Monthly Archives: November 2015

Fast Information = Fast Forgetting

The one thing that amazes me about our ‘instantaneous-quick as a flash’ culture is our ability to forget situations, items and events as quickly as we learn about them.  There appears to be a direct correlation between these two events.  So I, Grandpa T am offering the following formula for our ‘instantaneous- quick as a flash’ culture.

The faster we receive news and information is in direct proportion to the speed with which we forget that news and information.  Or, f {fast} I {information} = f {fast} f {forgetting}.  Now that I have advanced that formula, am I eligible for some kind of Nobel prize?  After all, if the POTUS can get the Nobel Peace Prize after being president for about 10 minutes, I should be able to get some kind of a prize, too!  (Or…….did you forget he received it?)

There is no question that we receive information much, much faster than we did during my formative years.  Look at all the available sources.  We have the obvious mass media sources of TV, radio and newspapers.  But what really makes this instantaneous is the internet, personal computers, personal handheld devices, cell phones and personal devices that can take either pictures or movies and the ability to create a flash mob in a moments notice with these devices, all with the use of social media.  Look at what can be instantaneously flashed around the world because of dash cams in police cars, from cell phones and from other hand held devices.  It is truly amazing!

Grandma P has a cell phone that has an app that reports traffic accidents, road closures or bridge closures in our area.  Amazing!  Rather than go into a bad traffic area, the app directs you to an alternate route.  Need another example?  Recently, my best friend’s daughter got married.  Because of time and distance, Grandma P and I were not unable to attend.  I was on my computer at the same time the wedding was occurring at the opposite end of the country.  Golly and gadzooks, pictures of my friend escorting his daughter down the aisle were appearing on a social media website within seconds of it taking place!  Pictures of the ceremony and reception were being posted within minutes of the actual occurrence!  My friend was amazed when I called to tell him how beautiful the bride looked and how good he looked in his tailored suit.  It was as if I were in attendance.

November 7, marks the 3rd anniversary of writing this blog.  Yes, if you are sharp, you will realize that I began writing this within minutes of the last presidential election in 2012.  I was bummed and I needed a way to vent my anger, angst and disbelief.  Our country (as you may have forgotten) was experiencing high unemployment, a colossal increase in the national debt, did not have a budget for four years, a large percentage of people receiving welfare and food stamps…..and the country decided we liked that situation so much that we reelected the person that got us there.  That would be Barack Hussein Obama. I digress.

I began visiting some of my previous written posts on the blog site.  Then I realized that what was the ‘hot topic’ at the time of my writing the blog is all but forgotten.  Thus my formula for the Nobel prize of fast information = fast forgetting.  I have given examples of the quickness of obtaining information, let me give you some examples of how quickly we forget.

The financial crisis in Greece.  Do you remember that?  The country of Greece represents less than 2% of the world GDP.  Because of its socialistic society, it could no longer afford all the socialistic programs.  Over 40% of the population was on the government payroll.  People were retiring in their 50s with full salary and benefits.  Coupled with the high unemployment rate, it was a disaster in the making.  They raised taxes on the wealthy to afford their bloated programs.  The result?  The wealthy, which pretty much encompassed all of their educated professionals such as doctors, dentists and engineers, began migrating to other countries to escape the high taxes.  The Greek financial crisis whipsawed the world financial markets and stock exchanges for months. There  was a movement to kick them out of the European Economic Community, thus taking them off the euro and forcing them to go back to the drachma as their currency.  Here is the point of this blog…have you heard about the Greek financial crisis lately and do you think it has gone away?

Benghazi and lost emails.  Benghazi is all but forgotten.  The only reason the name is ever brought up is because of Hillary Clinton’s presidential candidacy.  If she were not a candidate, I very much doubt it would ever be heard of again.  As for the emails?  Well, it is amazing to me that she has abused her position as former Secretary of State to do something infinity larger than Richard Nixon’s Watergate break-in, and he resigned the presidency.  His crime involved reelection.  Hers involved national security.

IRS and the Tea Party Scandal.  This whole event has been swept under the carpet to the point of creating a mountain of dirt under the fibers.  You would think that much dirt would eventually cause a problem, but rest assured, Lois Lerner is still retired, walking the streets and collecting a full pension for being the director of the IRS.  She is thus liberated even after using her position to throttle the Tea Party movement prior to the elections by not granting tax exempt status to their cause.  The IRS throttled many conservative groups other than the Tea Party.  In front of numerous congressional fact-finding committees, our Lois, our government employee, pleaded the 5th amendment to many of the direct questions.  A classic case of the government forgetting that they work for the people.  Why has this whole affair gone MIA from the media?  Well, it was my opinion that Lois Lerner was not the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree and that she was directed in her actions by her boss.  At that time it would have been the Attorney General, Eric Holder, and  he worked for the POTUS.  How convenient during an election year.

Fiscal Cliff and National Debt.  How can anyone forget the overused usage of the words ‘fiscal cliff?’  Yet, when was the last time you heard the term?  Two years ago, it was the term de jour coupled with the continuing controversy about our national debt.  At the time, the national debt was $18 trillion and rising.  The prognosis was it would be over $20 trillion before Obama left office in 2016.  If you can believe Donald Trump, it is already over $19 trillion with over a year to go in the Obama presidency.  Wow!  If you can believe financial pundits, they are predicting a fiscal collapse of mega-proportions on a world scale once the US debt reaches $24 trillion.  I have never heard the reason why, but I have heard that figure and predicted result more than once.  Perhaps the dollar will be replaced as the world reserve currency by some other currency.  The dollar being the world reserve currency is the only reason why we have been able to accumulate so much debt.   If the government was a corporation, it would have had to declare bankruptcy long ago!  Look at what the Greek government has had to do, and then magnify that by about 15.  It is surprising that this pending fiscal crisis was not thoroughly addressed in the first two Republican presidential debates.  But then, it would have made the present administration look bad for quadrupling our national debt in 8 years! 

After reading the previous paragraph about our predicted financial doom, isn’t it interesting that the three of the leading Republican presidential contenders; Trump, Fiorina and Carson are not career politicians.  Unlike the present administration, where less than 10% of the cabinet or staff have had experience in the private sectors of our economy, you can surmise that if any of these three become president, 40% or more of the cabinet or staff will have experience in the private sector of our economy.  That is what we needed in 2012, but opted for the status quo by reelecting Obama.  These three leading Republican contenders have sent shock waves through all career politicians because of their non-political experiences and their rapidly growing popularity among the populous by not being career politicians.  Regardless who the next president will be, they will have to face some very burgeoning fiscal issues.  They will also have to retool our country from socialism back to its capitalistic roots.  But again, I digress.  (Its my blog, and I can digress if I want!)

There were many other terms that have come and gone over the last three years.  Disappearing with nary a whimper.  Government gridlock.  Voter ID.  Washington Redskins name change.  The situation in the Ukraine.   These are just some of the terms and events that were in the forefront and have somehow evaporated from sight like mist in a wind.  Too bad that can’t be said about the Kardashians.

I am writing and practicing  my acceptance speech for the first Nobel prize for Common Sense.  I can just see it now, sitting in Stockholm waiting for that grand announcement….”And the winner of the first ever Nobel prize for Common Sense goes to”……….(Oh crap!  Sitting in Stockholm with no place to go.)

Gun Control or People Control -Which is it?

The hunter was moving slowly, picking each step carefully.  A misplaced step would scare the prey.  The crackle of a leaf or the snap of an obscured twig would prove to be the difference between hunting success or hunting failure.  He continues to move.  The prey would be much more difficult to find if it were not for his trusty dog, Goldie.  Goldie, that ever faithful dog of a Labrador mix combined with an unknown breed that produced the best hunting dog the hunter had ever owned.  Even though the dog was jet black, the medium sized dog was named Goldie when the hunter got him as a pup.  The young hunter had made up his mind about the dog’s name before his father brought it home.

They move further, eyes straining to get the slightest glimpse of the elusive prey.  Goldie’s sensitive nose was in the air.  The dog was using all of its amplified, hunting senses to locate the prey.  And then finally, a slight movement.  Both dog and man perceived it at the same time.  There it was!  Both dog and man froze.  No time for rash movements or noises.  The hunter inched slowly to the nearest tree, never taking his eyes off the elusive animal. The prey, now sensing danger, did not know if it should run or attack.   Once the hunter got to the tree, he took a steady position by leaning against it.  He slowly raised his rifle.  He took aim.  The hunter focused on the front sight, then the prey, then back to the front sight and then the rear sight.  He had the perfect sight picture.    The dog was becoming restless, but like the hunter, Goldie was patient and did not make a move or sound.  The hunter exhaled until practically all the breath was out of his lungs.  Then,  with the experience of a hundred hunts, the hunter delicately squeezed the trigger.  A trigger squeeze,  that if done to rapidly or with a tug would throw off the aim.  The shot rang out and echoed through the forest.  And then………………..

And that, dear readers, is gun control.  Steady position, aim, perfect sight picture, breath and trigger squeeze.  But unfortunately for us, that is not what is meant when the media is talking gun control

The media, bleeding heart liberals and even the POTUS is blaming all of the current unfortunate shootings on the lack of gun control.  This is a fancy way of saying that they want to remove all guns from all Americans…..that is their idea of gun control.

I have another take on this issue.  We don’t need gun control the way it has been put forth, what we need is people control.  Let me explain my idea for people control.

1.  I would pass a federal law stating that any person committing a crime with a gun is automatically given a ten year sentence to be served in a federal penitentiary.  No appeal, no parole, no pardon.  That person would have to serve the entire sentence.    Do you think that would make someone think twice about robbing a 7-11, a bank, or even holding a family at gunpoint during a break-in?  Then, this person would have a trial to determine how much additional prison time they get for the particular crime they actually committed.  If they did rob a bank or a 7-11, they might get an additional 15-20 years tacked onto the initial 10 years.  Do you think this would be a deterrent for anyone committing gun violence?

2.  If someone commits murder with either a gun or a bomb, they get the death penalty.  That’s right.  Grandpa T is advocating a federal law stating that if a murder is committed with either a gun or a bomb, the guilty party receives the death penalty.  Period.  If this law was enacted, do you think that it would be a deterrent?

3.  Anyone caught carrying a concealed weapon without the proper permit, has all of their weapons confiscated, is heavily fined, and serves  a specified amount of time in jail.  If you feel the need to carry a concealed weapon, a permit would have to be applied for through appropriate channels.  I propose a rigorous background check before granting these permits.

I can’t make it any simpler.  I think that all three of the proposed measures would certainly be a deterrent to crimes involving guns.  It is a get-tough policy, but the law abiding citizens need not worry. They need to be protected.  I don’t care if we have to build 100 new prisons, or put a fence around Rhode Island to hold all the prisoners.  If you want to have ‘gun control,’ you need to start with people control.

It gores my bull that the convicted Colorado theater shooter, James Holmes, did not receive the death penalty for the 12 people he killed during his shooting spree.  It really gets  my undies in a bunch that the death sentences for the Fort Hood shooter, Major Nidal Hasan and the Boston bomber, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has not been carried out.  Amazingly, the appeals process afforded these last two people before their sentences are carried out, could be 10 years or more!  Is there any question that these men committed the crimes?

At this point, I am writing an open letter to the politicians of the United States:  We, the majority of the people of the United States, are not interested in ‘rehabilitating’ mass murderers.  We, the majority of the people of the United States, are not interested in supplementing the existence of mass murderers at taxpayers’ expense in any of our penal institutions.  Therefore, we would like to see the aforementioned three laws passed, and the appeal process for murderers restricted to 6 months or less before their execution is carried out.

That is the way that Grandpa T would enact gun control.  It would be done with people control.  But what brand of gun control is being bantered by liberals, the media, by celebrities and by politicians?

Somehow, in the amazing world of Wonderland where they live, these gun control advocates think they can disregard the Second Amendment, wave a magic wand, and make all guns disappear.  I have bad news for these people.  You have been sniffing too much of your fairy dust because you will never, ever make over 300 millions guns disappear in America.  And, if you could theoretically convince the public to turn in their weapons, only the law-abiding people would do it.  Do you think the criminals will do it?  The end result would be a country where the law-abiding citizens are unarmed and the criminals are armed.  What kind of pandemonium would that situation bring?

Unfortunately, as good as my laws are and as well intended as they are to protect the public, there is one large flaw in my people control policy.  The media skirts the issue, the celebrities skirt the issue and the POTUS has skirted the issue all the while they are pounding on their podiums about gun control.  They have skirted the issue of psychopaths.  Yes, those people that would go to any lengths to kill innocent people to achieve their 15 minutes of fame, even if it means the loss of their own life.  Recently, we had the Oregon shooting by Christopher Harper-Mercer.  Christoper killed nine people and wounded nine others at a rural community college before committing suicide.  The Sandy Hook elementary school shooter, Adam Lanza killed 20 children and 6 adults before taking his own life.  I know of no logical way that either of these events could have been stopped with any of the present gun legislation or any other gun control measures.  The fact is, they would have gotten their weapons somewhere to conduct these heinous killings, regardless of the laws.  They were crazy, and how exactly do you control crazy?

The American public has difficulties coming to grips with people that will wantonly murder and then take their own lives.  We have trouble coming to grips with suicide bombers.  Our problem is, we appreciate life too much and cherish it dearly.

I want to put forth a premise that is designed to be thought provoking:  Do you think any of these murderers would have done their killing if they knew the victims were armed?  The Colorado shooter passed two other theaters to get to the theater that had a sign posted stating that ‘no guns are allowed.’  Would he have been as brave in his mission if some of those theater goers were returning fire?  Would the Sandy Hook shooter or the Oregon shooter been as likely to have done their dastardly deeds if they knew the teachers or students were armed?  This is compelling because, if they were stopped immediately they would not have finished their mission, and thus, not received their 15 minutes of fame.  This is not advocacy for arming everyone old enough to pull a trigger, but a way of further defining the problem.

Oh……about the little hunting story?  It was me and my dog, and yes the dog’s name was Goldie.  The prey?  Why, it was those vicious tree climbing rats with bushy tails. Or as most people call them, squirrels.  We ate them.  Goldie was a fantastic dog.  We hunted together for pheasants, partridge, ducks and geese.  Goldie was always waiting to recover any game that I bagged.  If I missed the shot, Goldie gave me a condescending look as if to say, “What am I doing out here, if you keep missing?”  It was similar to the look that Grandma P gives me for watching football all day Saturday and all day Sunday.  (Really.  Would you have read this piece if you knew it was about squirrel hunting?)