Choices….. How Politicians Take ….. Freedom From Us

 

Freedom is a funny thing and pretty difficult to understand.  Yet it is fundamental to a free society to understand what the responsibilities of the members are.  No matter how different one thinks, I am not to impose my will to make another think like I do.  It is their choice to think in their fashion.   

Having choices is one of the key underpins of freedom.  As I lose choices I lose freedom.  The first Amendment, “Freedom of Speech,” is one of freedoms of choice. 

I should be able to stand on the corner and shout my lungs hoarse and not have any body try to stop.  In variably some one will give me grief and tell me to shut up, that is their choice also.  Now if my speech is causing some one harm, then there should be consequences for my behavior and nothing about abridging my free speech.  Consequences should  be about stopping an inappropriate behavior not stopping the speech for under other circumstances it may not cause any harm.

Walking into a crowed place and yelling fire is an exercise of my free speech but is people panic and trample others then my free speech has caused harm.  For the harm caused, there should be consequences and it had nothing to do with free speech. 

Basically under this assumption I can be as big of an idiot as I want to be, just be willing the accept what happens afterwards.  Freedom has not been restricted but my own.  No others should lose freedoms because of my actions.

Yet a politician, in particular a control freak, will see the damage I caused to others and propose a law restricting how others speak because of how I behaved.  If the law is passed, many lose their freedom because of how I acted.  So the laws increase in numbers and lost freedoms increase in numbers.

Because some one did not fasten their seat belt and they are injured in a vehicle accident, the government steps in and passes a law, stating all seat belts are to be fastened. 

My freedom of choice has been lost.  Well it for your safety they will say.  No its about you restricting my freedom of choice, you being the politician.

The biggest political restriction of choice was a Constitutional Amendment, Prohibition.  Because a group people did not like alcohol, they got the a law passed saying no one could consume alcoholic beverages.  They took their will and imposed it on the general population. 

This was one of the largest behavior change laws ever passed.  Look at all the small laws passed restriction ones choices.  What kind of electricity to buy, what kind of equipment to buy for our car or appliances. 

The most restrictive law politicians pass is tax laws.  They tell one that a certain amount has to be dent to government.  One loses an amount of income to taxes, their choices on what to buy have been reduced.  Their freedom of choices has become limited.

List what other choices you lose because of a law that was passed.  Look at merchandise one can buy, bug sprays, types of materials and then drugs….. a big question.  Soon the government owns the  store and tells one what they can buy, well not really for there is only one choice on the shelf.

The government is controlling what goes in the market place and as such, controlling the population. 

Our choices and or loss there of revolves around the first amendment.  If one is restricted in what they can say, everything else downstream tumbles and freedom of choices crumbles.

What choice do you want to lose next?  So many are like jellyfish, spineless.  Got to stand up and be counted or be the sheep and led to slaughter house.  For what is sheared is mine, not theirs.

Flim Flam of Technology

 

It is amazing to watch the ads for various pads/slates/phones.  Truly we are becoming a society of suckers for one- up-man-ship.  About every two or three months there are new communication gadgets.    Model 5 is released, the new 3A will be out next week.  Changes are made to existing phones/slates and pads….. to make what better. 

Basically the changes are a goad fro the person to upgrade to be one better then their peers.  In so doing the bottom line of the company changes, it’s called more profit.  So people go out and buy new wireless devices.

Watched a gal go into human services office wanting to apply for food stamps.  She had a smart phone and put out a cigarette at the door.  Mom was chauffeuring her and her little child.  Smart phone, extra $40-50.00 per month, cigarettes, $125-250.00 a month.  Quit the smart phone and stop smoking, she would have over $150.00 a month for groceries.

But with peer pressure and wanting to be on the in, money is spent for what purpose?  Then they expect the taxpayer to subsidize their frivolities.

The technology has changed how we view ourselves and how we have become connected.  The car is still a status symbol but compared to latest wireless device is is fading.  Walking, standing, sitting, waiting and watch the number of gadgets that show up.  Look how the TV shows now portray the gadgets.  And the manufacturers of them are living fast an high.  The royalty of big dollars now live in the world of electronics.

The world of communication to the masses was the town crier and broadsides posted.  When the singing wires were introduced is brought the world closer together.  Newspapers used the telegraph for the news gathering.  A guy by the name of Jay Gould made millions upon millions off his company, Western Union. 

The communication gurus are just as greedy to today and they tailor their message to changes, one has to have the latest change.  Sometimes the change is no more then color, but it is a change and one has to have the change. 

So few people sit down and visit any more.  It is a text or tweet or a post like this or …………?  There are the few that sit and have coffee and generate lots of hot air, the old people.  Sitting in a waiting room, haw many do you see talking with others. 

It is off this that wireless people are manufacturing big dollars.

Wandering Notes

 

Occasionally I will pause and collect the scraps up and put the puzzle out in a semblance of disorder.  Today a cool crisp 60 some degrees and a dusting of snow on the high peaks.  Then I;’ve seen the high peaks get dusted in July.  So the season changes.  Not that I want it, I would really like to see it stay here.  I have become selfish, want to keep my favorite weather. 

The golden haze of fall is tapping at the door.  Chasing away the over bearing heat of summer.  The days of the dog have faded into recesses of vagueness.   

Most of summer was spent getting ready for the icy fingers  from the next chapter.  Paint the house, fix some plumbing and other odd n ends out side.  Tend to the garden, gather in some produce, have fresh veggies, do some freezing and get ready for the fall.  Get the drive ready for the snows, spread some more gravel. 

Life has a rhythm that is different from the city.  One has to look to self for help.  Understand what it means to be independent but reliant on God.

 

The brow wiping time is but a past moment.  Sweltering heat rotates to the south to spread its wings down yonder.  Spring flows from my autumn.  Winter loses it grip to gain a new foothold.  Traveling across the divide.  

No longer can I carp about the heat, now I shall focus my attention on the snow flakes.

Years accumulate, the roof becomes whiter, the brown is subdued yet on goes life.

Now where did I place my notes.  I had some story notes someplace.  Darn it…. if I wasn’t so absent minded, I wouldn’t be so forgetful.  Oh well here comes the weekend…. Ya’ll have a good one.

Water N Floods

 

National/International headlines, Colorado Flooding.  It has been nasty.  Water can be as devastating as any hurricane or tornado.  Across the land the water flows, carrying away things in its path.  Water the universal solvent, the lubricator, a hydraulic hammer.  Water has all these features and then some.  The amount of pressure water has is incredible, gravity pulls it down applying great down force.

Having other interests I have seen pictures of damage that does not show up in the media.  No matter, there is a tremendous amount of destruction.  I have friends and relatives that live in the affected areas and so far they have not been in harm’s way, other then getting very wet and dealing with minor problems.

The irony is, this summer Colorado was in the worst drought since the dust bowl days.  There was very little winter snow and the ground was shriveling.  The wind was nasty and dust particles were being collected by the screaming winds.  Clouds of dust were boiling over the land.  Drifts of blow dirt were forming along fence lines.  The government was offering drought relief, now it is flood relief, just a couple of months later.

Crops were severely impacted and the farmers were crying.  Pastures were drying up, cattlemen were selling their livestock.  It was not a good situation.  Then in June the skies opened up and sent gully washers.  Creeks were running and people were rejoicing but watching the rising waters in the creeks.  Nothing major happened and people were somewhat content.  Then things dried up in August and worried eyes glanced skyward, looking for big dark clouds. 

Now the clouds have shown up and hands are wringing and praying for the rain to abate.  Yet the raging waters roar on.  All that water that was dumped along the front range id now heading east and the river that drains the front range is flooding.  There is more damage as the waters rush eastward. 

There will be major damage and people will moan and cry, yet they will rebuild.  People will come forth to help, it is the nature of man of offer help to the down and out.  The government will offer relief. 

Another day later the wounds will be healed and there will only be memories.  There will stories about the flood of 2013.  yet in the here and now there are more important things, saving what can be saved and not risking lives in the process.  Rescuing people from the dangerous situations they put themselves in. 

It becomes a déjà vu from past floods, past experiences, like an instant replay.  We try to prepare for the worst, but when it shows up, then we realize how minuscule we are.  Into the breach man will step in to help his fellow man.

Like many I live in a flood plain but it is mostly safe.  Yet if there was a major rain, the creek could rise and I could see water at the doorstep.  Yet that is the risk I take.  For the valley to fill up it would probably take a 20 inch rain or better.

So for the time being I pray for the people impacted by the floods and hope they deal with the calamity and come out of it in good spirits. 

The Hellhole of War

 

Like it or not, war is about death and killing.  Sugarcoat it and all it does is make killing sweeter.  Yet some politicians.statesman try to make it sound like surgery, getting rid of a cancer.It would be nice if war was that simple. 

For centuries people have been killing each other in any manner or form available to them.  The desired end result was to kill someone or groups of some ones.

Fold staple, spindle and mutilate is what the armies were about.  Kill more people then they could kill.  Chop them to pieces, leave the dead lying for the varmints to dine on them.

Yet we glorify some of these killing monsters.  The Visigoths were probably some of nastiest people when it came to war.  Yet they are featured in a commercial for a bank credit card.  These nasty goths were one of the reasons for the collapse of the Roman Empire. 

Out of the north these predators raged, pi;;aging villages, destroying them, burnt to the ground.  Raping the women, to the victors go the spoils, enslaving some of the children.   All others, were decapitated, mutilated or destroyed in some manner.  For these tactics, the Visigoths became very feared. These deadly reputation became their trademark and people would flee in the advance of these terrors.

The Ottomans tried to conquer the world but did not have much success in Eastern Europe.  When the Turks began their northward advance they met some Hungarians, led by a Prince called Vlad.  The first wave of the Turks was repulsed.  Seeing that the Ottomans were regrouping, Vlad order his soldiers to gather up all the Turks they could find.  All these Turks were impaled on a stake and mounted across the path of the advancing Turks.

When the advancing Ottoman army came on their countrymen impaled on stakes they fled and went back to Turkey.  Vlad’s plan had worked.  Over 30,000 Turks had been impaled and mounted on a vast plain.  It was a great intimidation and the Turks left them alone.

To gloss over war, loses lots of its impact.  The idea is to win and lots of the early tribes understood that the nastier they were the easier it became for them to overrun other tribes.  Their reputation preceded them.  They wanted to leave bodies strewn around, mutilated, decapitated, dead women and children.  The uglier the scene the more feared they became.

There was a tribe in the SW US that preyed on others.  When they need goods or supplies they raided neighboring tribes, stealing their food, clothing and animals.  What ever they needed they took.  The women were raped and often became sex slaves.  Today the Navajos are regaled as being a peace loving group of Indians.  Yet they did very little work but go on raiding sorties of other Indian tribes.  Even today they are a very aggressive people and are still feared by some of their neighboring Indians.  Yet they had a reputation that others feared.

It is this very thing that the terrorists base their style on, fear.  They also show disdain for others for there have been no severe consequences for them to be afraid of.  Until there becomes some consequences the terrorists fear, they will continue to operate as they have.  Until they fear us, they will not leave us alone.

It is a hard choice, one many do not want to make.  They continue to sit under the mushroom and gloss things over.

Then if we are going to war, be willing to go to war,  people will be killed, that is what war is all about.

 

Saturday Morning

 

The beginning of the weekend, time to relax or work the nubbins.  To reset the clock from the week of work.  Watch the morning cartoons, nice big country breakfast, leisurely enjoyed.  Saturday morning carries so many messages to people.

Today I pause for a bit in the morning.  Take my coffee cup, plop in the big easy chair, stare out the window, watch the occasional passing pick up, listen to the sounds of nature, the dusky sky becomes a peachy rose and traffic on the highway whizzes past. 

Yes it is a time for me to meditate a bit.  Reflect on what has been, contemplate what will be and organize the day some.

With the approach of autumn it is the time to prepare for the icy blasts of winter.  Finish up a few little projects, last things in the garden and some touch up on the house.  The early morning moments are a time for introspection.  No longer is it a break from school, sleep in, go hang out or head for the ball game.  Those days are ancient history.

The meditation time is a break from the agonies of daily life.  A time to slow down….. hum…. even smell the roses, if I had any.

Coffee is empty, time to do a few weekend chores.  Picks self up, takes coffee cup out to sink.  ya’ll have a great weekend and upcoming week.