Progressives

Progressive is the new again term for the Socialist/Marxists that are trying to remake America into a cradle to grave welfare society. These are the same people that think the Soviet Union was a wonderful idea that was simply corrupted by the communist party. If the enlightened intelligentsia had been allowed to "guide" the people there would have been a utopian society where everyone was happy and equal, where all would share in the fruits of society. Granted; some would be more equal than others but don't the ruling elite, the intelligentsia themselves, deserve more, utopia wouldn't be possible without them after all. Only the Progressives themselves really understand what needs to be done , the ignorant masses can't be expected to make decisions for themselves or to know what is good for them. Where am I going with all this? Let me tell you.

The Democratic party was co-opted by the progressives with the election of Barrack Obama, the then "most liberal Senator in America", the term liberal had already been co-opted by the progressives over the last 50 years after they went back underground with the failure of the League of Nations and the term progressive was a form of derision. Spearheaded by the celebrity of Obama and coming out of the abysmal second term of George W. Bush the progressives thought that the American people were finally ready to embrace a Socialist/Marxist agenda and the progressives had been waiting to deliver one since the days of Stalin! They had the leadership of the Democratic Party, a celebrity President that was a progressive and the Republicans had been largely castrated as a political power after their failures under the Bush administration.

Flash forward 1 year later. The progressives and the Democratic Party have passed no valuable legislation, have not withdrawn from Iraq, have went from winning the war in Afghanistan to losing and lost more troops there in 1 year there than were lost in the 7 years of the Bush administration. The economy is still limping along, the national debt has skyrocketed, the deficit is the largest in our history and expected to continue to rise. Obama has had the EPA declare CO2 a hazardous gas so he can regulate CO2 emissions without Congress having to pass any new pesky laws. Climategate was ignored or derided because it didn't support their pet Global Warning theory. We had a failed terrorist attack in Detroit due to terrorist incompetence rather than any intelligence agency's success. The progressive response to the increased terrorist threat was to issue a report and shift CIA top secret resources to monitoring climate change instead of terrorist activities. And the piece de resistance, they tried to shove "healthcare reform" down people's throats using back-room deals, bribes and completely partisan closed door "negotiations" after promising transparency to the level of broadcasting the negotiations on C-Span. Just to name a few...

Now we jump to Massachusetts. Recently there was an astounding upset in the special election for the recently vacated Senate seat of Ted Kennedy in Massachusetts. A very "blue" state, meaning it almost always votes Democrat. This was the home of the "Liberal Lion" himself, Ted Kennedy for 46 years. A state that prides itself on it's liberalism. A state where Democrats outnumber Republicans 3 to 1. A state that hasn't had a Republican Senator since 1972... until last Tuesday that is. Republican Scott Brown defeated Democrat Martha Coakley in a bluer than blue state where a Republican hasn't held a Senate seat in 38 years. How did this happen? The answer is fairly straightforward. Massachusetts may be a liberal bastion they are however, not a progressive bastion, very few places in America are.

This shocking turn of events in Massachusetts has shaken up the Washington political scene overnight. The true Democrats that had been pressured into going along with the progressive agenda have finally realized that the American people, while dissatisfied with how the country had been run under George W. Bush, had not had some radical shift to the far left overnight. Thankfully it seems most of the true Democrats are adjusting themselves back toward the center of the political spectrum where the majority of Americans reside. The progressives on the other hand still can't see the forest for the trees. They think that the problem isn't that they are out of touch with American values but that they didn't explain what they were trying to do clearly enough. Here again we see that thought process where only the intelligentsia are capable of making decisions comes to the fore. We the People, are obviously too stupid to know what we want or don't want for ourselves!

Only time will tell what Scott Brown the politician will do for America. However, Scott Brown as a symbol of the rejection of progressive ideology by the American people has already been writ large in the history books and offers me at least, some glimmer of hope for our future as a nation.

Clothes!

Ok, is it just my wife and I or does everyone else out there hoard clothes as well? Today as I put away clothes after doing laundry, it struck me that my wife's panty drawer was a bit full, so on a whim I decided to take a quick count... 34! I'm not pointing fingers here because I do it too.

I have all sorts of reasons or should I say; justifications for my hoarding. There are my "skinny" clothes; you know the ones, the ones I'm positive I will one day look good wearing again if I just lose those "last few pounds". Then there are the ones that are a bit frayed around the edges but I'm overly attached to and have convinced myself I need to keep just to wear around the house or are good workout clothes. Lastly there are the ones that I've had for years and are perfectly good clothes but for one reason or another I dislike them and never wear them but can't part with them because "there's nothing wrong with them" and I might want to wear them one day, even though that day never seems to come!

I think this weekend I need to try to convince my wife that we should clear out the closets and drawers of clothes we'll never wear. It's time to squarely face the world as it is and stop "what if-ing". I'm sure there are those out there in need and can put them to better use than the dust bunnies that are currently the only ones using them. I'm a strong supporter of the Salvation Army and their good works and this is an easy way to assist them in their efforts. Besides, if I do ever lose those "last few pounds" new clothes would be a great way to celebrate!

Thought of the day

In life there are things that we just don't think about, things that we simply do, like scooping peanut-butter out of the jar to make a sandwich or toweling off after a shower, the little things that make up everyday life. Like most people, I tend to assume that everyone does these things the same way; I mean, they are so simple and straight forward why would people do them differently? This thought process has led me to a series of shocking discoveries and driven home the fact that when dealing with people, you just can't make any assumptions!

First, let's look at peanut-butter. I have been pretty self-suficient since childhood and have made my own peanut-butter sandwiches for as long as I can remember. I always open a new jar and admire how smooth and pristine the top of the peanut-butter is before you start using it. When I start using it, I go down one side of the jar leaving the other side in pristine condition for as long as possible and then slowly take a bit at a time from the undisturbed side until I have just a small wedge of undisturbed top left at which point I finish it off. I just ASSUMED everyone did this... Now enters my wife, she grabs the fresh jar of peanut-butter grabs a butter knife and digs right in. Needless to say I'm shocked! She has no regard for the beauty of fresh smooth peanut-butter at all! I have no idea what my facial expression was but she saw the look on my face and asked "what's wrong, is everything ok, what did I do", to which I could only respond "nothing, I've just never seen someone else use peanut-butter before and that's not how I do it". After explaining my method to her we both decided that perhaps I'm just a bit weird.

Next, let's look at toweling off after bathing. Again, one of the things I ASSUMED everyone did the same way, i.e. just like me. When I finish showering I turn off the water, grab the towel, bring it to me inside the shower and proceed to dry off as much water as possible, starting with my head and working my way down to my feet, which I dry one of and place it outside the shower then dry the other and voila, I'm done! I'm as dry as possible and slightly pink from the vigor with which I have dried myself off. Here again, enters my wife. I'm in the bathroom, doing something, no idea what it was any longer but I was at the bathroom sink and my wife was finishing her shower. I hear the water turn off and think to myself that this would be a great opportunity to checkout my wife's naked, wet, glistening body! I never tire of checking her out! Being 6'6" I peek over the top of the shower curtain and what do I see? Yep, you got it, my naked, wet, glistening wife... however, she's doing a little shimmy shake dance in the shower. Perplexed, I continue to watch until she sees my head over the top of the shower curtain. She smiles up at me, slides open the shower curtain, hops out of the shower, grabs the towel, pats herself off a little, all the while tracking water around the bathroom and still looking pretty damp to me hangs the towel back up. Apparently, she shakes the water off before she gets out and then uses the towel sparingly, so she doesn't "get it too wet" which apparently I do with my method of drying off. After this conversation, I decide she's a bit weird but at least I now know how the bath mats get so wet!

It's the little things like making a peanut-butter sandwich or toweling off after a shower that make us the individuals we are and make the world we live in such a fascinating place! And yes, I still use peanut-butter the same way, we just buy a jar for each of us now so I can keep mine pretty for as long as possible!