Month: December 2015

So guns are the problem?

The problems are this. You cannot un-ring a bell. You cannot, un-see something.

What you put into your head has an effect on you, whether you know it or not.

Below, after a brief search I found a few movies that exemplify what I am talking about. Add to this the more than ample amount of violent video games along with the lack of fathers in the household or, children raising themselves with the TV or X-Box and you have the perfect storm for mental health issues.

Hollywood elites (who all have body guards…with guns) don’t want to address the problem so, they want to take away your guns. Less guns equal less crimes. Not true. Criminals will get guns no matter what laws are on the books. Mentally disturbed people will get them as well.

Mental health is the main issue…take a look at some of these movies…these are just a few….

Experiment in Torture 2007

Lured by the smell of easy money, beautiful, exotic dancers agree to spend the weekend at the remote mountain getaway of a wealthy voyeur. Once there, the girls are drugged, tied up and slowly tortured to death with everything from a blowtorch to an electric drill by a killer …

The Green Inferno 2013

A young female activist after a series of troubling experiences ends up in a small tribe set out of time of cannibals.

Her Name was Torment 2014

A lurid and exploitative adventure into erotica, violence, pain, and the unknown. Necrophilia, torture, gore, and psychological horror REVIEW: You can’t wave a limited collector’s edition VHS tape in the independent horror world and not hit what some folks would call a torture porn movie. And it makes sense – if your film revolves primarily around brutal torture…

When your flesh Screams 2015

is a gritty independent rape-revenge thriller from Argentina. It was written and directed by Guillermo Martinez, and while this is his first venture into directing, he did previously write the novel that would become the Elijah Wood/John Hurt film, The Oxford Murders. It might take a little while to get where it’s going, but overall this is a fairly impressive debut.

Concrete (schoolgirl in Cement) 2004

In 1988, a 17-year-old girl was abducted for a period of about six weeks in Tokyo. After suffering hideous acts of rape and torture, her juvenile captors murdered her and abandoned her body – in an oil drum filled with concrete. The case inspired further controversy in the form of public debate about the sentencing and rehabilitation of underage offenders, and inevitably became fodder for several brutal exploitation films in Japan.

36 Pesos

The movie starts innocently enough with two male friends driving down a dark road, making jokes about each others’ mothers and searching for some legendary house of ill repute that only truckers know about. As they speed along down the road, they aren’t paying attention, and accidentally plow into a woman who had wandered onto the roadway. They get out of the car to check on her and see there is blood everywhere, she is missing a leg, and she’s coughing up blood with the last of her breaths. They panic and get back in the car, leaving her for dead. As their tail-lights fade into the distance, we are left with an ominous feeling as another figure walks onto the screen and drags the dead woman into the woods.

Make them Die Sleazy! 2014

Stupid low budget film with no acting many shorts…

Fetus

Kevin and his wife Sara are about to start their new family as prepare for the arrival of their first born child. Unfortunately something goes wrong and Kevin loses everything. Unable to cope with his loss he becomes obsessed with trying to make contact with his dead wife by any means possible.

Hanger

Pulled into this world to take you out! A horrifying tale of revenge…beginning with a back-alley abortion and ending with a bloodbath so vicious that it brings a new meaning to “an eye for eye”. From pimps todealers, from hookers and junkies

Hardgore 1976

A young nymphomaniac who suffers from hallucinations is put into a rehab center, but little does she know that the proprietor is the leader of a Satanic cult who indulge in murderous after hour orgies(!)

Meat For Satan’s Icebox 2004

The obscure town of Satan Place harbors a dark and savage secret. What becomes of runaways and mislead teenagers who have no direction in life? When they have nowhere else to go, they find their way to Satan’s Slaughter House!

http://horrornews.net/extreme-cinema-films/

Among others…

RoboCop 1987

Lots of dead bodies..

The Raid 2014

Was dubbed the Ultra-violent Endurance test.

In Bruges 2008

Deals with death with things like exploding heads.

Kick Ass 2010

Lots of violence and brutality centered around a 10 year old…

God Bless America 2011

A man and a young girl shooting people who talk in movie theatres talk show host and even judges.

The main message is everything sucks and man would be better starting over.

Than we have this 1980 classic Cannibal Holocaust

This film is so graphic that it was banned in as many as 50 countries.

A Serbian Film 2010

A film about pedophilia that also happens to be a snuff film.

Inside 2007

This is an ultra-violent movie about a pregnant women being terrorized by another women who wants her unborn baby.

Maniac 1980

A psychopath, troubled by his childhood abuse, loose in New York City, kills young women and takes their scalps as his trophies.

I spit on your grave

An aspiring writer is repeatedly gang-raped, humiliated, and left for dead by four men whom she systematically hunts down to seek revenge.

Martyrs

A young woman’s quest for revenge against the people who kidnapped and tormented her as a child leads her and a friend, who is also a victim of child abuse, on a terrifying journey into a living hell of depravity.

Some of the quotes are from the actual source which I gave credit to. Some of them are mine. This is not literary excellence…this is point that needs to be made.

“I find it interesting that Rape, torture, and other brutal forms of violence is what sells. What does that say about us as a culture?”

Pass this along, share it etc… Me personally, I pretty much have stopped watching TV. For the last several years I watch less and less. If I watch and hour a week, that would be exaggerating in that I don’t watch that much.

I am neither young, or impressionable; but I still protect what I put into my head. Isn’t your sanity worth it?

-Best

Bait and Switch

“Of course debating Hillary would be easy…so don’t count on it!”

As I watch the political landscape unfold into the nightmare that it is, I cannot help but wonder what is in the other hand.

“Look at this bright and shiny object while we do something underhanded…”

I truly believe that the DNC knows that currently there is not a valid candidate on their ticket.

Even she knows this but, she has to sell the lie.

While there is indeed a percentage of the population that have no idea what economics are, micro or macro; and will find communism under Bernie a great idea. $20 trillion dollars in debt, making it $40 trillion just means more free stuff for them, the ill-informed useful idiots of the world.

Never mind that they are saddling their great grandchildren with their debt.

Maybe this will help you…A familiar face that you might know…

Of course, even if Bernie won; the house and senate would hopefully block him from staying on this course … as we are headed for an ice burg. One only has to look at the state of affairs in Greece to see what we are headed for. Wait. What are the Kardashians up to? Who is playing what team and what football player is hurt? Will my team make the playoffs!? Those are what interest’s people…not politics. They only care when they don’t have enough money to purchase beer, and shoes for the kids.

This cost the republicans the election… “Not a Mormon in the white house!”

I saw a post on social media that is warning Evangelicals that Trump may not fully believe everything that they believe…I guess that means that they should stay home, again, because they did not want a Mormon in the white house…If Trump is not in lock step agreement with everything in one of the over 3000 different denominations your brand of Christianity…that will justify your non-participation… again.

When you see evil, not to speak, is to speak. When you don’t vote…you are voting for the other guy.

With a thousand top secret e-mails kept on a non-secure, illegal server; only being the tip of yet another ice burg; the fact that Hillary is not sporting an orange jump suit learning to do laundry and yes, sharing a toilette with common riff raff; defies logic. The idea of her still running for president again bespeaks of the complete ignorance of some of the people in this great nation.

I am a Clinton, what difference does it make?

Before the final deadline to announce candidacy to become president of the US occurs, I believe that the Clinton campaign will self-destruct; and much like the Hindenburg will be blamed on republicans with incredible spin from the left, and Hollywood elites as well as MSNBC, while totally ignoring the obvious design flaws.

A dark horse, as of yet to announce; will step into the ring as the “savior of the party” and the obvious choice to run for president, because she too is a women. A women that will have escaped all of the vetting process of the election; and debates, thus far.

Have you asked yourself why the democratic debates thus far have been on at times when nobody would watch them?

Did not want to use a shared bathroom…So she missed part of the debate.

Republican candidates will not be prepared to debate her she, as she was not and is not on their radar. This will cause them to scramble and be un-prepared while she, Elizabeth Warren; will have all of her research and well-practiced debates skills down. She will know each end every little detail of who the RNC selects, while they will only have surface information on her. Her jabs will resonant and theirs will fall flat.

It is akin to football; when the loosing team pulls an onside kick rather than punting the ball back to the opposition.

Many liberals love her, but again they don’t know her. Just like they don’t know the history of the American Indian as their brutality was washed over…they don’t know this women. The American Indian was the ISIS of the day, burning people alive and torturing them in dozens of different cruel and barbaric ways. Find that in your history books…

The spin doctors and the Left leaning media…most of it…will spin her as the next messiah, much like they did with Obama… They will be all so surprised when Hillary is indicted, blaming their candidates faults on lies of the republicans and Trey Gowdy. They will be so happy that Elizabeth Warren reluctantly decided to run and take one for the team… That trip that Biden made to see her, was more than likely a strategy planning trip for her, and this administration. Men and Women of all strips will fall for it as well as many on either side of the isle. It is a strategy that will probably work and remember…you heard it here first!

When the republicans say…”who would have seen that coming?” Well, I did…and now you know too..

If you don’t agree with me or you understand the election rules regarding presidential elections better than I…weigh in. I studied them for hours and they are murky at best.

If you like what you read…follow me…share this with your friends.

-Best

www.timedok.com

Featured image courtesy of Tim Pierce https://www.flickr.com/photos/qwrrty/8152000438/?

HIPAA and other things that go bump in the night…

(HIPAA) Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act

Being and IT guy for the last 35 years, I am no stranger to HIPAA, SOX, FISMA, and many other regulations from the government, including the federal mandates as to how this is to be accomplished.

While HIPAA is designed to protect your privacy, I wonder if that is how it is actually being used.

From a DR (disaster recovery) standpoint, your data must be backed up and off site. Your data must be recoverable; meaning that you have successfully tested the process on a regular basis.

The easiest way to do this is with CLOUD technology but, I am here to tell you that the hackers attack the cloud… If you’re data, and my data, and your competitors, is in some nebulous storage arrays out there in some data center…that is a central target for the bad guy…

You must have written policies and procedures regarding same… This would be part of your DR plan, run book; or even your living document that is your DR plan.

SOX or Sarbanes Oxley is another set of rules that apply to all publicly traded companies that share many of the same tenants of a good DR plan. E-mails must be stored and retrievable in the event the government wants to see them. Stored off-site and recoverable…

The government, for the government’s own use, has stricter policies and procedures which I wrote about some time back when the Hillary e-mail fiasco came to light… That is why this whole e-mail scandal is laughable as there is no possible way that those e-mails should have been lost, just like there is no way that she should have had a server of her own, dealing with Top Secret Classified e-mails. Why she is already not wearing orange, and living in Club Cupcake Penitentiary, is a testament to the corrupt policies and procedures that our wonderful government seems to enjoy for the rich and famous or in this case the political elites.

Calling and talking with any of the folks at your insurance carrier, you are told that your call may be recorded and monitored for security and training purposes… Now please tell me how this does not violate HIPAA?

When visiting your doctors you had to sign a release, basically nullifying HIPAA so they, the office staff or doctors can talk about your case, health or anything that is needed to whomever that they have to deal with to get paid. Again, how is this not a violation of HIPAA? Working behind the scenes at these places I have heard many cases talked about from end stage renal disease, to genital warts complete with names. I was once working in a plastic surgeons office where his desk was littered with open pictures of nude women with before and after breast augmentation etc etc. This stuff should have been put up before I was ever allowed into his office.

The simple facts are, that we are living in an age of no-privacy; either expressed or implied. The idea of HIPAA is great but, like the thousands of pages of tax code, it is virtually meaningless after the lawyers get through with it. It’s like living in Chicago with all sorts of police vehicles, and one cop who lives at the donut shop. There is the illusion of security, but it simply does not exists.

The airport is another place where you have no privacy but, still the TSA misses about 95% of the threats that their agents try to smuggle through, while testing their efficiency.

While we parade through scanners that strip us naked, and expose us to ionizing radiation, they still miss 95%…! How the hell is that possible?!

While in the waiting room the other day I could hear the office staff talking about patients and their treatment options… That was not bad enough… One of the ladies at the reception desk was calling patients who owed them money between greeting people, taking credit card info… Yep, she read back the guy’s number complete, the billing zip code and expiration where everyone could hear it. I take credit cards and I thought to myself… you did not get the CVV code… A few minutes later she called him back to get that…. And repeated it to where anyone in the waiting room could have heard.

While I have since written a letter to my Doctor…it does not end here…

This same doctor prescribed some meds that I went to CVS to pick up… While in line, the cashier, after getting your name and date of birth, grabs the meds off the shelf, and tells you what they are so everyone in line and the immediate area can hear.

Name and DOB are nobody’s business and certainly what you are buying is nobody’s business…

While I may be over sensitive to this, I don’t really think so…

Either we have HIPAA or we don’t. Either we follow the rules and policies set forth…or we don’t.

The illusions of security is not enough. The illusion of privacy is not enough. Collecting everyone’s Meta data without warrant, is wrong on many levels.

We need to look at and re-vamp all of these policies as we have given up so much of our privacy for the sake of laziness on the part of the employees.

Instead of me telling the lady behind the counter she should ask me to see my ID verifying who I am and my DOB without saying it aloud. After she pulls my meds she can show me what they are without voicing them… Simple policy changes prevent unauthorized or in this case nosey people in line getting into your business.

There are simple answers for all of these things but one simply has to think… We are too damned lazy to think…

-Best

Profligates

The word of the day is profligate…”One who shamelessly pisses away money…”

I find it interesting that of the 50 states in this country, 11 of them are totally insolvent.

I also find it remarkable that of these 11, they are all run by liberal ideologues or profligates.

There is a 12^th state, Delaware that is soon to join the other 11 which is troubling.

The amazing facts are that these states are losing their people who are traveling to states who are fiscally responsible and also run by conservatives. Now these same liberal ideologues that have made their way to states that are not in any financial trouble complain. What do they complain about? That we are too conservative…

Really?!

If you look at Greece and then at the state that you left; and cannot draw the comparison between them, than you are not only so wrapped up in your ideology that you are lost…but you may also be … well … Bless your heart!…

Look, don’t come to a state that works with your troubled ideas and screw us up… When you come to this country…you fit it with us… You offer the best that you have and fit in…

When you come to this state… You offer the best that you have, and fit in…

…When in Rome…

This is not rocket science… If you are fleeing a state or place because it is screwed up…something is wrong… Why in the world would you not examine what is wrong and accept that you might have been part of the problem…. Like maybe something as simple as the way that you voted?

We have a huge influx of people here in Texas from all over the country. Amazing as it may sound, I find that the plates from out of state are the people who cut people off, honk, and drive like crap and so on. This is Texas…Chill…. We are friendly people here but remember…Texas is one of the states where we carry concealed and soon not concealed…when you wave…use all of your fingers pardner… Just saying….

We eat BBQ that is made the way god intended, and we drink Iced Tea. We hold doors for ladies, and we say please and Thank You… We teach our children to be polite, but we also teach them not to put up with crap.

-Best

Trust and Lies

History is replete with people who prevaricate to the masses. The masses are complicit as they are either too lazy to read history or fail to remember history, or cannot or don’t want to accept the truth. The allure of a lie is better than the cold hard ugly facts otherwise known as truth.

Today the French President was hailed for using a small hammer to symbolize an agreement to a new treaty with 200 nations that would supposedly bring global warming down two (2) degrees Celsius or 3.6F.

I am not going to debate the Al Gore trumped up money making schemes of “global warming” but, I am certain that today he is celebrating as his campaign contributions are now going to pay off in the form of Carbon Credits.

Lies of the 70’s

I remember long extended lines to buy gas as there was this shortage. We are running out of Fossil fuel and there was a shortage of gas. Prices climbed from .50 cents to about a dollar to $1.32. As soon as the prices made it to the level that OPEC and other oil producing countries agreed upon, oil started to flow once again. During this time of turmoil, tankers ran aground spilling their precious cargo. Several tankers who had successfully navigated the pond for years were suddenly running aground. Why?

The oil shortage was a lie… I suspect that tankers were parked off shore holding their cargo to create the shortage. They parked in areas that they did not normally traverse thus hitting things under the water as storms pushed them one way or another…

The ozone layer going away was the next in a series of lies to make more money.

The common most abundant sources of Freon were suddenly a hazard to the ozone layer. $1.25 would get you a small can of Freon that you yourself could put into your car to juice up the air-conditioner. Most manufacturers put a site glass on top of the dryer (part of the AC Unit under the hood) that you could visually see if you needed Freon. If there were air bubbles in it, with it working, you simply hooked a can up to low pressure side and allowed the gas to go from the can to the AC unit.

Today we have gasses that have replaced them which are not as efficient, work at much higher pressures and … the compressors and coils don’t hold up as well, the failure rate is higher.

DuPont and others, now sell these precious gasses at much higher cost. The coils and compressor manufactures make much more money as they sell you replacement components, and new systems at a much more frequent rate, as the higher pressures cause failures at a higher rate.

So, you say that there is a hole over the north and South Pole where ozone is thinner…Thus all of the CFC’s that come from refrigerants and aerosol cans are to blame…

Let me make this short and sweet for you…

Ozone or O3 is created by some form of energy causing an extra molecule to stick to O2..Oxygen. When this happens we have O3…ozone. The air o2 rushing up towards the sun uses infrared light…from the sun to cause molecules to bond, O3. Lightening and other electrical discharges also create O3.

Why the ozone holes in the layer over the poles… Lack of strong UV energy over the poles as the earth is tilted… That is why it is cold at the poles…

We breathe in O2 and change it to carbon dioxide Co2 which the plants use to create O2.

Well what about these CFS that are destroying the Ozone…

CFC’s are about 5 times heavier than O3 and O2… lead does not float. CFC’s have never been found that high as they don’t float. We were lied to for pecuniary interests…another government bought and paid for by special interests.

The Washington Cartel was bought and paid for once again.

Other products were affected as well as prices went from a dollar $1 a can, to $15 a can for such things a solvents used in production.

Let there be light

Under Bush, we decide to do away with the incandescent light bulb, as they are simply too costly to run. 4 for a $1 bulbs but no…must make more money…

There is actually precedence for finding less expensive sources of light but…CFL bulbs are not the answer.

CFL bulbs contain mercury which is a toxic heavy metal. If you break one of these bulbs there is this whole elaborate cleanup procedure. If you throw the dead ones in the trash you are putting mercury into the landfills which was tied to another lie regarding, doing away with mercury batteries.

These bulbs cannot go into applications with dimmers until they redesign the circuit to work with them.

They are a fire hazard and they don’t last as advertised. They should not be used in any application where once turned on, that they are turned off within 15 minutes or less, as that will shorten their life.

“That leaves out closets and bathrooms or any other type of task light.”

LED Bulbs are making inroads but these are still way too expensive and if you try and do the cost justification, it does not exists unless you are a store operator or some sort of shop that uses lights for hours at a time.

The shrinking ice packs are in fact growing. The earth goes through cycles of warmth and cold and I suspect follows the eleven (11) year cycle of the sun which is now in an active state.

The global warming nuts cannot explain the increase in ice so they are still looking for the gloom and doom.

We have much more pressing issues in this world other than global warming. The earth has come back from the brink of extinction many times over and I suspect like fleas on the back of a dog…we too will one day either do ourselves in with our hubris or stupidity and the earth will shake off the dead bodies and something new will appear or evolve out of our leavings.

If I were the president, I would be more concerned about alleviating the pressure from underneath Yellowstone’s volcano, which will affect all life on the planet when it goes off. Notice that I did not say if…it will go off, and then all of these global warming kooks will scratch their head, or ass; which is probably interchangeable as the earth enters into an ice age. Whoever does not die as a direct result of the explosion will either perish at the hands of their neighbors, or starve to death. Some will survive but the world will be a different place for years to come.

As the jet stream carries the ash around the globe depending upon the amount released from this “super volcano” The earth may not be suitable for growing food for decades.

I would invest resources in searching for life ending events in space as well as ways to change their trajectories and, I would of course provide for the common defense of this country which they seem to be ignoring as work place violence or too many guns!

Unless you can get all of the countries/governments on board with this climate and deforestation thing, (the two go hand in hand) you are changing the global landscape of economics by pressuring companies to take their businesses where taxes and global warming nuts are simply not paid attention to.

Their air pollution is believed to kill 350K to 500K people per year.

(FILES) This picture taken 18 July 2006 shows cyclists passing through thick pollution from a factory in Yutian, 100km east of Beijing in China’s northwest Hebei province. China has no plans to radically change its reliance on coal and other dirty fuels despite already feeling the impacts of global warming, a leading Chinese meteorologist said 06 February 2007. In the first official Chinese response to a stark UN report issued last week on climate change, Qin Dahe said China lacked the technology and financial resources for a wholesale conversion to cleaner energy sources. AFP PHOTO/Peter PARKS/FILES (Photo credit should read PETER PARKS/AFP/Getty Images)

China-Pollution.JPEG-0bfec-555x370.jpg — Your smart phone comes from here…

This administration seems more interested in paying back those that put forth campaign funding, securing future funding for more politicians and the liberal socialistic agenda.

We dissolved any hope of the Keystone pipeline while a train that has a huge carbon footprint carries the oil from Canada to the Gulf… The train of course, is owned indirectly by one of the democrat’s largest funders or donators.

This July 8, 2013 file photo provided by Surete du Quebec via the Canadian Press, shows wrecked oil tankers and debris from a runaway train in Lac-Megantic, Quebec, Canada. U.S. transportation officials say the oil industry is not giving up needed information needed to gauge the danger of moving crude by rail. Several oil train accidents, including one in Quebec, have highlighted the explosive properties of crude coming from booming oil shale fields on the Northern Plains. (AP Photo/Surete du Quebec, via The Canadian Press, file) ORG XMIT: LA102

Our president is just fine with this as we don’t need to do things safely and more efficiently….

Washington elites need to go away…all of them… We need serious people, that love the country and you and I, who are looking out for “us the people….” Not their legacy or their benefactors…

The announcement at the global warming conference I am certain is a farce, and will be spun politically to make republicans look bad, and most assuredly will cost the citizens as they will have to pay for all of the upgrades and lack of fossil fuels. They will be the ones to watch factories moved over to countries that take no part in such folly, as this will further restrict and make more costly business ventures in this country. This will adversely affect our economy, even more greatly than the health care law which saw the demise of the American dream. More and more companies are working many part-time employees with few or no benefits and crappy salaries to avoid Obamacare. The employee than is forced into two part time jobs to make ends meet and oh yes, purchase their own health care or be fined.

An activist hold a poster during a demonstration near the Eiffel Tower, in Paris, Saturday, Dec.12, 2015 during the COP21, the United Nations Climate Change Conference. As organizers of the Paris climate talks presented what they hope is a final draft of the accord, protesters from environmental and human rights groups gather to call attention to populations threatened by rising seas and increasing droughts and floods. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

So we can all get together and sing Kumbia and ignore the JV team…

Once we fix global warming and find jobs for these folks they will know the love and all will be just fine…

We are being sent into battle with no weapons, our hands tied behind our backs and blindfolded by an administration that is either delusional, stupid … or bought and paid for by special interests. I would surmise that it is a combination of the three.

There is a pattern, a history of lies and I have pointed out a very few…. Watch something besides “Two Broke Girls or Modern Family…and you might accidentally learn something.

-Best

Depression…

There is a huge difference between depression and simply being sad. Sadness is a normal part of life and we all go through it. This time of year seems to bring on depression or bouts of it, for various reasons.

We could even call it “seasonal depression.”

As we age we lose people that we love.

Now, when the holidays come around or those other family events which bring everyone together; we think of those that are no longer with us. There at that certain spot, sits an empty chair which they should be in.

Looking into the “mirror of time” will not bring those people back. Those memories that we keep alive are what we still hang onto them with, and that is OK ; but not to focus on.

I personally have small mementos of those that I have lost, which I see daily. On one of my desk there sits this absolutely hideous lamp that one of my Uncles bought his wife as a gift. The shade is painted with some sort of pattern and I have to agree with my aunt, is it pretty terrible. His taste however; was not hers… Every time I see that lamp; I think of him, who I loved; and chuckle.

In another part of my house there is a small wooden wheel barrel that my grandfather made. He made it for my aunt when she was a little girl, who is also gone. When I see it…I think of him and her…and smile. I took it down the other day and dusted it… I noticed the fine workmanship that went into it and imagined my grandfather making it, some 80 years ago.

There is an old kitchen clock that was made in 1912 that my grandmother bought for her kitchen; while visiting New York in 1912. That clock sits in the Den. I never knew her but; I know that I would have loved her…From stories of her…she sounds a lot like me.

If I went through the complete list of stuff from the many in my life that I have loved, some might conclude that I was a hoarder. I hoard the memories of those that I loved, and sometimes I keep too many reminders of them. Pictures here and there of them, is really all we need but…that is just the way it goes.

My grandfather used to fish in the Mississippi not far from where he lived. He left me his tackle box which I still have. I open it every now and then, and gaze upon the things inside.

He was not a rich man but, here in this box is a wealth of stories and love… There is a history of taking me fishing when I was barely out of three cornered pants. A history of comforting a crying child who was just bitten by a horsefly stopping the bleeding followed by a history of teaching me how to catch a horse fly without getting bitten, and placing it on a hook and catching my first fish.

There are other stories of comforting a small child who hurt themselves, by spilling an entire wheel barrel full of leaves, that he had just picked up while trying to help.

There was my first taste of beer from his can while building our lake house. I was maybe 4 at the time and I remember the taste of it. I searched for years to find out that it was PBR…

From watching Saturday night wrestling with him, to listening to baseball games on a huge floor model radio…they are all there…tucked neatly away in that tackle box of life.

His sunglasses, old wire frame glasses, along with his lucky coin are two of the first two things that jump out at me. There are different lures and even a reel or two; still in their original box along with line that has to be older than me. I picture him walking from his house, to the bank of the Mississippi, pulling some sort of fish out of that river… He loved to fish …

After getting my “grandpa” fix, I carefully put everything back, just as I found it, and tuck it away until I find myself thinking of him… needing another fix, reminding me of the humanity of an old fashion, soft spoken man, who would give anyone that needed it, the shirt off of his back.

On one of my bookshelves there is this old plastic fisherman with a wire attached that has a small yellow plastic fish on it that used to adorn a shelf in his house. I am certain that it was a gift from someone who loved him. Daily; it is my reminder to be gentle, soft spoken and try to exude some of the wisdom, caring and compassion that I learned from this man. It is my reminder to not take myself too seriously, and to laugh…

Each year it seems that the Christmas card lists gets shorter, as more and more leave us.

Not only do we have our family and friends but, we too are effected by those that we come to love from the silver screen, and now of course the flat screen that entertains us. We grieve for those too; and each day it seems more of them are leaving…

Christmas music seems to bring on depression for me; so I limit my exposure to it.

This year, 2015; four of my good friends have passed. I have mementos of them and I even have a hat that one of them gave me that honors Reagan, who he was a fan of. I wear that hat from time to time just because I am thinking of the person who gave it to me.

I’ll be home for Christmas is a downer… Songs…good songs bring out emotions in people and that one makes me sad. I have been away at Christmas before, and it too reminds me of those that won’t be home for Christmas. When we turn this time into a time for “stuff” it really again shows the worst in some of us, with black Friday deals and “stuff!”

We can choose….

I choose to acknowledge them…and then look forward to time spent with those that are still here and of course those that I have yet to meet. I look forward to the memories that I have yet to make. I make damned certain that I smile at those that seem to be having a hard time, and learn everyone’s name that I come into contact with if, only to use it once during a conversation with them. From wait staff to the person checking you out at the store…They have a name and it is not “you there…or hey!”

Tonight I went to dinner with 3 of my close friends as a pre-holiday get together. We shared a few laughs, and I valued that time as it will never come around again. The waiter…Ross… I made sure to include him in the conversation when appropriate, and let him know that he was appreciated, not only by saying so but; by tipping in way that he knew how I felt.

Every one of us has some sort of personal battle going on. You have no idea what it is. Some of us honk ruthlessly and drive terribly because we feel that we are more important than others. We cut people off and we… “let’s face it; show our ass…”

“You don’t know what that person who you just did that to, is going through in their life…”

Lead by Example

When I managed people, I managed by leading by example. I was a “hands on kind of guy” and I would purposefully involve myself in the worst jobs that we had to contend with, to show that no job was too small or insignificant. Nobody is too small or trivial to be marginalized by given the “shit jobs.”

I made a point to know the cleaning crew’s names as well as the lady that watered the plants… We are all worthy of being treated as such; if you think we are not, your moral compass is out of whack!

We as people need to lead by example when we drive, engage with people and yes…be nice to the poor cashier who has to put up with impatient people, and company policies which require them to get information from you so they can market to you via e-mail or other such methods. Their arms are twisted to do it… The wait staff are forced to up-sell you into buying cobbler or some other dessert that you don’t really want. They are told to ask, and I am certain that they are measured in some quantitative way by how many they sell.

Stop looking into the rear view mirror of life.
Enjoy what you do, and how you spend your time.
Make time to enjoy the day…
Acknowledge those around you and tell them thank you!
Serve others; and by all means treat others as you want to be treated.
If depression is bothering you…do this….
Set regular sleep hours and keep them. Stop any caffeine after 3pm.
Get up every morning and go greet the sun. Your body needs at least 15 minutes of light to set your clock.
Don’t stress over things that you cannot control.
Do your best, give your schooling or job your bests, and don’t worry.
Love and laugh often. Laughter is medicine that is cheap, and requires no prescription.

You are worthy of the best… Don’t let anyone tell you differently…

We can make it through this season…Remember it is not about gifts, or what someone is going to do for you…It is about giving of yourself. I like to try and make someone’s life a little better each and every day… Even if it is just a kind word…. Or some encouragement. Follow that lead….

-Best

Periscope or Pervascope?

Full disclosure…I have been working with computers before the internet. And I can tell you Al Gore had nothing to do with it.

One thing that we as a race of beings seem to do is seek the lowest level. Some would argue it is our nature, and others would argue it is because we are fallen as a people.

Porn was one of the first things to make its way through cyberspace even before the Internet; when there were only BBS’s … I think that the first or second time that I saw it, it was a novelty…Now things of value are the novelty.

One of my author friends discovered something called Periscope… She announced that she was going to do this “periscope talk” which prompted me to look into it.

“I watched someone broadcasting Ted Cruz live…I watched someone send video from a storm, another from a beach in Indonesia and I even chatted with Danica McKellar who was doing a live broadcast while one of the Hallmark movies she was in; played. It was nice to see that she was still grounded as a person.

While watching some of these events…artist and such, it further amazed me that the “people” who will try and get ladies to “open boobs.” What the hell is “open boobs?” How do you open boobs?

These people have such poor English and are so deviant that they will do their best to get people to show them some part of their anatomy.

Ignored Behavior Goes Away

One would think that after a while that these “people” would just go away….

The problem is that the behavior is not ignored…

There are “ladies” out there that use this “forum” as a marketing tool to take in money from the people who would be willing to pay for a peek that their goods.

They are in fact feeding the stray dogs, encouraging the riff and the raff of the internet.

These “people” know no boundaries either… If your daughter or other child should find this mud hole to play in, they will undoubtedly be taunted and coerced by unsavory individuals from anywhere on the globe that the internet reaches to; “open boobs” or “pussy please.”

Know what lies in the water before you jump in…. Parana’s and other leaches are there waiting for you, your child or your credit card…

-Best

Faraway places…

This time of year always seems to ground people…well me anyway. We get so wrapped up in the “season” … that we forget what the season is about. As we make it through Thanksgiving, the rest of the turkey is either tossed or frozen along with the last bite of cranberry sauce; I cannot help but think of those less fortunate folks that would have non left to freeze or toss.

Troubles exists everywhere and you don’t have to look very far or hard to find them. The bell ringers are out there in force and many; including myself have done a fair amount of shopping through Amazon or other such services. Local retailers will certainly feel the sting of online purchases as we hear about an American Icon …Sears… that is headed for the scrapbook or dustbin of history. Like so many shops before them; box stores and our shopping habits align the blocks and events of history in a sequence for them, “like dominoes in a row” to fall, or in this case fail.

The poor blame the rich, the government blames the rich, while taking their money for super packs and what have you, and the game goes on, not really identifying the problem. Folks, government is the problem and cannot be the solution as it is currently flawed. Those that make laws for themselves, which are different from the laws that you and I are saddled with, must be changed. There must be term limits for all of them…

I firmly believe that we only live so long, because the God in heaven that created us knew; that if we lasted too long, one person could gain so much wealth and power that they could literally create dynasties that would enslave an entire world forever.

Few understand micro economics, much less macro. Some pay credit card bills, with other credit cards to get by, not even understanding the hole that they dig themselves into until it is far too late. These credit card people make it easy to do with checks made for the express purpose of transferring money around.

Our leaders are doing the very same thing with their credit card, (the one that you pay) to the tune of $18.5 Trillion dollars and counting. If leading by example is the plan, they are doing a bang up job!

Last week we had a full on assault on Christianity, which many consider the magnetic north of their moral compass. It was no accident that this happened at a Christmas party, and yet the Washington Elites in their ivory towers, tried very hard to spin this as workplace violence, calling for more gun laws in a state that has some of the toughest gun laws around. The Hollywood marionettes for the administration took to the tabloids, and airways to echo the administrations agenda which will only effect the law abiding among us. They need to focus on mental health…

30 odd % of the folks would argue with this, as they are probably the few who cannot accept the truth, and only watch liberal media; which is the propaganda machine for DC. Somehow they feel that Bernie Sanders is a viable candidate, which boggles my mind. If however; it was a choice between Bernie and Hillary, I would pick Bernie; at least he is truthful certifiable but, truthful.

Those faraway places with strange sounding names, are calling me.

The places are not so much geographical places but, places in time… The country that I grew up in has been changed and I feel not for the better. Special interests have taken control of our government and I firmly believe have transformed it into something that our kids will learn to hate. Kids getting out of school today are not ready for the challenges that we were ready for. While trades are necessary, we don’t even have those types of apprentice programs today.

Someone needs to get this country back to basics, before we really are making those small umbrellas for the Chinese to put into their drinks…

Those faraway places with strange sounding names might start with an A, and end with an A, as this place is … pretty strange…

“Spend wisely my friends…”

-Best