The Gimme Generation

 Somewhere along the way, we started naming our generations. We had the Greatest Generation, the ‘ 50s Generation, the Hippie Generation, the Now Generation, the Me Generation, the X Generation, the Millennial Generation, and probably others I can’t recall. Now, I don’t know exactly who decides these names or even how they are determined, but the generation surviving the Obama years could rightly be called the Gimme Generation.

A noble American hallmark is that we try not to let the needy suffer. There are myriad of religious and private charitable organizations that help those in need. Through the years, a benevolent congress has seen fit to create government programs to help those unable to help themselves. Like everything else in government, these programs have spawned increasingly more give-away programs. All funded, obviously, by taxpayers.

In 2007, we entered what some term the Great Recession. Americans all felt the pinch – some more than others. Falling housing values, disappearing jobs, high unemployment, foreclosures, loan defaults, and bankruptcies put a real hurt on a wide swath of the population.

Even more government handout programs were spawned in the name of economic recovery. Companies, and individuals were crying for help. The federal government handed out some 17 trillion dollars more than we had, and put us in monstrous debt.

Many of the bailed out companies have reportedly repaid their debt, and many of the individuals that were helped by government programs were indeed thankful and are on the road to economic self-sufficiency. Although the government claims the recession is over and millions of new jobs have reportedly been created, the poverty level keeps climbing even while the national debt is increasing. How could this be happening?

I saw a report from FoxNews.com titled Food Stamp Fraud Rampant: GAO Report. The piece centered on a Government Accounting Office report from August 5. Apparently, Americans receiving food stamps were caught selling and bartering their benefits online for art, housing, and cash.

I checked it out. Even though claims that the recession is over, the amount of food assistance is incredibly rising. According to data I obtained from the FDA, the total cost of SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) in 2007, the reported recession beginning, was 33.172 billion dollars. In 2013, the cost jumped to 79.923 billion dollars. That’s a 140% increase! In 2007, there were 26.136 million people receiving SNAP; by 2013 that had jumped to 47.036 million. If the recession is over, why aren’t these numbers going down?

Now enter the fraud factor. The government calls them “overpayments.” This doesn’t begin to describe the nature of this abuse of taxpayer money. People have sold and bartered SNAP funds to buy items unrelated to food, and many ineligible people are receiving SNAP money. Payments are going to dead people and prisoners.

Just how much fraud is there? Good question. The GAO report uses data from 1997 and 1998, and has conspicuously not shown current fraud data. In 1995, there were 12,000 prisoners in four states receiving food stamps. There is nothing in the report to show that this condition has improved, or that the number of ineligible recipients has dropped. To the contrary, since 2002 all states are required to issue EBT cards that work like bank debit cards. Now it is even easier to spend our tax dollars on things not intended for the SNAP program, and certainly not essential for sustenance.

Consider SNAP is but one government program handing out free stuff. From cell phones to free breakfast and lunches at schools, Americans are getting ever more stuff at taxpayer expense. What will happen when there are no more taxpayers left to foot the bill? Ain’t socialism grand?

I have to wonder. Are government figures lying to us about the recession being over, or are we simply becoming the Gimme Generation?

Why Is Life Still Black-and-White?

 It’s still a black-and-white world. In the ‘50s, we had a black-and-white TV, movies were in black-and-white, our cameras mostly used black-and-white film, and our buses and lunch counters were divided by black and white, so were our communities.

When color television came out, our world suddenly took on a new depth. Color film became available for the masses. The movies were in “living color.” But until the ‘60s our buses, lunch counters, and communities were still separated by black and white.

When Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act into law in 1964, the expectation was that the last black-and-white part of our lives would finally be changed. And to some extent, it was. Blacks and whites could finally sit wherever they wanted at lunch counters, our segregated neighborhoods began to take on new color, and anyone that still rode a bus could sit wherever there was room. At last, our country would be a fully integrated society.

Whoa, wait a minute. That last part didn’t really happen, did it? After 1964, some things did change, and great strides were made to affect a color-blind society, but we are still plagued by complaints from the “Black Community” over perceived racial injustices.

In the late ‘60s, we had race riots. Today, we still have race riots. Why?

For decades, affirmative action has been placing under-achieving minorities in classes to the detriment of overall education. Despite anti-segregation laws, minorities still group together in their own communities, and sit together at lunch counters and on buses. Blacks who have risen above the poverty level and become productive members of society are looked down on by other Blacks. For the first time in the history of our country, we have a half-Black President, who was elected, not on his record of achievements, education, or proven competent leadership, but because of his race.

Why, if technology can add color to the way we view the world, can legislation not eliminate the boundaries of a black-and-white society? Why, after fifty years are we still having race riots?

I believe the answer lies simply in human nature. We do not have a color-blind society because the minority side doesn’t want a level playing field. High-profile rabble-rousers like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton thrive on race baiting. And, unfortunately for the Black communities, they are not the only ones. Whites and Blacks poke at the hornet’s nest of racial animosity. From the time they are born, Blacks are fed the propaganda that they are being beat down by Whites. It is no wonder so many blacks suffer from a serious inferiority complex that they mask by a chip-on-the-shoulder attitude.

Anti-segregation laws and school busing were supposed to create an integrated society. To a small extent, these laws produced the desired effect. Why, then, do we still have minority communities? Why are there still schools with predominantly minority students?

Again, it comes down to human nature. People of like-mindedness will always seek each other out. They will find a way to congregate with others of the same stripe. Laws cannot change human nature. There is no country in the world that is truly integrated and, where communities contain a well-distributed population of diverse colored citizens.

The latest incident of rioting instigated by race baiting comes from Ferguson, Missouri, where the National Guard has been sent in to quell the rioting. The match to this powder keg was a black teen named Michael Brown.

I bring this incident up simply to illustrate my point that the race-baiting rabble-rousers are keeping Blacks in their self-pitying wallow.

Like Trayvon Martin, Rodney King and other rioting flash points, Michael Brown was no choir boy. Brown was a street thug. Footage of a convenience store robbery just before the incident that got him shot by the police, show Brown stealing items from the store, and when a customer points this out, he grabs the customer by the throat and picks him off the ground. Later, Brown and a friend are walking in the middle of the street, When a police officer pulls his marked cruiser up to ask why they are in the street, Brown rips the door to the car open and assaults the officer.

According to police reports, Brown tried to get the officer’s gun and was shot. When the officer got out of the car, the wounded Brown turned and charged the officer. At that point, the officer rightly feared for his life and put some five rounds into Brown, killing him.

This is the point where the race baiting begins. Michael Brown is Black and a teen in a predominantly black neighborhood. Brown’s accomplice in his walk in the middle of the street says Brown had his hands up saying don’t shoot. Suddenly, the neighborhood is full of “witnesses” claiming the police shot an unarmed Black teen. Next, the high-profile rabble-rousing race baiters stir up the Black community and rioting breaks out.

Of course, what’s a good riot with out an ample amount of gratuitous looting? Free stuff for the down trodden. Hell, you don’t even need food stamps.

Still black-and-white? You bet. And our communities will remain black-and-white until everyone understands that we are all members of the same species – Homo Sapien.

Thousands of years ago two species inhabited the earth at the same time – Homo Sapiens and Neanderthal. The Neanderthals are no longer with us, yet many of us have Neanderthal genes. Did we interbreed the Neanderthals out of existence, or did the species baiters finally drive the Homo Sapiens to kill off the Neanderthals?

The consistent attribute of history is that it always repeats itself.

Thank God for Anesthesia

I was in the kitchen the other night when the wife hollers from the living room, “come watch this. Doctor Oz is operating.” Not that I watch such things, but because she thought I would find it interesting, I stuck my head in.

For those three or four people in the world not familiar with the good doctor, here is a short bio lifted from Wikipedia: Oz was educated at Tower Hill School in Wilmington, Delaware. In 1982, he received his undergraduate degree at Harvard University. In 1986, he obtained MD and MBA degrees respectively at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and The Wharton School. He was awarded the Captain's Athletic Award for leadership in college, was class president and then student body president during medical school.

Oz has been a professor at the Department of Surgery at Columbia University since 2001. He directs the Cardiovascular Institute and Complementary Medicine Program at New York-Presbyterian Hospital. His research interests include heart replacement surgery, minimally invasive cardiac surgery, and health care policy. With his collaborators, he has authored over 400 research papers, book chapters and medical books, and has received several patents.

This night, he was appearing in a show about things that go on in New York-Presbyterian Hospital. Oz was doing open-heart surgery on a woman with a hole between the chambers of her heart, and his daughter would be accompanying him in the operating room.

The show was a little annoying since it consisted of a series of flashes of different procedures going on that day. Finally, the segment came on to show a patient on the operating table with a crowd of people all in blue scrubs gathered around a cover with a slit in it that revealed the woman’s beating heart.

Everyone – except the patient – looked alike in their head-to-foot garb, but we could tell by the voice that the man poking around in this woman’s heart and describing the operation must have been doctor Oz. Suddenly and without warning you hear, “what’s that?”

My eyes popped open. What’s that! These words are right up there with “oops”, and “oh damn” that you never expect to hear on the operating table – especially from your surgeon. Mercifully, the woman was deep under anesthesia. Had I been the patient and not under anesthesia, I might have shouted something like, “What is that! Did you drop your watch in there? How many of these operations have you done doctor? You still don’t know the anatomy of the heart? Is it too late for a second opinion? Nurse, put me back together. I’m checking out of here!”

They got the woman’s heart repaired, but we never learned what prompted the doctor’s query of what must have been an unusual finding in her heart. You would think that a seasoned heart surgeon and celebrated television host might know better than to utter a phrase like that while poking around in someone’s heart on national television.

I have undergone a number of surgeries, and I have to wonder if this sort of thing is commonplace in operating rooms. If so, the doctor and I both have an additional reason to be thankful for anesthesia. If the surgery doesn’t kill you, the mindless chatter in the room might.

Military Un-intelligence

 Imagine you are in the Army and involved with heavy fighting in Afghanistan. Along comes a messenger. Instead of carrying a critical message on enemy positions, he hands you a pink slip. You are fired!

It’s a joke, right? No joke. This is what happened to 48 Army Captains this week in Afghanistan.

These are not your normal non-critical rank support troops. Captains are normally company-level command officers. They have a full compliment of men and women under their command – depending on them for life-and-death decisions in a war zone. Now some genius in the pentagon decides to just pluck them out of the war zone and send them down the road.

Was there any thought of what the troops under them will do without their commander? At best it would destroy morale. At worst it will lead to deadly confusion leading to unnecessary risks and possible combat casualties. Remember, we are still at war in Afghanistan.

And what of those officers suddenly canned? They aren’t going to get a lot of time to look for a new job. “I’m sorry. I can’t come for an interview right now. I’m in the middle of a firefight.” Yeah, that’s going to go over with a prospective employer.

It is blatantly obvious this draw down and military cost-cutting is not just misguided but gotten completely out-of-hand and insane. How many officers are on the chopping block at the pentagon? Most of those serving there are merely paper shufflers and pencil-pushers. They spend the entire day in boring and mundane meetings where nothing of consequence gets done, and shuttling paper from one office to another.

At the General and Admiral level, there are far to many still serving. We have never had so many top-level officers even during the Second World War. Many of these Generals are merely shining the seat of their pants, and are far beyond retirement age.

Another factor that makes no sense is a report by the World Tribune. Officials said the ‘Defense Department has been keeping records and tracking Muslims so they can encourage their presence and continued advancement in the military.’

We need more Muslims, not combat experienced Captains in the Army? The inmates are seriously in charge of the asylum! Sure, bring on another bunch of Muslim officers like Major Nadal Hassan, the Fort Hood murderer.

I am a strong proponent of cost-cutting, but there is a right way and a wrong way to do it. This administration is hell-bent on doing it the wrong way – a dangerous way for our nation. The draw down in Afghanistan is a prime example of incompetent administration at its worst.

Instead of storing perfectly serviceable weapon systems or selling or even donating them to friendly armies that desperately need them, we blow up equipment we have paid billions for. Some of our best weapons such as the A-10, “Warthog”, are to be scrapped with no suitable replacements,  even though both the Marines and Army say they are critically needed. The F-22 production is terminated in favor of the troubled F-35. On, and on, and on…

Now we have military commanders being fired while still engaged in combat. I guess this is what happens when you have a “community organizer” for Commander-in-Chief of the nation’s military. My solution to the problem would be to fire the man at the top and every unqualified civilian beneath him, then replace him with someone who knows which end of a gun the bullet comes out of. Put a qualified professional military man in charge.

I have to wonder what other idiotic actions might be planned for our servicemen and women of the front line. Will they suddenly take their weapons and ammunition in the middle of a firefight? I never thought anything that outrageous could happen, but I’m not so sure these days.

The AWOL President

When the sun is high on 100-plus degree days, there is only one thing to do – go get something cold and refreshing. So, I’m sitting on this barstool and the guy next to me sees something on the TV that he feels the urge to comment about.

“The world is going to hell in a hand-basket.” He says. I pretend to ignore Captain Obvious.

“We have Israel bombing he Gaza Strip, Russians shooting down airliners in the Ukraine, kids and women streaming across our southern border, civil war in Syria, Iraq and Syria being taken over by Muslim terrorists, and people in this country that still can’t find work but are no longer on the unemployment rolls.” He took a sip of his beer before continuing. “How is our president going to handle all this?” He asked.

“He’s not!” I replied. “The leader of the free world is far too busy fundraising and golfing to be bothered with serious matters. John Boehner said it best, ‘Our president is AWOL.’ That’s military speak for absent without official leave. Another fitting military saying is SNAFU. That means situation normal all fouled up – or something close to that.”

“But isn’t Obama doing anything about these problems?” He asked. “Didn’t he go to Texas when their Governor wanted to put National Guard troops on the border?”

Has this guy been brainwashed by the Lamestream Media, or just stupid? “Obama did go to Texas but not to do anything about the border crisis there. He went to raise money for the democrats. He was miffed when Governor Perry declined to meet him at the airport for a ring-kissing. Perry told the president he would be happy to sit down for substantive talks about the border crisis. Obama put that on the back burner.”

His face scrunched up, and he said, “But the president already has a plan to take care of the children coming across the border, doesn’t he?”

“Right, a plan that will cost us 3.7 billion tax dollars for healthcare and foster parents for these kids. Do you consider these kids are your problem? Do you feel obliged to pay for them to be here? What we need is a plan that will stop them at the border and not let these kids on US soil. We need to fund the border fence already approved and waiting for money to finish building. We need increased border security – more Border Patrol agents and maybe armed National Guard troops to stop the invasion.”

He shook his head. “The Republicans are blocking any immigration reform plans that come up.”

“Not really. They block any plans that call for amnesty. That didn’t work the last time we tried it. We now have twenty million more illegals that want amnesty. Where does it end – when the last person leaves Central America?”

He shook his head. “That is just one problem our president is working to resolve, but what can he do about the other problems in the world? How can he stop Israel from bombing the Palestinians? And what about the Ukrainian crisis?”

“Forget it.” I said. “The only way Obama would pay full attention to these and the other crises in the world would be if he could do a fundraiser there or had a golf date in those countries. Even if he would devote some time to these problems, he doesn’t have the experience to even guess what to do about them.”

My new friend continued to blather on about Obama’s abilities, but after nearly six years of watching our Commander-in-Chief, flounder from one crisis to another with no tangible result, I knew he was beating a dead horse. I think he knew it too, but couldn’t admit he voted for the wrong person – twice.

I can’t decide which is worse: to have Obama AWOL or taking charge of a situation just to screw it up.

Drought in the Desert – Go Figure

 I am what most people term a skeptic. When Al Gore told us the sky was falling, I looked for tangible evidence. After all, this is the same Al Gore who claimed to have invented the Internet. Okay, I’m still not convinced, but scientists on both sides of the issue make some very good points. That only adds to the confusion.

When Jerry Brown said we are in a drought, my initial reaction was, “humph, it’s dry but just how dry.” That’s when they started inundating us with data – the snowpack depth, annual rainfall numbers, and weather predictions. Again, “that doesn’t sound good, but I still get water when I turn on the tap. Don’t we have reservoirs to get us through dry years? ”

Then they cut the agricultural water to next to nothing. At that point, I began to take notice. Then they showed pictures of our reservoirs, or what might have been reservoirs at one time – pictures of small mud holes.

This week we were warned about the fines for water misuse. Okay, I’m convinced. We are in a drought.

Apparently, many are not yet convinced, though. I see water running in city streets, yards being flooded in the heat of the day, and driveways and sidewalks being watered like they are expected to die if not irrigated. Many of the offenders are government agencies and businesses.

On its website, Western Municipal Water District (WMWD) says that 60% of residential water use is for outdoors. Wow, think about it. Sixty percent of your water bill goes to keep your grass green and your exotic trees growing.

At our house, you won’t find grass – never wanted any – but we do have trees and bushes that we drip irrigate. The few flowers we have are drought tolerant and drip irrigated. Even with only that, our water bill is an outrage. I shudder to imagine what people with big lawns and exotic plants are paying each month for water.

For those of us living within the Western Municipal Water District service area, there is an opportunity to not only help the drought situation and save on your water bill, but you can even make money doing so. WMWD has a program that will pay you $2 per square foot to rip out all that nasty grass and replace it with “climate-appropriate landscaping.” Check it out at http://www.westernturfreplacement.com/.

Think about it. No more sweltering under the hot sun while mowing the lawn each week; no more fertilizing and worrying about crabgrass, dandelions, mustard or tumbleweeds; no more being tied down to your yard, while being held up on your water bill. You could be saving some 60% of your bill, AND get paid $2 per square foot to do it! Can you beat that?

An offer like that almost makes me wish I had grass to rip out. Nah, I hate mowing the lawn. Dirt, rocks and desert landscaping is more my thing. After all, we do live in a desert.

Hypocrisy thy name is Democrat

Remember the brouhaha over Sarah Palin’s crosshairs? In her 2011 campaign, she placed crosshairs over areas she wanted to target for increased Republican effort.

Well, you would have thought she was going to drop bombs on those areas the way the Lamestream media made it out. We heard nothing but criticism of the incident for weeks after.

Now we have a Democrat running for Congress in a Washington State district actually shooting a stuffed elephant with a shotgun! And what have we heard about this? Not much.

There is a YouTube video showing his campaign ad, and I found a piece from ABC News seemingly buried on the internet, but nothing like the weeks of “reporting” following Palin’s crosshairs incident.

Here is an excerpt from the ABC piece:

The video opened with Beltran posing in a high-desert landscape.

“They call me a long shot. They say I can't win in this district,” his voice-over says. “But what happens to an elephant when it stands around, doing nothing, for too long?”

The camera panned to an elephant piñata, and then back to Beltran, who blasted it in the backside with a pump-action shotgun.

“My name is Estakio Beltran,” he said. “And I approved this message.”

Beltran then rode off on a donkey toward a sign pointing toward the U.S. Capitol.

Apparently, at least one Democrat was offended by the ad. Former Arizona Congresswoman, Gabriel Giffords and her husband Mark have taken issue with Beltran, but not for targeting the symbol of the Republican party, for using a gun to do it.

Wow, I am amazed too! I didn’t thing anyone in one of the most liberal states would even have a gun, let alone a Democrat.

“The purpose of the video was to call attention to a do-nothing Congress in need of a kick in the butt,” campaign spokesman Grady O'Brien said in a statement emailed to The Associated Press.

Well I agree. But it is the Democrats that need a “kick in the butt.” Nancy Pelosi and the 70 Congressional card-carrying members of the Socialist Party of America need to be booted out of office at the very least.

Although Sarah Palin’s crosshairs incident was front-page news, a Democrat blowing apart the symbol of the Republican Party with a shotgun seems hardly worth mentioning by the major news outlets. Do you suppose that if he had used an AK47 we might have heard about it? I wonder whether he used environmentally friendly steel shot or that nasty old lead. Do you think his shotgun was registered? Did it use microstamping? Will this violent act promote more mass killing of elephants? And what about the donkey he rode off on; isn’t that animal cruelty? Where’s PETA when things like this happen?

We may never know the answer to these questions, since the incident won’t stir up a frenzy like having crosshairs on a map.