The Dish
The bill that just overwhelmingly passed the Kansas House of Representatives is quite something. You can read it in its entirety here. It is premised on the notion that the most pressing injustice in Kansas right now is the persecution some religious people are allegedly experiencing at the hands of homosexuals. As Rush Limbaugh recently noted, “They’re under assault. You say, ‘Heterosexuality may be 95, 98 percent of the population.’ They’re under assault by the 2 to 5 percent that are homosexual.” As its sponsor, Charles Macheers, explained:
Discrimination is horrible. It’s hurtful … It has no place in civilized society, and that’s precisely why we’re moving this bill. There have been times throughout history where people have been persecuted for their religious beliefs because they were unpopular. This bill provides a shield of protection for that.
The remedy for such a terrible threat is, however, state…
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I remember like it happened last week, They were the weekends spent at our great grandmothers out in the very small village of Gerry,NY. She was a school teacher back when all the children regardless of age were in one class and taught together. She at this point in life was pretty old and needed crutches to get around. It is amazing to me now how she kept up with at that time I think three of us boys. I think back and remember the willow tree in the front and the tire swing right out back in the black walnut tree. Then there was the hill which when I seen it again just a few years ago is so much smaller now but to a child around 10 it was huge. I recall the countless times she would call out the back door to tell us to wash up dinner is almost done. Sundays were the best, She made chicken and dumplings of which the likes I have not tasted since. I could spend hours and hours between that willow tree climbing it and swinging under that walnut in the back. There was a slide we carved out by repeated trips down the hill and which great grandma would act perturbed and announce we were going to make the whole hill collapse one day if we kept on.
My great grandfather who sadly had passed before I was born was a huge fishing guy and had a shed just off the side of the back yard. It was pretty well falling apart at this time. He had hung the heads of the Muskey he had caught on Chautaqua lake. I remember seeing the teeth on these fish and was amazed. As much as I like to fish it would have been so cool to have known him. With out a doubt he could have taught me many things that are now completely lost to time. It was at this house that I was given my first bike, A yellow cheetah slick. Also it was here that I learned to mow lawn with my grandfather on the weekends. He would come out every weekend to mow and over time had enough confidence in me to leave me on my own with it much to great grandma’s dissmay. She protested at first but he assured her I would be fine and history proved him correct. I on one sunny afternoon thought it would be a great idea to dig and plant a vegetable garden on the side lawn and asked great grandma if it was alright which she did. The next occasion on which gramps came out he was not as fond of the idea but it was to late and the deed was done. I think in hind sight this was her way of repaying him for handing over the mower to me.
Down the road maybe a hundred yards was a little country store and as we got older we were permitted to walk down there by ourselves and get candy or a pop. This was like a graduation of sorts and a little more freedom outside of the yard. The store itself still stands today but I think it was turned into apartments. Also as I recall it was not much longer after this we were allowed to go down further the opposite direction to the creek and swim and for some reason that had nothing to dlo with fishing we would catch crayfish. If I recall correctly it was it was quite a bit further then it was to the store. After all in this era children were safe to go out and explore and be kids without parents being worried about child abduction. I wonder at what point did things change and what caused it. When did these predators start to appear in our midst. Back at the time at my great grandmas house the only thing we had to fear from adults was telling on us when we did something wrong and maybe even correct us right then.It was completely true back then that the community raised the children and not just the parents. It did not matter a bit if it was the store owner down the street or the village clerk next door. The children were loved, Nurtured and yes disciplined when it was called for.
I guess my whole point to this is why we have stopped doing this? We have young children walking around with their pants hanging down and are more than a little desrepectful to everyone around them. I just wished we could get ourselves back to that time. I know it might be impossible to most, But I think it just comes down to teaching the kids what is acceptable and what is not. For societies sake and our future we need to teach this and let them be kids and when you see them out on their skate boards dont harrass them. If they are not posing a danger to anyone let them play and be kids. At least they dont have their face stuck in a video game console. I know in todays world with all the technology we have it is easy to forget how it was and should be. Parents out there today are so busy with all their problems. You are forgetting one important thing and that is raising your children. This idea of labeling them with this or that mental condition and medicating them because they have become to much of a hassle in your busy schedule is wrong. I know I went on this subject in another blog but I think it is worth repeating. Just let them be kids and teach them all you can before they see their history repeating itself in their children.
Now that the Presidents State of the union speech is over and all the mudslinging is in full tilt thought I would chime in with a bit of perspective. As is inevetable no sooner is the speech over and we have members of the opposite side of the isle chiming in with everything that was missing in the speech or finding fault with what was said. To all of you Republican and more directly “Tea Party” members. Here is a news flash, You lost the last two presidential elections and you lost them soundly. The people spoke and no matter how much rhetoric you spew forth it will not change the fact. It even has become apparent that the speaker of the house has grown tired of the tea party and the havoc it has caused in the republican party. I just read that Sen. Cruz still thinks it is possible to repeal Obamacare, Mr. Cruz I tell you this. You have tried to do this around fifty or so times already with no success. Maybe it is time to stop beating this dog as it is becoming a real bore. You and your cheerleading section of which include, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh just to name a couple first class circus acts are in mine and many others opinion out of touch with reality. The real problem is the republican party which cannot or just will not meet the other side on virtually anything. You reduce the benefits of our veterans. But it is just fine for you in Washington to get raises and big fat retirement benefits. I even hear some in the party referring to Afghanistan as Obama’s war. That my friends tells me you must have forgotten about way back when the party controlled the whitehouse that you put us there as well as Iraq.
The party has continued to alienate the people and refuse to do the job that they were elected to do. But I must say that the democrats are obviously not without fault. They also continue to follow blindly some of their own agendas. You people in Washington are like a bunch of spoiled little toddlers who throw a hissy fit when you don’t get your candy when you want it. I think at this point you need to understand it is not about you but about what is really best for the citizens of this country and even more importantly for the ones who have put their lives on the line or have died this country and given you the ability to sit there in the capital and enjoy your fat checks and perks of being in office. The choices you are making are making this great country weaker in the global community and if it continues we at some point will become irrelevant and fall by the wayside of history no differently then ancient Greece or the Roman empire. It is time to stop bowing before the super pacs and lobbyist and do what is right for us. The tea party has become irrelevant and the Karl Roves a mere joke. For the democrats I say this whole thing with the NSA spying on the citizens of this country is far from the transparency promised during the Presidents first election campaign.
This is setting a dangerous presidence for the freedom and personal rights of the American people. Secret courts and wiretapping against us in the name of protecting us from terrorism is not a good course to continue. If you would direct more of the financial resources to the issues of clean energy and less to the afore mentioned perhaps we could rid ourselves of dependence on foreign oil and therefore would no longer perceive places like the middle east as a strategic interest. Perhaps this would stop some future wars and as a nice side effect maybe less would be less people would want to attack us. I think that in more then one instance in recent history we went from being perceived as liberators and more as occupiers. It is more than time we got ourselves out of these countries and took care of things back here at home. I am not proposing we become isolationist. If human rights are being violated then we must do what we must with the help of other countries. America has to return itself back to the days of knowing what was morally right and wrong. Our kids,Our soldiers are killing themselves because of things like PTSD and being unable to cope after returning from these wars. I think they are more important then some whack job over in North Korea running his mouth. Let China handle them.. They created the monster let them deal with it. They can not afford instability in the region either.
Woke up this morning doing the usual. Check e-mail then twitter and news. What I came across just floored me. This interview Morgan did with Ann Coulter on “Pot Heads”. Now right up front I do not smoke pot and not to be confused as one of the “Stoners” trying to make an argument for the legalization of it. But I do believe in the science that speaks for the medical and other benefits of using cannabis. Coultier goes on in the interview saying that “Pot Heads” are incapable of being productive and cannot hold a real job and are a drain on society. She further says that there are no benefits of smoking it and that users only smoke it to get high. She continues on in her rambling interview with Piers inferring that alcohol is better for us then cannabis. Not really sure where she gets her evidence to support her opinion but there it is.
I noticed while watching this conversation how she just almost refuses to look Piers in the eye while talking. She is looking at anywhere but the camera or Piers. I have to ask myself does she really believe the garbage coming out of her mouth? Can anyone possibly be that ignorant of the truth and facts about the subject and comparing to alcohol and cigarettes. She says that smoking cigarettes is actually better as you are more productive and then you die quicker and are less of a drain on societies wallet. Wow I thought that is a real gem of an opinion right there. I guess she has never been to see someone who is dying a slow painful death from cancer.
She expresses her idea that legalizing pot would be a disaster for commerce as potheads are not able to get a job done. All I can say is that is completely false as I know people who would be considered potheads and they have full time jobs with homes and cars and are very responsible. They pay taxes and contribute whole hearted to society. She uses her pool boy as an example in one part of the interview. Well Ann all I can say is if you hire some young pothead pool boy to do the job might I interject that perhaps it was not the pool cleaning you were most worried about. Also in your infinite wisdom are you Saying Dr. Gupta a world respected neuro- surgeon is completely wrong and has not a clue what he is talking about?
I think what we have here is another classic example of a talking head sitting in front of the camera who really has no clue about what they are talking about and should be avoided like the plague by the rest of society to prevent us from being considerably dumber for have just listened to her. I have not had the occasion to read any of her books but if it is mere rambling on almost incoherently like she is in this interview I for one am glad I missed it. To think she is supposed to be a mouth piece for conservatives in this country just floors me. How can you folks listen to her without feeling the desperate urge to just hang yourselves? I consider myself to be an in the center conservative and after two minutes of listening to her speak wanted to jump off a cliff somewhere. Also I ask is she actually educated? I did not bother looking up her bio as I could not bring myself to waste much more time on her. If she is I wonder what her teachers think. I know I would probably consider her one of my failures if it were me.
Alas as I said I do not want to waste much more time on this woman but in case anyone is interested in numbing your brain a bit here is the link for the interview..Might I add as an after thought.It might help if your stoned before you watch it..
http://piersmorgan.blogs.cnn.com/2014/01/23/ann-coulter-on-potheads-they-cant-perform-any-useful-jobs/?iref=allsearch
Was sitting here this morning reading different posts and noticed how some are declaring they want America to return to democracy. Well an interesting way to look at it is this. America was never a true democracy. It is and was a republic (remember the pledge we used to say back in the day at the start of school?) and there are some subtle and not so subtle differences between them. Both forms of government do tend to be representational. But a republic is formed with a constitution and bill of basic human rights which the government cannot infringe upon. Where as in a democracy the majority cannot be restrained and can do as it wills without regard to the will of the minority. So perhaps it would be wise to be careful what you ask for when speaking out with demands.
Some of the implications of the U.S. Being a republic is state sponsored or funded programs make segregation unconstitutional. Also by the fact that cases such as same sex marriage are going before the supreme court to decide that which is constitutional demonstrates that the U.S. Constitution and rule of law can and do outweigh the will of the majority. So in fact that makes America a republic and not a democracy. I guess to be more precise a federal constitutional republic although there are those who would say it is more of an Oligarchy run by capitalist people in power like the 2% wealthiest which the federal reserve and of the industrial complexes.
Thomas Jefferson said “A private central bank issuing the public currency is a greater menace to the liberties of the people than a standing army.” We must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt.” I guess that would be a negative vote on the federal reserve right.
In a letter to then secretary of the treasury he writes “I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs.” And then in 1820 he responds to the idea of a supreme court, “You seem … to consider the judges as the ultimate arbiters of all constitutional questions; a very dangerous doctrine indeed, and one which would place us under the despotism of an oligarchy… The Constitution has erected no such single tribunal.”
Alexander Hamilton wrote in the Federalist Papers on the judiciary “And it proves, in the last place, that liberty can have nothing to fear from the judiciary alone, but would have everything to fear from its union with either of the other departments.” Just thought I would throw some of these quotes out there to get people to think about the things going on in our government today and perhaps be a warning.
The drugging of our children has become the norm in society. Well meaning teachers and parents and children have become the victims of this propaganda being spoon fed to us by psychiatry. There are millions of kids here in the U.S. Taking medication for “ADHD” which are class 2 schedule drugs with side effects that cause sudden death in patients with heart problems or deformities, seizures, loss of eyesight, hearing voices, Violent tendencies and a whole laundry list of other side effects of which one more biggie is suicide. All that is just a side effect of Ritalin. Now another big one is Adderall which contains amphetamine(Speed), and dextroamphitamine . This is used to control hyperactivity and impulsiveness in patients and the side effects include psychotic symptoms like again hearing voices and believing things that are not true. Increase in blood pressure and heart rate and seizures and change in eyesight and once again these are just some of the side effects.
Also what seems to be a more common occurrence is when a side effect of the drug appears they will just feed them another drug for that. At this point I must apologize as I am not a rocket scientist but it appears to me to be a problem. After all diagnosis in these kids is subjective and anything but an exact science. Psychiatry today has began to list even normal emotions and mental states of mind as a “disorder”. They are defined under the “Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders” or DSM. The book was created by the american psychiatric association. They put these diseases in this book without any scientific or clinical trials whatsoever. Changes to this manual are done by vote of its members and is not one bit science.
It is well documented that anti psychotics are being misused and prescribed. Children as young as 18 months are being given these drugs to treat diseases that rarely manifest before adolescence. They are giving toddlers these drugs because of the sedative effect and to control disruptive behavior and not to treat mental illness at all. It was recently that it came out that the Harvard psychiatrists who created the pediatric bipolar diagnosis were disciplined for conflict of interest when it was revealed they had received millions in undeclared pharmaceutical company money. Then there is the trend of parents being taken to court and in some instances put in prison for refusing to drug their children.
I think as parents we need to stop letting these companies from profiting at the cost of the health and well being of our kids. If your children are showing behavior problems consider other possibilities like diet. High fructose corn syrup is a huge contributor and linked to depression and schizophrenia. Try to reduce the chemicals in their diet and encourage more natural foods. We did not have most of these chemicals in our food when I was a child and we were not being fed these drugs for that matter. Geez now we even have to worry about these genetically modified foods in our diet.
So I think the moral of the story is this. Stop expecting our kids to be little “Normal” robots and let them grow up drug free and teach them right from wrong and how to be a healthy contributing member of our society. Maybe and I say just maybe these mass shootings will become a thing of the past. Maybe even get them off the video game and go outside and play on a nice day.
Just sitting here wondering where I want to be a year from now. I mean this in the sense of my blogging and how as can use it as a tool to help myself as well as others. I know for myself it is anything but being about fame, Money or any of those trappings. More about being content and just comfortable in life (But not to much) and have the day to day needs and some left to help others who might be in need of a hand up. As a habit I try to think a bit less of myself and more about those around me. I guess this can be a tough thing in a world where most have an its all about me mentality. Just can not seem to bring myself into that frame of mind. Just was not raised like that. I also intend to put together an ebook at some point this year. Probably a collection or some mash up of my postings on here.
I have no idea at this point who or how many are actually reading these I just see that there are views on them. Kind of hope at least to start getting some feedback and comments. It seems a little weird for me to do a post on the blog like this but I feel the need to put this up here so I can look back in say a year and see what has come to pass. I can only hope my writing improves with age and I do not alienate every human being out there who reads this. Believe me I know I tend to come off strong on some things (No Apologies sorry) but a lot of people out there need to probably hear it in that way. But let it be noted that if I am proven to be wrong I can take that and so be it. Would also like to hear some ideas some of you might have on future topics. I am game for just about anything short of intentionally hurting someone.
In the mean time I will try to keep new ideas coming and inspire some of you to step up and say something about the things you see going on that are wrong and of course the ones that are right are even better. It is my primary goal here to get people to really think about how they perceive things around them and just for a minute look at things through different eyes. It is painfully obvious that there is a lot of really bad stuff going on around us at any one time but we do not have to just see this. Spend a bit of time focusing on the good as well. Okay that is about all the time I want to spend on this brain fart of a post. If any of you are interested you can follow me on facebook or twitter.
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