"Franking" Sense And Misbelief

I've been away from the keyboard for a while now. The news has been so depressing I didn't even want to bother reading it what's more muster a rant.

Then came Thanksgiving followed by the beginning of the Christmas season.  We decided to begin decorating earlier than usual.  The outside to beat the snow that has yet to come, then the inside so we weren't rushed and we'd have longer to enjoy our efforts. Christmas greetings needed to be written and mailed.

 Christmas.  The time of year when pleas go out, no matter the economy, for toys and food and clothing and all else that makes it festive  and meaningful for the less fortunate.  What makes it holy is the response of the people who contribute like those paying off lay away accounts at K-Mart. After all it is the season.

The one thing you won't get is Christmas greetings from your Congressman.  The President, yes, if you're a worthy contributor.  Your Senator, yes.  But not from your Congressman.  At least not unless he decides to fund it from his own pocket.

According to The Washington Examiner  if Congressmen want their mailings to be "franked", paid for with tax payer dollars,  they cannot contain holiday greetings.  Not even New Years!

According to the franking manual, item 4(a), examples include birthdays, anniversaries, births, retirements or condolences along with the aforementioned holiday greetings.  I don't know when this began.  When my Dad passed away Mom got a condolence card from President and Mrs. Reagan.  She had no idea why since he was a staunch Democrat and resented it because they hadn't a clue who he was! A meaningless gesture for a misdirected reason.  But Merry Christmas from your Congressman?

I seem to remember hearing this is a nation built on Christian principles.  Even those of us who do not profess to be "Christian" abide by those principles.  We reference God on our money and in our pledge of allegiance.  What is so politically incorrect about our Congressmen and women wishing their constituents a Merry Christmas?

The separation of church and state doesn't wash if the Senate, the Executive branch and the Judicial are not forbidden to do the same.  So what is it?  Rank has it's privileges?

I don't know where that puts me, a lowly citizen who grew up with nothing but fond memories of the season and the day.  Christmas.  A time of celebration and merriment as well as a time for reflection.

Unfortunately I've been reflecting on the dismal downward spiral of a country I dearly love.   I wonder where our elected officials have come from and how they've become what they are - and are not.

I worry that government has become so large and unwieldy and those within so entrenched the bad can no longer be reversed.

One thing I do know, though, is that December 25 is Christmas and January 1 is New Years and the pleas in the paper for "Christmas for All"  will always be heeded by we lowly citizens.

As for the wizards of government who come up with this stuff, take your regulations and manuals and stuff them. A turkey might be an appropriate place.

$1000 And You Can Run For President

It's true.  If you want to run in New Hampshire. The Wall Street Journal informs me there are already 30 Republicans and 14 Democrats doing just that.

It dawned on me while reading the article just what is the matter with this country.  We consider the most important process to elect the most important position in the country as no more than entertainment.  We have become no more than a cult led by political personalities.  Substance?  What's that?

Have you noticed how many words like that are disappearing from our political vocabulary?

One New Hampshire candidate wants no more than to get  the powers talking about Thorium, a replacement for uranium in nuclear reactors.  A worthy conversation, I'm sure, but enough for a Presidential run? Ah, what's $1000 bucks.  I can't think of a better cause that could use it.

Another said God told him to run but gave him no guidelines. He is not one of the current seven known candidates, but he could be!

This one particularly appeals to me.   Vermin Supreme, that's his name, wants zombie preparedness.  That should get us ready for a new Congress.  Mandatory tooth brushing.  Bringing hygiene to the 'Occupy' enclaves.  And a pony for every American.  Boy, I always wanted a pony as a kid.  Didn't you?  At least he admits his platform is designed to show the absurdity of the process.

Ah, the absurdity of the process.  How on the mark.  What could be more absurd than Donald Trump setting himself up as arbiter of what the candidates should profess.  Or Greta Van Susteren giving him air time night after night to wax profound.  Or Trump moderating a debate.  At least Romney, Huntsman and Paul have had the good sense to decline.

Speaking of Paul, the man who thinks Iran will like us better if we're nicer to them.  Didn't Obama try that?  And Newt.  Oh well, no one will mind if their kids are required to help clean the school along with the janitorial staff to learn a work ethic.

Somehow the gentleman promoting zombie preparedness seems no more absurd to me than most of the first and second tier candidates.  That's what scares me.

Why don't we take it seriously?  It is serious.  Dead serious.  My Saint Bernard buddy, Jub Jub, is going to audition for 'America's Got Talent' next month.  If all the candidates would audition for the show I'd wager on the dog winning. He'll be the serious contender.

Actually, Jub is auditioning for the right show.  The candidates seem to be auditioning for 'Lost'.  That too is serious.  Dead serious.

Of Christmas Cards And Thank You Notes

Yesterday morning I caught Stuart Varney asking his panel whether or not they still send Christmas cards.  Only one said yes and that was to see the family photos that often were included in those she got in return.

Considering the other excuses were simple and expected - it's so much easier to do it on line, I'd have thought catching up on family photos would be just as easy on Facebook.   But at least she does it for now.  By her own admission as the children grow up she too will end the practice.

The whole conversation depressed me.  Whatever happened to the art of letter writing?  It disappeared years ago.  Now even  the teaching off cursive writing in our schools is going to be eliminated.  One more time I see the world in which I was raised slowly disappearing.  It's sad.

I can remember as a child how I loved having pen pals from far away places.  I anxiously awaited birthday cards from grandma and grandpa because they othen contained maybe a whole dollar! I always wrote a letter to Santa and loved to leaf through the Christmas cards that filled our mail box a whole seven days a week throughout the season. I also remember my Mom sitting me down after Christmas or the birthday to crank out the thank you notes.  I came to find they were greatly appreciated.

Those days are gone forever.  Now even sending a greeting on Facebook or one of the greeting card sites seems like a chore. I do it - and don't.  I've gotten lazy and I say that with no pride.

I'm trying to remember the last time I actually got a personal letter in the mail.  I cannot remember the last time I wrote one.  I do though still send Christmas cards and on most write a line or two in greeting. I'm not big on newsletters.  Our life is pretty quiet and I suspect of little interest to others, even good friends.  That's also why I don't participate on Facebook.  If I don't want to share something with old friends why would I want to share it with the world?

 We send far fewer cards these days.  Our base of friends is shrinking as the years pass. That's why I feel strongly that at least once a year I can make the effort to remember good and long time friends with a personal, hand written greeting. It's a way to let them know they are special to me - to us.

And thank you notes?  Always!  Once again I slip into my mother's spirit and mourn the loss of the 'good old days'.  Times were not as frenetic as they are today.  People had time for one another and relished personal time together.  I suspect those days are soon to be no more than memory except for those of us of a certain age.

Perhaps the coming generations won't miss what they've never had.  But I'll miss those times and practices because they helped shape me into the person I am.  One who will still say please and thank you and still put pen to paper. I'll feel a pang of remorse though that we've not done the job of passing on these wonderful old traditions to those coming behind us.  It will be their loss and perhaps should be our shame.

Don't Let The Gingrinch Steal Christmas!

There are few politicians who worry me more than President Obama.  Newt Gingrich is one of them.

With time getting short, even members of his own party  like Senator Tom Coburn, R-OK, are admitting they have little regard for his leadership abilities. Maureen Dowd is just one of many columnists who has put pen to paper about his past history. His weaknesses would seem to outnumber his strengths yet he is the reigning flavor of the day.

Let's hope our taste buds improve before the Iowa caucuses and early state primaries.  Anyone who reads knows of his messy and hypocritical personal past.  Some are saying it doesn't matter because he has fessed up.  I don't buy it.  It goes to character far more deeply than what we see on the surface, a supposedly contrite Catholic convert.

His personal baggage aside, however, this is what I see in the man.  Arrogance, a monumental ego and all that goes with it.  Condescension toward all lesser beings. It's a bad mix for leadership, even worse for compromise.

We have a lot of this already in Obama.  He's the 'visionary'.  Gingrich sees himself the same way.  Both are short on details as to how to get things done.  Obama's tack has been to hand it over to his overlords in Congress while he campaigns or vacations. My guess is that Gingrich will micromanage.  While Obama is trying to duck his inexperience, Gingrich would be more inclined to have little use for anyone elses opinion because of his experience.

Having had a good strategy for the debates doesn't necessarily mean he has a good strategy for running the country.  In this regard I see him as his own worst enemy.  He has personality to be sure.  So does Herman Cain and Rick Perry.  They are colorful and entertaining but the flaws they don't admit to are what sunk them.  Will the same happen to Newt?

What's left on the tasting menu?  Romney, like vanilla ice cream, has gotten boring from a certain sameness. There is something to be said for that, however.  Ron Paul.  He reminds me of something like chocolate walnut.  You may love the chocolate but if you don't like nuts you won't like this one.

 Rick Santorum.  Sarah Palin likes him.  That could be either a blessing or a curse.  the problem with him is no knows whether he's Baked Alaska or Pennsylvania Dutch Apple pie!

  And of course Jon Huntsman whose daughters are better know then he is.  I'm anxiously awaiting the December 12 debate between Huntsman and Gingrich.  Hopefully it will reveal more of what Huntsman is about than I know now and it will give Gingrich an opponent of substance to stand against.

If all else fails Donald Trump is waiting behind the curtain to endorse the best for the job. That everyone is making the pilgrimage to the Trump Tower should make us wonder how we've ended up with him choosing the apprentice for the job!

Maybe some good will emerge from all of this yet.  I'm losing my taste for politics.  That's the most positive thing I've said in weeks!

"Pardon" Me?

Did you know that many states still have sex out of wedlock laws on the books? Strange isn't it?  In this day and age where it seems to be the norm rather than a sinful exception!

For all those who partake,  be darn glad you don't live in Afghanistan.  There you'd get a prison term.  The woman, that is.  Actually half the women in prison are there for  sex 'crimes' or running away from their husbands who many were forced to marry in the first place or maybe even sold to them.

When word got out about a 19 year old serving 12 years who was raped by a relative and gave birth in prison,  five thousand people signed a petition urging she be released.

Talk about nitpicking details.  Rape being considered, for legal purposes, as sex outside of wedlock!

Well, the pressure seems to have worked.  Karzai, that pillar of law, order and ethics, pardoned the woman.  Was it the 5000 signatures?  Nope.  She agreed to marry the rapist!

We're supporting this nation why?  Okay, we're leaving.  And we should.  As one nation, even if we had the strongest leadership in the world (forget we once did), we would not be able to change their mindset.  It's the way they have functioned for centuries.  It is the bedrock of their male dominated culture. Women are possessions. Nothing more.

It isn't that they don't know how other cultures function.  Their leaders have visited this country often enough as well as other western countries to know that women are valued, contributing members of society.  They just don't want them to be such in their own country.

The view that they hate us for our decadent ways doesn't seem to hold much water.  To me it's the result of a huge inferiority complex.  They can accomplish nothing without corruption.  Let's face it.  They are inept.  One way to feel superior is to pick on the weaker.  In this case by using archaic laws to enslave women.

My, what big macho men they are.  What role models.  What paragons of virtue.  What sorry excuses for human beings.