The Happy Idiot I Was - The Duties of American Citizenship...

I've spent most of my life not giving a hoot about our government, politics, politicians, lobbyists, foreign policy, big business, etc., etc... what's going on around me and how it affects my life.

What a difference a single generation makes. My father and his friends were pressed into the service of their country and sent off to war upon graduating from high school. Many never returned, some were never found. Countless others were scarred for life. None of them ever forgot.

Somewhere along the way into the autumn of my life (sometime during say, the past 6 years) I started paying attention to such things. I attribute it partially to today's relentless 24 hour news cycle being broadcast in every form of media imaginable but mostly to the fact that I have children and grandchildren and I am genuinely concerned about their future. I think about them more than ever because I guess I've reached that stage in my life where I'm sick and tired of being taxed and I'm fed up with our governments intrusion into so many aspects of my life. I finally stopped to look at the writing on the wall and don't want my children to experience what I see coming.

To be honest I'd rather worry and talk about other things but I can't escape the fact that it now seems, at least to me, like a responsibility of people my age, of our generation, us baby boomers who have enjoyed the great freedoms this country has offered us to take a stand and ensure the same freedoms for future generations. Especially for us who were so lucky to escape the responsibility of war and the extreme sacrifices associated with such. To me, what's happening around me today is no longer just idle bullshit, though I wish it were.

Theodore Roosevelt said, "A man of means who shirks his duty to the State in time of peace is to be regarded as being only one degree worse than the man who thus shirks it in time of war."

I'm taking that statement to heart, will never again take my freedom for granted and thus proudly stand with others who understand how fortunate we are in this country to have a voice.

Exercise your freedom or lose it!

- Larry - This post is dedicated to Frank Kelly, the only living WWII veteran I personally know and my dear departed father, Lew Jordan.

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From NASA

For all of you flag waving patriots...

This high school kid deserves some encouragement for his creativity if nothing else. As explained to me, he whipped this out in an hour or two as a favor for his mom and her upcoming tea party. Crank up your volume.

Both major political parties have become a rats' nest of hypocrisy and incompetence.

That's my answer to my BFF Billy Bob, who accuses me of always staying on the same side of the fence.

Oddly, his blind accusation hurt my feelings. I jump over the fence once in awhile and he knows it. I visit. I've been a good friend. I've listened.

I must admit however that I jump over very seldom anymore. Maybe he feels slighted because he's beginning to feel a tad lonely over on his side?

I tend to gravitate towards artists and people of intellect (Billy Bob included) and since the replacement of the lenses in both my right and left eye (literally, because of cataracts) I've seen very few of them on Billy Bob's side of the fence.

I've searched and searched for someone who can justify the policies and actions of our government officials for years. I'm dying to jump the fence. I'd welcome a new environment, I really would. I'm sick of dodging the same old cow pies on my side and I swear, sometimes Billy Bobs's grass looks greener; cooler and softer.

Problem is... I keep running into barbed wire like Camille Paglia. Here's a woman who is famed for her well thought out and intelligent articulations. She's not only a die hard registered Democrat but a Feminist to boot. You want the skinny on what's going on in Obamaland and 'cloud cuckoo land' in general? Ask Camille.

This is for serious people; a ten minute read at least but mandatory for those who give a rats' ass. Just looking up some of the words she uses is an education in itself.

Treat yourself.

- Larry - Credit: salon.com