Monthly Archives: October 2014

Mudslinging and Misinformation – An American Political Art Form

Have you noticed the direction that political ads have taken?

Recently, Grandma P and I visited our former home state to attend a wedding.  In that state, the political races are a little closer than in our current home state.  The political ads ran 24/7!

The mudslinging!  The accusations!  The character “assassinations!’   Those were just the political commercials running on Cartoon Network!  Holy Crap!  If even 25% of the accusations are  true, all of these candidates should be in prison, not in Washington, D.C.  (Now that is a unique concept!)

I hate election season.  It wrecks my television viewing!  I miss my commercials for expensive cars, body lotions, perfumes, and soda drinks.  They don’t stand a chance against the venomous, biased ads run by political candidates.

What really gores my bull is the misinformation spewed during these commercials.

If you have read any of my blogs, you know that they have a conservative tone.  What really, really upsets me about most of the liberal candidate advertising is the continuation of the ‘class warfare’ element.  Being ‘rich’ is being pandered as being synonymous with being a ‘crook.’  It is being used as a 4 letter word by the Democratic party.  The inference is that if someone is ‘rich,’ those evil people got there by nefarious means, and no doubt on the backs of the poor!  Those ‘rich’ people obviously achieved everything they have by using the backs of the poor as their stepping stones to success.  (Interestingly enough, the Democratic candidates in our former home state are out-spending the Republicans approximately 3:2.  Apparently there is a lot of money available to ‘buy’ votes.)

As stupid as that last paragraph sounds, it is the underlying tone of much of the liberal advertising.  Never mind hard work, getting an education or taking chances in the business world – it is all for naught, because the government will take care of you.  You can have what those ‘rich’ scoundrels have without the effort.  You are entitled to what they have!  Why work for it?

The reason I find this upsetting is that this attitude contradicts the spirit in which this country was founded.  Independence – to do or achieve what you want without government intervention.  Freedom – to be all you can be.  Responsibility – to yourself and to your family to ensure the continuance of freedom and independence.  The liberal agenda seems to be to cast aside these founding principles and, instead, adopt the assurance that you can feed at the bountiful udder of the government teat.  That cow will eventually go dry!

Here are some examples of specific claims I saw in some of these advertisements.

“Candidate X wants to privatize social security.”  This was presented by a 30-something as if the world would end if Candidate X got reelected.  Have you polled anyone under 40 lately about the likelihood of them receiving social security?  I have.  I can assure you that everyone that I have talked to about this does not believe social security will be available once they reach retirement age.  The smart ones are preparing for that eventuality by saving and contributing into their retirement accounts.  Wow!  What a novel idea!  These people are taking responsibility for preparing for their own future retirement.  According to the liberals, these people need to be eradicated, or at least reprogrammed.  Of course, the liberals also like to scare the bejesus out of the elderly by convincing them that social security could be taken away tomorrow.  This will not happen.  That 30 something that was castigating candidate X should have been jumping up and down for joy, as should all the younger members of our society.  Privatization would mean that you could keep all your money and invest it as you see fit!  Again – individual responsibility.  It takes discipline to save.   Yes, it could be taxed to fund the existing social security system until its termination.  But, I believe, most of the younger generation would accept that as a tradeoff.

Why won’t it happen?  Privatizing social security takes the money out of the hands of the people that covet it most – the government of the United States.  Yup, ever since the Johnson administration and the burdening cost of the Viet Nam war, all presidents have used social security funds to balance the federal budget.  This worked well when there were 20 workers for every retiree. We are now down to 3 workers per retiree with the skids greased to get to two workers per retiree.  What started out as a supplemental income became a permanent retirement plan, with most people convinced to not save because ‘Uncle Sam’ will take care of them.  It has become a Ponzi scheme that cannot be funded permanently.  So what do you think of candidate X now?

Here was another observed advertisement.  “Candidate Y accepted campaign monies from companies that outsource American jobs to foreign companies.”  On the surface, this would sound like another nefarious act on the part of Candidate Y.  Let’s string the unpatriotic bastard from the highest tree, just like they did to cattle rustlers in the old west!  But wait just a darn minute, buckaroo!  Before I slap my trusty steed, Old Blueballs on the butt and leave Candidate Y swinging in the breeze, let’s think about this for a second.  If you were to check the labels on the clothing you are now wearing, how much clothing would you be wearing if you only wore ‘American made’ clothing?  If you were to rid yourself of all computers and televisions in your home that are not  American made, how many would you have?  Here is my wild guess as to the answers to the two previous questions: You would be standing nude, looking at a blank wall!  Most of our goods are foreign made.  In the 80s, I bought a new Cadillac.  You can imagine my surprise when I found out it was assembled in Canada!  I was further surprised to learn that half the nuts and bolts on that car were ‘American’ sizes and half were metric.  I found that out when I had it serviced.  Most large American manufacturers have a foreign facility.  We are dependent on these foreign goods.  It is safe to say that  practically every candidate that accepts campaign funds from a large company is also accepting funds from a company that has outsourced labor to a foreign country.  Of course, we could always lower our world high corporate tax rate from 40% down to the world average 22%, but that would mean reducing federal spending.  This has been done previously, and it resulted in increased tax revenue because of the higher revenues received from a lower unemployment rate.  It stimulated the economy.   That would be a smart move on the part of Congress, so don’t expect to see it anytime soon.

The most venomous ad I observed went like this; “Candidate Z supports tax cuts for millionaires!”  There we go again.  Go get Old Blueballs out of the stable,  because we got another galoot to hang from a tall oak tree!  Those darn millionaires got there on the backs of the poor and they are not paying their fair share of taxes!  Get the rope!  Maybe we should delay that execution for just a moment.  In 2010, the top ten percent wage earners paid over 70% of the total amount collected in federal income taxes.  The remaining 90% bore just under 30% of the tax burden.  Forty-seven percent of all Americans paid hardly anything at all – a fact that got Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney into political hot water during the  2012 political campaign.  In 1986, the top ten percent wage earners paid 55% of the total federal taxes.  In 1986 there were just two tax rates – 15% and 28%.  (Ahhhh, the good old days!)  Now there are seven income tax brackets, ranging from 10% to nearly 40%. (So much for simplifying the tax codes!)   Now someone needs to educate me as to how the top ten percent wage earners, those people paying over 70% of the federal government taxes, are not paying their fair share?  Their tax burden has gone up 12% since 1986!  Maybe Candidate Z deserves not to be hanged today.  He probably understands that if we decrease government spending, maybe those darn millionaires do deserve a tax break, getting us back to the tax rates of the ‘good old days.’

Of course, no election campaign would be complete without referencing Obamacare.  I am against this plan simply because it was forced onto the American public by a Democratically controlled Congress that had not read the act or put any forethought into its administration.  It was a hair-brained Democrat scheme to purchase votes, once again trying to get the masses onto the seemingly endless government teat.  So far, Obamacare has appeared to do more harm than good.  Its overall administration has been a disaster.  It proves once again that private enterprise, not the federal government, is more efficient at administering large scale programs.

So there you have it.  Our upcoming midterm election – that time of year when television revenues are going through the roof because of political advertising, and ad agencies sink to an abyss of lost ethics by making their candidates’ opponents look like political derelicts and crooks.

What don’t we see in any of these ads?  Spending cuts.  Established sunsets on all welfare benefits.  Term limits.  Drug testing for present and future welfare recipients.  Corporate tax reductions.  Income tax reductions.  A flat income tax.   Social security/retirement revision.  Somehow, none of these very important items makes the final cut in any of these ads.

I can’t wait until the elections are over so I can get back to my favorite ads.

Go vote!  Or as the Bayou Mauler, editor at large, would say, “Geaux vote!”

“One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics, is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.”  Plato

‘Diversity Acceptance’ and Liberalism: The Downfall of America?

Our country was founded upon Judeo-Christian values.  People migrated to this country to escape religious persecution, to live free from government intervention and to live a free and independent existence.

Over the years, even during my lifetime, we have now embraced political correctness, ‘diversity acceptance’ and liberalism to such an extent that it could jeopardize the future of our great nation.  Let me explain.

Our first successful settlers in the US were the Pilgrims.  These people were basically ‘Puritan separatists,’ as they were being persecuted in Great Britain for not strictly following the teachings of the predominant Church of England.  So in 1620, after fleeing Great Britain and settling in Holland for about 10 years, the Pilgrims made their way from Holland to Plymouth, Massachusetts.

After the Pilgrims were the Puritans.  They were a group of English Protestants who wished to reform and purify the Church of England.  Puritans in England were threatened as England verged on civil war.   Though persecuted in England, they supported uniformity of religion.  This was the Puritan version of ‘my way, or the highway.’  Once in control in New England, they sought to break “the very neck of Schism and vile opinions.”  Puritans expelled dissenters from their colonies.  So much for religious tolerance!

One such expelled dissenter was Roger Williams.  Williams founded Rhode Island on the principle of religious freedom.

You can tell that the Puritans were not a very popular bunch, otherwise some sports team would surely be named after them.  But just when you thought religious intolerance could not get any worse, we were then introduced to the Quakers.  The Quakers were basically Puritans on zealot steroids!  They carried the Puritan beliefs to the extreme.  It could be said they were the first ‘religious extremists’ in America.  By 1685, as many as 8,000 Quakers had come to Pennsylvania from England, Wales, and Ireland.

Catholics settled in Maryland as a result of being driven out of England by Elizabeth I.   There were earlier Catholic missions established on the Pacific coast, but these proved to be unsuccessful.

Virginia was the largest, most populous and most important colony.  The Church of England was legally established in Virginia.  The bishop of London made it a favorite missionary target and sent 22 clergymen by 1624.  The American Revolution inflicted deeper wounds on the Church of England in America than any other denomination because the English monarch (thanks to Henry VIII) was the head of the church.  Church of England priests were required to swear their allegiance to the British crown.  The Church of England in Virginia was embraced by the gentry, ie, the landowners. The poorer farmers were represented by newer religions.  The Baptists presented a more democratic religion.  The Methodists were against slavery.  Thus, a person’s religion in Virginia was somewhat dependent on one’s social status.

As you can see, many of our first states were really established as ‘religious colonies.’

Now we get to the American Revolution and the writing of the Constitution.  The Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution reads, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the exercise thereof…………”  Oddly enough, the phrase “separation of church and state,” does not appear in the Constitution.  It has been traced to an 1802 letter from Thomas Jefferson to a Baptist congregation.  It has since been quoted in several opinions handed down by the Supreme Court.

Other religions have been introduced and have prospered in the United States.  Jewish settlers migrated to the Eastern seaboard.  Mormonism was founded in New York and relocated to Utah.   There are a flood of other religions in the US too numerous to mention.  Suffice it to say, other than those fun-loving Puritans, religions have been established and tolerated and have coexisted relatively peacefully since our founding.

Do you think our country is a little liberal?  It was announced yesterday that the LGBT organization (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) is changing its name to ‘up the stakes,’ according to one spokesperson.  It will now be the LGBTQ organization.  The additional letter Q will now stand for queer.  I am not making this up.

Before I get LGBTQ hate mail, I want to clarify that I do not care if a person is LGBTQ.  What is occurring is that I am becoming rather irritated by the amount of liberal media coverage this organization/movement receives.  If you were to believe the media, you might accept that it is hip to be gay.   I am also beginning to believe that Grandma P and I are one of the few heterosexual couples in America!  Gay/lesbian actors and actresses get an insurmountable amount of publicity and empathy if they profess their ‘gaydom.’  They are brave.  They are passionate.  They should be revered for their honesty.  Less and less media coverage is spent on ‘traditional’ relationships.  Apparently Adam and Eve are not hip, but Adam and George are.  Go figure.

Did you watch the last NFL draft?  Besides Johnny Manziel, who got the most press coverage at the draft?  That would be Michael Sam, the openly gay defensive lineman from Missouri.  Sam was drafted in the seventh round with the 249th pick by the St. Louis Rams.  The media storm topped out as a category 5.  Then, after the circus came to St. Louis, Sam was cut and picked up by the Dallas Cowboys.  Sam then used the ‘d’ word in describing his situation.  He said he was discriminated against, and would not have been cut by St. Louis if he were not gay.  Reality sucks!  (Oops!)  Reality bites! (Oops!)  Oh the hell with it!  He is a mediocre player regardless of his sexual orientation.

As an aside, in high school I was in a play titled, ‘Our Hearts Were Young and Gay.’  Tell me that has not taken on a whole different connotation since the late 60s.

Have you seen some of the recent Victoria’s Secret TV ads?  When I was a teen, you only saw stuff like that in a magazine wrapped in a plain brown wrapper.  Now it is readily available for our children to see.

So why am I muddling through this abbreviated history lesson on religion?  Why the examples of our liberalized society?

We are facing a very threatening foe, and they are taking our political correctness, liberalism and ‘diversity acceptance’ and using it against our country.  That would be the Muslim religion, the fastest growing religion in the world.

In a previous blog, I outlined the tenants of Sharia law, so I will not repeat myself in this blog.  You would be wise to acquaint yourself with this law, as it is the law in 57 countries of the world.

This religion is not a religion of tolerance.  Need proof?

Do you know who Kurt Westergaard is?  Kurt is the cartoonist from Denmark that had the audacity to draw and publish a cartoon showing the prophet Mohammad wearing a bomb in a turban.  Did he get an award for his depicture?  No.  What he got was two murder attempts on his life.  The first was in 2008, when two Tunisians and one Moroccan-born Dane were planning to kill him.  In 2010, a Somali Muslim broke into his house and attempted to kill him with an axe.   The police arrived in time to shoot the assailant.  He has received hundreds of death threats.  The Danish Security and Intelligence Service (PET) is tasked with protecting him 24/7.  All of this because of a cartoon!

So you are probably thinking that this was the work of a few demented Islamic terrorists.  Not so fast, buckaroo.  According to one expert on the religion, 20% of the Muslim religion are Muslim extremists and another 20% are moderate Muslims, leaving 60% of Muslim adherants somewhere in the middle.  But their middle is definitely different than our middle.  As a religion of over one billion, that equates to 200 million extremists.   After the incident with the cartoon of Muhammad, 78% of all Muslims residing in Great Britain thought that Kurt Westergaard should be punished for his cartoon.  Let me be perfectly clear about this……….their form of punishment is not a rap on the knuckles using a ruler by a prune-faced, elderly nun.  There is no spanking.  He will not be made to copy a page from a dictionary for misbehaving like me and my fellow 5th grade classmates were when they misbehaved.  (Both sides!  I copied the page on airplanes because it had a lot of pictures.)  The minimal punishment would be the loss of the hand that drew the cartoon.  The worst would be the loss of the head that thought up the idea of the cartoon.

This religion is slowly worming its way into our society.  It is using our legal system to stymie their transgressions.  The Fort Hood shooter has not been tried after 5 years.  The Boston bomber just got a trial delay, and wants a change of venue from Boston.  He does not think he will get a fair trial there.

Let me again be clear about one more item.  Once the Muslim religion gains the majority, there will be no other religions tolerated as everyone other than a Muslim will be considered an infidel.    There may be no law other than the Sharia Law, which not only controls public behavior, but it controls private behavior and beliefs.  The religion becomes the government!  There is no separation.

Far more than just the fanatical Muslim 20% that think we live in a demented and corrupted society, they find our dress codes and our over-the-top sensual TV ads appalling.  But this is what they can see of us from the other side of the world on TV.  They see our TV programming.   They also see the media attention given to gays and lesbians.  Such behavior is strictly forbidden in their religion.

Who will be the big losers if America were to fall to the Muslim religion?  Obviously the folks that are LGBTQ.   The biggest group of losers would be women.  In the Muslim religion, they are treated not much better than a cow and not as well as a camel.  Good luck with that.

We will see how this all plays out because one of our Western European allies will eventually be dominated by Muslims.  It may be Belgium or it may be France.  Their loyalty is not to the country in which they are residing, it is to their religion.  Whereas most Americans think national, the Muslim religion operates more on a tribal basis.  Remember the comment about, ‘separation of church and state?’  In the Muslim religion, the religion is the state!

Kurt Westergaard was strongly criticized by immigrant communities in Denmark regarding his cartoon.  Westergaard stated, “Many of the immigrants who came to Denmark, they had nothing.  We gave them everything – money, apartments, their own schools, free university, health care.  In return, we asked one thing – respect for democratic values, including free speech.  Do they agree?  This is my simple test.”

This test will get considerably more serious than a ‘pass, fail’ test.

Tomorrow Can Learn From Yesterday: A Lesson For Today’s Americans

Both my Houston ‘nefoo’ and my Cajun editor say they prefer my blogs which tie in my adolescent experiences with a current topic.  Considering what is happening in the world, I have decided to author a  blog that only relates to my experiences growing up as a Midwestern kid in the 1950s.

Here are the current world events trending as I am typing away:  ISIS is being bombed, a policeman was shot in Ferguson, Missouri, and the Americans are having their hats (this is a G rated blog, so I won’t say asses) handed to them in the Ryder Cup.  A volcano has just erupted in Japan, and a man has been arrested in Oklahoma for a beheading.  Egads!  After all of that, my recollections are not just a ray of sunshine, they are a beam of nostalgic bliss!

The biggest differences between today and the 1950s are undoubtedly the unbelievable technological advances in nearly all aspects of daily living.

I can still remember when neither of my sets of grandparents had electricity nor indoor plumbing.  One set of my grandparents remedied this shortfall before the end of the 50s.  My other pair of grandparents passed away in the late 70s, never having embraced these eventual neccesities in their home.  Those grandparents had both an outhouse and an outdoor pump-handled well.  Their illumination was made available with kerosene lamps, and their heat was obtained through use of a wood stove that was also used for cooking.  When my aunt needed to iron her clothes, she heated metal pieces on the stove that clipped into a handle.  It looked like a modern iron except that the business side of the iron was removable so it could be heated.  They had two or three of these removable ‘iron bottoms’ so that when one got cold, she placed it back on the stove and replaced it with a hot bottom.  You would only find these in an antique store today, and I admit I have not seen one for years.

I loved staying with those grandparents and I did so often.  They lived near the railroad, so many times in the middle of the night, my bed would tremble with the passing of a train.  I loved it!  There was nothing quite so comforting as feeling the house cooling in the winter as the stove fire was dying, while I was buried under a warm mountain of blankets and quilts.  I do have to admit that going to the outhouse was a challenge, especially in winter.  Not only did you face the prospect of wading through snow on a very cold, windy night, but then you had to put your butt down on a very cold piece of wood.

My grandmother was a magician with that wood stove.  The best pies, cakes, rolls and roasted meats came out of that oven.  She did everything on that stove that anyone could do with a modern stove.

Most people today could not fathom living in a house such as my grandparents had.  They lived there for decades and raised three children in that house.  They lived well in that cozy home and died happy and fulfilled.  It never occurred to them to live any other way.  I enjoyed staying in that house more than any other place outside my own childhood home.

Another big technological advancement was television.  We had a black and white 19″ console TV in 1952.  We were ahead of 90% of my hometown in that regard.  We had three channels which were the big three networks, ABC, CBS and NBC.  About 10 years later, we had a fourth independent channel.  That was huge!  It was particularly huge because we now could get American Bandstand on that channel hosted by Dick Clark and originating from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania!  I was in my preteen years and if you did not watch American Bandstand with the music and the dancing, you were a nobody and a hick. (You did not want to be considered a hick in an agricultural community!)  At the time, I thought Philadelphia, wherever that was, had to be comparable to Oz!  I vowed I would one day go there.  It had to be beyond cool!  (I have yet to do so!)

In 1963 we got a 19″ color console TV.  We were the third family in town to own one!  It cost my dad $750 to buy that TV.  That was a princely sum and equaled about six weeks’ net pay for him.  I instantly became popular with my classmates.  The first shows we watched in color?  Bonanza and the Wonderful World of Disney.  Both were great family-oriented shows.

We got our first phone when I was in the third grade.  I can still remember how I proudly reported to my teacher that we now had a phone and that our phone number was 349-R2.  (Yes, this really was our first phone number!)   What does the R2 stand for?  We were on a party line.  Our neighbor, who had a phone before us, would  be notified of a phone call by the very personable operator with one ring.  We would be notified of a call with two rings.  Thus the party line.  Our neighbor could pick up the phone at any time and listen to our conversations.  We could do the same.

There is one advantage to not having every person in the US carrying a cell phone.  Parents would always know who their children were associating with, because they answered the phone.  “Ring-Ring.  Hello?   Is little Grandpa T at home?  Who may I say is calling?  It’s little Johnny, the local smoking and drinking teenager.  I’m sorry little Johnny, little Grandpa T is at his grandmother’s house, and they don’t have a phone.”  Of course, I am at home, but you get the picture.

I can remember reading in a Popular Mechanic’s magazine article, as a teenager, about the future use of automated teller machines that would dispense money in lieu of having to go into a bank to receive cash.  ‘Are you kidding me?  It will never happen!  Crooks will crack those machines like a cheap, defective walnut!’  Now we can’t live without ATMs, and we seldom go into our bank.

So much can be said for the technological advances between the 50s and today.  The differences are comparable to the difference between a kite and an airplane.

It appalls me that over 15% of Americans are dependent on food stamps.  Both of my grandmothers had gardens.  Both sets of my grandparents lived through the Great Depression.  Out of necessity, they both took gardening to a science.  My local grandmother, the one without electricity, had a garden at her house, and a bigger one on our farm.  We grew everything with everyone in our family contributing to the welfare of that garden.  Being that my grandmother had survived the Depression, it made for interesting eating habits.  For instance, peas mature and ripen for 2-3 weeks.  When they would ripen, you could expect to eat peas for two meals a day for those three weeks.  (My grandmother made our meals as my mother was working.)  The same thing happened with every vegetable that we raised.  Once it ripened, you could expect to be inundated with it until the growing season ended.  In the mind of a Depression survivor, nothing was to be wasted.  If it could not be canned or frozen, it was, by God, going to be eaten!  That garden regularly fed eleven members of our family and any friends or family that visited.

It does not take acres of land to plant a garden.  A 10′ x 12′ plot could supply lots of food for a family of four.  Carrots, onions, tomatoes, green peppers, peas, lettuce, radishes, cabbages and many other vegetables can all be grown with minimal space.  Some of those vegetables can be grown in pots, thus eliminating the need for any garden space.  Gardening has become a ‘lost science.’  It should be revived in light of the number of people dependent on food stamps.  Maybe we should have fewer food stamps distributed along with vegetable seeds.  If I were underfed or undernourished, you can be sure I would have a garden.  Let’s plant that idea amongst the hungry.

One of my grandparents had Polish heritage and the other had German heritage.  All four of my grandparents were born in the US, but most of my great-grandparents came from the ‘old country.’

My Polish grandparents would speak Polish in the house.  In particular, they would discuss what I would get for Christmas in Polish.  I eventually caught on, and eventually figured out what I was getting.  They never, ever spoke Polish outside the home.  They were Americans through and through.  My grandfather served in WWI, and his two sons served in WWII.

My other grandmother grew up in the US, speaking only German.  She did not learn English until she was 10 or 11 years old.  Once she became an adult, she never allowed German to be spoken in her house.  My mother and her siblings never learned any German because Grandma became all-American and wanted her children to be the same.  Grandma’s siblings felt the same way, and so I never heard any of them speak a word of German.

The purpose of this?  My relatives, all from European countries, could not wait to assimilate into American culture.  In their own minds, they could not assimilate quickly enough.  There was not going to be any ‘press 2 for Polish’ or ‘press 3 for German’ as far as they were concerned.  They would have been appalled and embarrassed by the suggestion.  Without question, all of my ancestors came here to be independent, to be free, and to have the opportunity to be a part of the great American society.  They embraced their country of residence and the future it offered both them.

Our education was also different than today.  We said the Pledge of Allegiance every day.  It was the first thing we did every morning from first grade through high school graduation.

Teachers had absolute authority.  If one of my teachers decided to ‘drop a dime’ about my behavior  to my dad, I could expect my dad to ‘drop a dollar’ on me.  My parents, like most parents, would do this without fail and without questioning the teacher.  This would not end well for me.  The husbands of three of my first six teachers worked with my dad.  He knew about everything I did.

Parent-teacher conferences occurred after the first nine weeks of school.  This was considered a social event in our small town.  I had 60 classmates.  All 60 of their mothers would attend these conferences.  Most of the mothers would buy a new dress for the occasion.  My mother attended all twelve in my childhood, even if she had to change her work schedule, which she had to do often.

All I can say about typical Baby Boomer education is that it was good enough to invent computers, mobile phones and all the technological advances that young people enjoy today.   Having said that, I want to point out that a select few of the Baby Boomer generation actually invented these items.  The rest of us are still trying to figure out how to use them.  Where are the grandkids when you need them?

Thanks for allowing me to reminisce.

PS:  On September 14, 2014, Common Sense by Grandpa T surpassed 100,000 unique hits. Grandpa T’s goal is to educate people on the value of common sense in our ever-changing world, one impressionable mind at a time.