Quote of the Week

"One cool judgment is worth a thousand hasty councils."
- Woodrow Wilson



Saturday, February 20, 2016

Pope Francis, Tear Down That Wall



Memes like the one above are floating around the Internet since the Pope's back handed comment about Trump. Yes, the Pope did not build the walls around the Vatican and he did not bring in the Swiss Guard to provide him and his city state security. They've been there for centuries. So long the Vatican would seem odd if they were suddenly removed.

 But the walls are there and the Guard has not been sent back to their home country. It's way to point out what you consider flaws in others, when you're gotten used to and enjoy the benefits the same flaws.

The Pope's comments are in tune with Hillary Clinton or Micheal Bloomberg saying law abiding Citizens do not need guns to help them be safe, while being surrounded by armed bodyguards when they speak those very words.

 Now before I go any farther, let me make it clear I'm not putting forth an effort to defend Trump. I like how he has energized the election race and has forced other candidates to step up their game by dropping the PC crap that's been destroying our country. But Trump would make a lousy President. His out of control ego and how he's so childish when he doesn't get his way is not the characteristics require for a good leader on the world stage. If he refuses to show up to a debate because some cable network news anchor hurt his feelings by asking him a question he didn't like, how is he going to handle foreign dignitaries abroad and other politicians in DC who have different views? Will he boycott and or threaten to sue them as well?

But one of the things I do agree with Trump on is we need to secure our boarders to the same level other countries do, like Mexico. Remember our Marine who was locked up in a Mexican prison for months because he took a wrong turn and crossed the boarder? That boarder needs to be as or more secured if one is facing north as it is facing south.

Our country needs immigration reform. Major immigration reform. It should not take good people many years and tens of thousands of dollars to come into our country legally. But it needs to be controlled in such a way we make sure the people coming into our country are going to make it better, not worse.




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Wednesday, February 17, 2016

Dined and Dashed

Yesterday I did something I never did before and figured I'd never do at this point in my life. I dined and dashed. Well, kind of.

There is a small bar & grill not too far away from my work that many of my coworkers and I frequent for lunch. Typically on Tuesdays, when they have a burger special, the place has so many of my coworkers there; we joke that the place is our off site lunchroom. Some of us go there so often we can order for other team members who are running late because we know what type of burger they always get. I typically go there two or three Tuesdays a month. So it doesn't seem like the right place for me to pull off a dine and dash, but I did. Well, kind of.

Yesterday a coworker and I were sitting at a table waiting for our burgers, when the Owner who was also our waitress came up to us with a anxious look on her face. She told us that she forgot to put our order ticket up and just noticed it. She then said she ask the cook to get our going first, but our lunch will be awhile. She apologized and we told her not to worry about it. When she brought our food out she again apologized and we again told her not to worry about it.

For me and my coworker, this was not that big of a deal. Mistakes happen. My lunch taking ten minutes longer than expected is not the end of the world. Since I typically work through most of my lunches, Burger Tuesday is kind of a treat for me. So an extra 10 minutes away was something I wouldn't worry about.

After we finished our lunch, the owner placed the bill on our table and apologized once again. When we were getting ready to leave, we noticed she crossed off out tab and wrote "No Charge" at the bottom. Neither of us were comfortable about that. We waited until the owner was out of site, then quickly placed our normal amount of cash on the table for the meal & tip and slipped out the side door. We did this weird kind of dine and dash because we knew the owner would have refused our money if we tried to pay.

Now I am not the type of person who automatically tips. Don't get me wrong, the vast majority of the time I tip pretty well. If I get real good service I will tip very well. But if I get poor service I won't leave much. If real bad, I won't tip at all. Not tipping is extremely rare. With this sad, some may be confused why I paid plus tip for a free lunch.

Well, it was because I had received better than normal service with my late burger. The owner handled the situation perfectly.

* When she saw the error, the first thing she did was correct it by having the cook made it the top order.
* Then she informed us of the error in a timely manner.
* She took the blame for the mistake and told us she already made a correction.


Not every server would have done all those things and all in the correct order. Some would simply apologies maybe even not until the food was served. Some would pass the blame to the unseen cook or other kitchen staff who couldn't defend themselves. This is the times I would have accepted a free or discounted meal.

Sometimes even when you don't have a good overall experience, you still get excellent customer service. That's why I had to dine and dash.

Sunday, February 14, 2016

Participation Trophies and the Death of Justice Antonin Scalia

"What is a moderate interpretation of the text? Halfway between what it really means and what you'd like it to mean?" ~ Justice Antonin Scalia


With the recent sudden and unexpected passing of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, the Internet is abuzz. It really saddens me to see what some of the progressive left have to say. Now I'm not going to waste my time typing and your time reading a bunch of text condemning the heartless, spineless, brainless drivel currently being spewed by these self righteous half whited morons. Because let's face the cold hard truth; if a Supreme Court Justice like Ginsburg or Sotomayor passed away we'd being seeing the same sad vile shit being spewed by self righteous half whited far right wing morons.

While reading comments posted on Twitter and Facebook in regards to Justice Scalia, I keep telling myself that what I'm seeing is just a very small, yet, very noisy percentage of Liberals. I also want to think that, of that very small percentage, most of them don't truly believe and feel what they are posting online. They're just simply trolling to piss off Conservatives. I tell myself that to keep my hopes up that the Human Race is not completely loss. But I may be in self induced denial to avoid the truth that Mankind has reached it's peak and we are in the decline in civilization.

I don't understand why one would celebrate the death of a political figure such as Justice Scalia. As the quote from him I used to open this post with, he simply did what he was appointed to do; make sure our laws follow the guidelines of our Constitution. But since most Progressives don't like our Constitution, that makes people like Justice Scalia "the enemy" to their hopes and dreams of an all controlling central government to take care of them, at the cost of they're personal liberties. Something else I don't understand because I'm of the mindset of having Liberty over security.

I guess anyone and anything telling a Progressive to "go out there and create your own success, you have the freedom to do so" is something to be hated, when all they want to hear is "trust the Government and give up your Liberty for the security a central government says it will provide you." For the Progressive it's much easier to hate & be envious of those who created their own wealth & security, and vote for those who promise to take care of them, than to take the risks & put in the hard work to get it on their own. Somehow they think it's "fair" to take away from the Risk Takers, the Producers, and the Hard Workers to give to those won't take risks, produce, or work hard.

You'll notice a large portion of the people online celebrating the passing of Justice Scalia are of the younger generation. The generation that grew up getting trophies just for participating in soccer games that they don't keep score, in the name of "fairness." Now a generation of people with this mindset of everything and everybody should get the exact same reward no matter what they contribute is happy that someone, who thought that all should get an equal opportunity to succeed but the success is up to the individual, is dead.


Sunday, February 7, 2016

What was he thinking?

This week was an interesting one at the office. A coworker has found himself in a lot of trouble. I mean life changing, things will never be the same for him and his family trouble. 

This week there were hushed conversations and gatherings around computers with the local paper's websites story displayed, with our coworker's picture of him in an orange jumpsuit. All with shocked and saddened coworkers shaking their heads in disbelief for what is going on with a well liked coworker. Often the rhetorical question of "what was he thinking" being asked.

None of us were there or involved with the situation, so only speculations and therories have been discussed. Some logical, some down right stupid. But it does remind me how somebody's life can change incredibly, drasticly and permamently in a matter of seconds.

The more I think about that, the more I think about the very world I know (and the world you know) can come undone in mere moments, at anytime. If during a critical moment in time poor choices lead to more poor choices, then panic, then really bad decisions or actions the results can be irreversible. Kind of like a horror or crime drama version of the 1970's sitcom Three's Company.

What saddens me the most about this current event is the reaction of some of my coworkers. The "what was he thinking" type comments, in my opinion, are a normal and legitimate response. It is a good question. The reactions I don't like are the ones along the lines of "gee just when you think you know someone" type of comments. At least for now it's too early to completely condem someone's entire life and character over one very troubling event.

Humans are interesting creatures to say the least. We're inquisitive to the point where our minds demand the answers to the things we don't know. Our minds demand answers so much, if we don't have the information to satisfy our curiosity, we will make it up on our own by speculating, theorizing and jumping to the quickest conclusion that makes sense at that very moment.

The saddest part about this process is once we make up our minds based on our imagination fueled on some incomplete details; we won't believe the actual truth if it doesn't align with our personal theory that became "fact" without knowing the vast majority of the information.