A No-Football Saturday Night

This past Saturday evening proved to be an adventure for my family.  The adventure started out in a very mundane way; I bought tickets to the local university football game.  The day went by rather slowly for a weekend day, but finally game time rolled around.  The weather had been very nice all day, but as my lovely bride and I drove toward Odessa, we noticed that the skies to the south and west were very dark and threatening.  A short time later we hit a small rain squall.  Before we reached Odessa, we a passed through a major storm, but then the skies seemed to clear slightly, and seemed less oppressive.

At Odessa we picked up Child B and Baby Baby (our granddaughter) then headed to the football stadium.  Upon arrival we got our first inkling that something was out of the ordinary.  The gates to the stadium were closed and no one was allowed inside.  We were told that too much lightning was happening and the game was delayed.  A short time later a police officer raced to where we were standing and began shouting for everyone to return to their vehicles, and that a tornado had touched down just a few miles west of our location, moving in our direction.  As we made our way back to our car I saw how many other vehicles were on the parking lot.  I realized that if a panic suddenly started, there would probably be many minor accidents and it would be next to impossible to get out of the stadium.  So I suggested we leave immediately.  Just a few other cars were leaving at this time, so our escape was quick.  We drove to the local mall and went inside.  Just in time, it turned out.

About ten minutes later a storm of quite intense magnitude broke right over the mall.  We could hear the noise of the rain falling on the roof, and over that noise we could hear hail striking the roof as well.  Thunder could be heard over the din of the storm.  We ate our dinner at Fuddrucker's then went out into the mall to walk around.  A few minutes later we were urged into an interior hallway, again due to a tornado being spotted in the area.  The storm dropped slightly in intensity shortly, and we made our way toward the doors by which we had entered the mall earlier.  Before we could get out, the storm gained in intensity again, so this time we took shelter inside the interior of the mall's multi-screened theater.  We passed the time keeping Baby Baby entertained, which kept us entertained as well. 

Later I noticed that the storm's intensity had dropped very noticeably, so Child B and I looked outside.  Rain was falling and the parking lot was flooded, but there was no real hazard now other than frequent lightening.  I braved the lightening and made my way to the car.  It was raining even less by this time and I picked up the family curb-side.  We made our way back to Child B's home and dropped off our precious cargo.  Son-in-law was safe and sound.  We were worried about Child A as well, and had maintained contact with him throughout the storm.  He did not experience the fury of the storm as we did, and  was doing quite well.  By the time we got home, another storm was brewing but we made it inside and no longer cared.

I love stormy weather and I even love to find somewhat precarious places from which to watch the lightning and the cloud formations, sometimes even to the point of endangerment.  My lovely bride has no sympathy for me if I meet my demise in a "stupid way" such as being struck by lightning while standing outside during a monsoon.   Mother Nature can be so beautiful and so dangerous all at the same time.  It truly was an awesome sight, this storm, even with all the built-in dangers.  I do love watching these storms, and I guess my hope is that should I get struck by lightning, it will not hurt badly, or at least not for very long.  Most of all I was happy that our family, and all those that attended the rained-out game Saturday evening, made it home safely.  And, there was surprisingly little storm damage.  All in all, a grand adventure.  Can't wait for next Saturday!

We, the Deplorable

So the great and terrible, all-seeing, all-knowing Hillary Clinton declared a few days ago that "half of Trump supporters are 'deplorable.'"  Later Ms. Clinton attempted to "clarify" herself by stating "I did not mean to say that half of Trump's supporters are deplorable."  How clarifying, yes?  Did she actually intend to say that ALL of those who support Trump are "deplorable?"  We may never know, although it is fairly easy to INFER that is exactly what she meant.  So Trump supporters are deplorable.

Deplorable has a couple of meanings according to dictionary citations.  First, deplorable means "deserving strong condemnation."  Another meaning is "deserving censure or contempt."  A third meaning is "shockingly bad in quality."  Hillary always picks her words and phrases carefully.  There is no doubt that she indeed finds those who support Trump (thus NOT Hillary) to be deplorable.  Ms. Clinton also no doubt knows that synonyms for "deplorable" include disgraceful, dreadful, horrifying, intolerable, lamentable, miserable, reprehensible, tragic, unbearable, and wretched.  Thus we may infer that anyone who does not support Hillary is all of the above.

By the way, one more synonym for deplorable is "SCANDALOUS."  Ahem...er....Hillary?  Did you know you YOURSELF are DEPLORABLE.  Yes, ma'am, being very scandalous from your early attorney days as a lawyer on the Watergate committee (from which you were FIRED FOR LYING), to the scandals with you and Bill in Arkansas, to your illegal email activities, and most of all, all the way to your depraved indifference to the plight of the desperate heroes of Benghazi, you have been the VERY DEFINITION of DEPLORABLE.  When, Ms. Clinton, other than during your pre-school years, have you ever NOT been scandalous, or "deplorable?"

It would seem to me that if supporters of Trump are, in your word, deplorable, how much more so are you and those who support you?  In the current two party system, the only way NOT to vote for you, Ms. Clinton, is to vote for Donald Trump.  At least it appears at this point that the third party candidates cannot win the presidential election.  So for many Americans there seems to be no alternative but to vote for Donald Trump.  I personally would rather vote for Donald Duck but he has no chance of carrying enough delegates at this point to win the election, so that just leaves Trump.

Ms. Clinton, I am very pleased that you find me deplorable, if being non-deplorable means having YOUR values (cannot keep a straight face as I type "values" in the same sentence with "Clinton") and YOUR sense of honesty, indeed, YOUR integrity (rolling in the floor now, give me a second!) than I am more than happy to wear the label that you so boldly bestowed on probably forty percent of American voters.  I understand that there is even a T-shirt for "deplorable people" to purchase.  I will be getting one of my own, for sure. 

I have never wanted to be deplorable, but Ms. Clinton has given that word a new meaning, and now I am indeed honored to be "deplorable." 

Stay DEPLORABLE, my friends, and may God Bless America.

America Fifteen Years Later

Sunday marked the 15th anniversary of the 9/1/1 attacks.  I joined millions of Americans and probably thousands or millions of people across the globe Sunday in remembering the attacks and the lives lost, both Americans and visitors to this nation.  Fifteen years ago, but like yesterday in my mind.

Unfortunately fifteen years later we are STILL fighting in Iraq, still sending death raining from the skies down on unsuspecting people, many of whom are innocent bystanders, often in nations that are not our enemy.  We are still watching our soldiers die in Afghanistan, and in a word, we are STILL AT WAR. 

I would like to say here that I support our troops, and I pray for their safety.  A soldier's obligation is to follow his or her orders, to carryout missions as assigned, without question.  I honor the troops who do so.  What I do not support is our government sending our people to fight and die in those places in which our forces completed the stated objectives, but then some new "threat" arises, and more American lives are lost, as well as many thousands of citizens of those nations. 

I do not support our leaders (and the corporate heads pulling their strings) when those leaders arm an irregular force in one nation, while fighting and bombing members of the SAME organization in the bordering nation.  Sounds absurd?  Well this is exactly what is happening in Syria and Iraq.  Our government is supplying arms to ISIS in Syria, while waging war against Isis in Iraq.  Guess where ISIS in Iraq gets it weapons?  Yes, from the ISIS "brothers" in Syria.  To you and me this concept is stupidity.  To our leaders, this is "foreign policy."Please do not believe me on this - do the research for yourself.  It is easy to confirm my statement.

I do not support our leaders who give us a new " bogey man" as soon as we gain control, at least temporarily, of the first one, al la Orwell's "1984."  We (our leaders) got rid of Saddam Hussein, then Muammar Gaddafi, several guys in the Baltic, and finally Osama Son of Laden.  I remember over a decade ago how we were told that the War On Terror (WOT) would be completed once the seventeenth son of Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was put to rest.  Only ten years after Osama was placed on the FBI's most wanted list, he was supposedly killed in 2011 (although a funeral was held for bin Laden in 2001) in a raid carried out by US Navy Seal operatives.

I do not support our leaders in their decision that the people of America can only be safe if the police state envisioned by Orwell is brought to fruition before our very eyes, never mind the Constitution.  It would appear that our government fears its own citizens more than it fears a few thousand "terrorists" across the globe.  I do not support the idea that it is just fine to circumvent the Constitution through laws and executive orders that are clearly in absolute opposition to our rights as Americans and as people in general.  Think USA PATRIOT and the flagrant spying by the NSA.

In the fifteen years that have passed since that terrible day in 2001, we have lost much of our freedom, or face that potential loss with a stroke of the President's pen.  We have lost thousands of soldiers in foreign lands, not because they were not good soldiers, but because of our own incompetent government and its conflicting, irrational, and illegal foreign policy.  We have lost millions of good citizens of other lands during the last fifteen years, victims of that irrational and illegal foreign policy.  The only thing we have not lost is a permanent state of war. 

Barack Obama promised to end these wars, and like many of his other promises, he did not carry through with the "Hope and Change" he crowed about all through 2008 and again in 2012.  It would appear now, in 2016, that no matter which of the two candidates should win the upcoming election, that things will proceed pretty much as normal into 2017 and beyond.   How can I say this? Simply because President Bush II and Barack Obama were supposedly totally opposite in their beliefs and philosophies.  Obama crucified Bush for signing USA PATRIOT into law and for starting and continuing the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Yet Obama followed and expanded Bush's policies as Obama's administration drug on.

Fifteen years and two days after the terrible attacks of 2001, we do not seem to be any closer to the end of the WOT.  Not only that, it appears that our leaders have accepted, and now are trying to get the American people to accept, the idea that we must be permanently at war with someone or some entity "to keep America safe." They have tried and are still trying to convince us that here at home, our only safety lies in the continuing evolution we are in now from a democratic republic to a police state.  Hope and change?  My hope is that the American people will unite and change the attitude of our leaders by making it clear that we do not accept the premise that we must be at war PERMANENTLY, and that we do not accept the need for a continually expanding police state at home so that the government can "protect us." 

As we remember those who lost their lives on 9/01/01 I also hope we remember that freedom is not free, and that thousands of soldiers have died over the years to keep this nation free.  But I hope we also remember that "freedom" and "safety" are not synonymous.  In fact, freedom cannot exist in the same setting as total safety.  The more our government tries to protect us by continuing the (by definition endless) WOT, and by establishing a stronger and stronger police state at home, the more inevitable it is that we will cease to be free.  And if we cease to be free, in the name of safety, we will have rendered vain the sacrifices made by all those who lost their lives on that awful day, fifteen years ago.