Friday, October 30, 2015

Processed meat

poor georgie’s almanack:
I ate six pieces of processed meat in one day. Charitable donations are more appropriate than flowers.


 

Found on halloweenforum.com

Thursday, October 29, 2015

Ten mostly serious thoughts about Democratic and Republican debates so far.

poor georgie’s almanack:

Ten mostly serious thoughts about Democratic and Republican debates so far.

1. National Enquirer: Things don’t change. Candidates on both sides still perceive main stream media to be a major problem.  (Main stream media are followed by more people than follow the narrow stream media.  My suspicion is that at least 85 percent of us waiting in a supermarket checkout line check-out the headlines in the weekly tabloids. So each debate has a few National Enquirer questions. Most adults still play “gotcha.”)

2. Simple is as simple does, or doesn’t. The solution to today’s issues are not simple. Any candidate who says a massive change in peoples’ habits and a change in the way government works is ‘simple’ isn’t facing reality. Making change work is a collaborative effort among at least two of the three federal branches, and their many counterparts in the states.

3. Who are the “we”?  Candidates don’t address how their plans will be implemented. When a candidate says ‘I will do this,’ or ‘I did that’ they mean, ‘We did this’ or ‘We did that.’  How will or did they collaborate to make things happen?

4. Everything comes at a cost. There are too many R candidates running, too few D’s, and no Independents making the cut to be seen on the debate stage. Each behind their podium says s/he is for free enterprise and agrees the sponsoring networks need to satisfy their stockholders and be profitable. Free enterprise, of course, is not altogether free. Thus, moderators for the primary debates must cut-off candidates’ answers and cut-to a commercial. The candidates moan and groan about not having enough time.

5. Good for you? Over-regulation, or too much government, is bad for the people it is bad for, and good for the people it is good for.  Both R and D candidates should address this obvious fact and deal with how they feel about people who will be hurt, or perceive that they will be hurt.

6. Life is not fair. The president and a members of congress, more than a governor or state legislator makes life and death decisions. Those decisions might be, who gets medical aid and who doesn’t?  Who gets to smoke pot legally and pay taxes on it and who smokes, but pays a cut to the vicious gang that supplied it? Who goes to war and who doesn’t? Who gets into the USA because s/he seeks a better life and who doesn’t? 

A doctor or judge generally makes these decisions affecting one person or family at a time.  A politician might be either a mass hero or a mass murderer. That raises a basic question, “How do the candidates decide what is moral and what is expedient?”

7. Evidently … not!  Unfortunately, the truths we once held to be self evident have become the truths that ‘they’ held to be self evident.  The Founding Fathers were revolutionaries. Their Declaration of Independence, which is our Declaration, calls for a change of government to one that “shall seem most likely to effect (the) Safety and Happiness (of the governed).”  The Declaration goes on to explain why radical change only should be undertaken after long thought “and provide new Guards for their future Security.” 

That was written about a very different world. Morals were different. (Morals are talked about at debates, but not really defined.) In the 1770s lights at night were a few dim candles or a flickering fire, along with millions of twinkling stars and an occasional bright moon.

The world was more loosely interconnected than today. It took weeks or years to learn what was happening across the oceans that would eventually affect the Americas. So, how do the candidates rationalize a fealty to the Declaration and the Constitution in our new world?

8. For that matter, what do the candidates think is the role of government today?

9. The candidates are not know-nothings, nor are they too-smart-by-half, or too-coy-by-three-times. They do come to problems and to solutions from very different backgrounds.  Even though there is a mass of candidates seeking to be on the ballot, their backgrounds are not as diverse as America, nor do they represent all of us. Their plans might work, or they may not. It kind-of depends on the process by which the plans are enacted and implemented. 

10. Thank goodness for electricity and refrigeration. After last night’s marathon, I remain optimistic and grateful for the opportunity to listen and watch the debate on my Ipad and still follow the World Series inning-by-inning on my muted TV … and simultaneously be able pig-out on “Sea Salt Caramel Truffle” frozen yogurt.

Tuesday, October 27, 2015

GOP in limbo

poor georgie’s almanack
GOP leadership is in limbo … swaying in the wind.


Sunday, October 25, 2015

Bigfoot

poor georgie’s almanack:
AP reports that Peter Wiemer of Chautauqua Lake’s Bigfoot Expo wants NY state to declare  Sasquatch is an endangered species.



Wednesday, October 21, 2015

Smell but not touch

poor georgie’s almanack:
Modern purgatory. 
The closed border, where you can smell but not touch freedom from fear.


Monday, October 19, 2015

Should we care?













poor georgie’s almanack:
Is it just a drop of water?
What if it is another world or universe?
Should you or I care?


droplet pix from Bonnie Bisset facebook acct