem to come home though.
Britain (once called Great Britain) does not have enough of an attraction to keep them there. Maybe it’s the image of a nation of men with crooked teeth who seem to wish that they were girls. Maybe it’s because these stars eventually realize that many of the talented British had emmigrated to the US because of the opportunities here and the demanding taxes there. Maybe, because there is no place in the world that can match the US; especially when there are so few places that would allow a citizen to publicly debase their own country while on another country’s national radio station and then allow them to return home to make more money for the next trip abroad.
With the advent of world wide radio access through a home computer, more Americans can stay in touch with their favorite stars as they travel the world as our roving ambassadors. Perhaps, it won’t be just the Dixie Chicks who get to share their adventures abroad with their fans back home who support them so lavishly with their capitalist dollars. The socialist dollars don’t spend so well.
Benefit of the Sellout
When the glass is half full, it’s just that much more that’s gonna spill when you knock it over! (Jack 33:2)
With jobs moving overseas and mills closing throughout the northern rustbelt, there has got to be an upside. To the unemployed New Yorkers, Ohioans, Michiganers, and Pennsylvanians, it may be hard to believe this.
As we sell out to China, Mexico, and any other place that can help to destroy the American infrastructure to benefit the companies that can best take advantage of foreign slave labor for increased profit, the hope is that it will eventually reach a breaking point.
Many American workers are already at the breaking point because they cannot feed their families, they can, however, buy imported goods at a lower cost from Wal-Mart.
When the breaking point is reached nationally, and we can no longer afford to import because we have made them richer than we are (case in point is Japan who was in the ‘China slot’ in the 60’s and now uses us for cheap labor) there will be an opportunity for us to build new factories and mills which will be needed to provide America with goods which we will no longer be able to afford to import. These new factories and mills will be more efficient to operate and the increased cost effectiveness may once again provide gainful employment to permit America to cycle back to the power position.
Although most of the great nations of the past were never able to recover, we may be the exception.
Bennigans Closing
The evening news just announced that a restaurant chain known as Bennigans has closed all locations without advanced notice.
They mentioned that the owners have filed for chapter 11 protection from creditors. The portion of the report that concerned me most was the interview with the worker who showed up for work only to find the doors locked and no paycheck waiting for him.
The owners will probably be protected enough by the chapter 11 to re-emerge as another restaurant and retain their management positions with little disruption of their lives.
My concern is for the workers who had their trust betrayed and will now lose their apartments, cars, and maybe even their furniture for non-payment.
Although I am far from being tagged as a Liberal, I do believe that an owner has an intrinsic responsibility to those who he has agreed to take on as an employee, provided the employee was a responsible asset.
I don’t agree that protection tools such as chapter 11s, 7s, and 13s were designed to protect only the managers and owners; especially when these people may drive a bus over their employees to protect themselves.
The average restaurant employee will make less than thirty five thousand dollars. The affect of no pay for a few weeks till another job is found or until unemployment kicks in is catastrophic.
Although the six figure person may be affected, the worst case situation is for them to end up in an apartment temporarily as opposed to the apartment dwelling worker who can end up on the street.
It seems that from Bennigans to Wall Street the story is the same.
Bigotry
I was sometimes a bit uncomfortable around them. We’re supposed to all be the same but there are enough differences, in my mind, to justify hanging with my own kind. The language may be the same but the jargon is definitely not what I’m comfortable with. When they talk, it takes some adjustment to be 100% sure what they are saying.
They dress different too. I kind of prefer my look but I have to admit the some of their accessories look sharp.
The hair styles are different and I notice lately that some of my own kind are starting to get haircuts like theirs. That does tend to irritate them a bit and they call us wannabes. They think that they are the real deal because they’re cool right now.
Deep down they really wish that they were more like us. We are better educated and have a higher class life style. Their life is more physical; ours is generally more intellectual. Not that one is better than the other but it is a bit different and birds of a feather . . .
They are not all the same anyway. Some are worse than others, especially when that macho stuff fl airs up. They fight with themselves as much as with anyone else.
It’s not that they’re better or worse than us, just different enough to make each feel a bit more comfortable with our own kind.