MEDIOCRITY- EXIT UP AHEAD

A week from today we as a nation will decide who will be the next President of the United States. The stakes could not be higher for a nation struggling to decide if it wants to re-establish its moral and constitutional foundation and protect it from the toxic effects of socialist creep and the putrid odor it leaves on everything it touches. I don’t believe in my lifetime there has been a more critical election that will define who we are as a nation and where we are headed.  The frightening and sad part of this event lies in the very real possibility that our current emperor could actually be re-elected. With all that has happened during the last four years, one must ask, how is that even remotely possible?

It is easy to make the argument that our current emperor has been a complete and utter disaster as a president. Prior to his ascendency to POTUS, his most challenging responsibility was painting posters for the next community gathering and as president he has established a standard of mediocrity that may firmly cement his legacy as the worst in history. He has made countless promises and hasn’t kept a single one. His actions speak volumes. For example;

·        Obama promised an unemployment rate of 5.4 percent if elected. It ran over 8 percent for his entire term

·        He promised to reform Medicare and Social Security. He never put forth a single proposal.

·        He promised in his first year to put in place an immigration plan. He didn’t even file it.

·        He guaranteed that people making less than $250,000 would see no tax increases. Of the 21 tax increases included in Obamacare, 12 hit the middle class

·        He said health insurance premiums would go down $2,500 per family. They went up $3,000 instead.

·        He said he would cut the deficit in half in his first term. He never passed a single budget and increased the deficit by over four trillion.

·        He successfully put 17 million more people on food stamps.

·        He successfully got our triple A credit rating destroyed.

·        He has provided his wife with 22 personal servants. All other first wives’ had one.

·        He files lawsuits against states he swore an oath to protect.

·        He won a Nobel Peace Price for doing absolutely nothing.

·        He fired an inspector general of AmeriCorps for catching one of his friends in a corruption case.

·        He has threatened insurance companies if they publicly speak out on the reasons for their rate increases.

·        He appointed 45 czars to replace elected officials in his office.

·        He has a social security number for a state he never lived in.

·        He spent over a million dollars to keep his educational records hidden from the public.

·        He told us the early morning call of the Azan (Islamic call to worship) is the most beautiful sound on earth.

·        He has alienated Israel and his policy of apologizing to Muslim countries after they kill American citizens is appalling and cowardly and has provided terrorists with an additional boost of motivation that they didn’t need in the first place.  

So why then would it be conceivable that such a complete and total failure might find his way back into the White House for four more years? Common sense dictates that he should be wiped off the face of the electoral map and thirty years ago he would have been (Jimmie Carter?). That may or may not be the case next week. Why?

The answer is mediocrity. Not just the by emperor, but by all of us. Today Americans by and large are a less educated, less sophisticated citizenry. We are increasingly insulated in our scope of awareness and polarized in our thinking.

A great many voting Americans today lack the sophistication and/or desire to understand the nature of this countries’ economic situation. The formerly required college course has been replaced with Social Injustice Studies and our younger generations are unaware or completely ignorant. The feds are buying up all our debt and printing gazillions of dollars of new money. Citizens are going about their daily routines without being required to face any hard choices yet so it is hard to get their attention. It’s difficult to convince the public there’s an impending crisis when everything seems to just keep humming along. The sleazy and dishonest financial games by the fed are covering up our weakness and interest rates are being kept artificially low. Entitlement spending is now the largest single national expenditure, exceeding Medicare, social security and even national defense! Our citizenry is woefully under educated about what is happening and this creates the perfect atmosphere for the emperor to cruise along making theatrical speeches with the knowledge that most in his camp are oblivious to what’s really going on.

The progressive left has successfully completed its takeover of the “institutions” and now owns Hollywood, colleges and a new version of the old soviet style information command and control center sometimes referred to as the main stream media. Hollywood treats far left wing beliefs as the cultural norm while Christian and conservative beliefs are portrayed as backward and old fashioned. The educational system is swarming with communists and left-wingers who indoctrinate naïve students with a poisonous miasma of liberal beliefs. Meanwhile most of the mainstream media is in bed with the Democratic Party. Whatever story the Democrats want out there, they push it and stories that are bad for the left, like the Benghazi slaughter and cover up, are either ignored completely or transmogrified into something completely insignificant. The emperor would be facing impeachment or resignation if the media reported the events of Benghazi with anything other then canards and overt silence. Instead he gets away with profuse lying and cover-up tactics so as not to do harm to his re election efforts. American citizens have done a poor job in holding our nation’s media accountable. A corrupt and biased media is a virulent Petri dish for the growth of oppression and we have let it happen.

We as Americans have been successful for so long that we’ve started to embrace a “participation trophy” mentality. Large segments of our society now believe they are owed an education, medical care whether they pay for it or not, money and food stamps, mortgage assistance, free housing and cell phones. This would all be dandy if it weren’t for the simple fact that there is not enough money to pay for it all in spite of this growing belief that people are “owed” these things simply for being American citizens. The emperor has repeatedly played on this mentality and has strategically increased the amount of government reliant people, who are also then likely Democratic voters. Obama had built up an impressive army of sponges, parasites and freeloaders who he believes will be strong enough in number to carry him to victory next week. We as Americans should know better then to let this type of behavior by our president go unchallenged. The presidency should be a reflection of our collective values and principles. What does it say about us as a nation when it is plausible that a sad little man like Obama could continue to occupy that position?

Clint Eastwood was quoted as saying “Barrack Obama may be the greatest hoax ever perpetrated”. Maybe so……………but no con man has ever been successful without a mark. Let’s hope the con game has run its course. Let’s hope by now enough of us have looked behind the curtain and seen the snake oil salesman pulling levers and blustering frantically to keep the facade alive.

“You cannot make the weak man strong by making the strong man weak”

                                                                                                     Abraham Lincoln

Let us re-establish the strengths that made us the greatest nation on earth by replacing mediocrity on Nov 6.

APPLE HELL

The Larson Farms Apple Barn and Museum is nestled into a small valley fold of the Sierra Nevada Foothills in the area known to us all as “Apple Hill.” From September through December every year countless thousands visit the oldest family owned operated farm in El Dorado County and enjoy delicious home made apple turnovers, pies, cookies, butters and delicious jellies made from the farms fruits. They feature peaches, pears, nectarines and a dozen varieties of apples. There is also a popular three acre picnic facility. The Larson Family Farm also features one other major attraction; a Museum, stocked with generations of antique farm equipment, doll houses, a covered wagon and countless other historical family treasures. For generations of families, this location has generated fond memories as an integral part of the undisturbed and beautiful Apple Hill experience; until last year, when hate came knocking at their door.

Last week I listened to a radio talk show discussing the closure of one portion of the Larson Farm Museum. At some point in the midst of their angry, good bye sweet America, what the hell is wrong with our country diatribe, it was mentioned that a sign had been posted in the museum advising visitors that the interactive farm area was now closed to everyone because it did not meet the necessary ADA requirements. This immediately got my dander up because I smelled a rat and wondered if this rat’s name was Nancy Pelosi with another one of her legislatively supported extortion plots by one of her legion of litigious ADA racketeers. I decided I had to check this story out for myself and investigate so yesterday I packed the car full of unwitting co-conspirators and made the short trek to Apple Hill, and a visit to the Larson Family Farm.

I found the sign at the Larson Farm hanging from a rope barrier at the rear of the museum leading to the large interactive farm equipment area. I hunted around and found a docent who was willing to talk with me. This kind older man told me he was the owner’s uncle and when I brought up the sign issue his body tensed and his lips pursed. It was painfully clear I had struck a nerve somewhere. He politely suggested I go talk with the owner Ray Larson about it. I suspected this was not going to be a pleasant topic for Ray and I had a feeling that this situation might be bigger then just the sign. I hate it when I’m right.

I located Ray in between two warehouses. He was feverishly loading bags of apples into a large wooden box that was sitting on the tines of a forklift. After introductions and a handshake I asked Ray if he could tell me about the sign and why it was there. Ray sized me up for a brief moment, probably trying to decide if my intentions were honorable, and after our conversation I can see why.

Sometime last year, a man came onto the Larson Farm and identified himself as a military veteran. Although he was himself not handicapped, he immediately started pointing out to the staff that there were several areas of the property that did not comply with the requirements set forth in the Americans with Disabilities Act. He returned to the property several times, each time becoming more disruptive and demanding. The staff at Larson Farms had to call the Sheriff’s department on more then one occasion to have him removed due to his conduct. Eventually this man advised Ray that unless he paid a certain “Fee” of around $20,000 he would be sued and shut down for non compliance. Ray sought legal help and after plunking down five thousand dollars for an attorney he was told that a judge would probably rule against him and he most likely end up paying far more or worse.

Ray did receive support from, believe it or not, his insurance company, who offered to pay the costs for the corrections and then sue the plaintiff with company lawyers. All told, $40,000 was spent on ADA compliancy adaptations on the Larson property. After all was settled, Ray was forced to make the following ADA compliant corrections;

·        Make his wheelchair ramp 1% less steep. Yes. Larson Farms, who has one of the only wheel chair ramps to their apple house in the whole area had to tear it down and have it rebuilt because it had an incline angle that was 1% over what ADA regulations called for.

·        Increase the “turn around” space in the bathrooms provided for guests. The existing bathrooms had a 4 feet 6 inch turnaround; ADA requirements call for a 5 foot turnaround radius. The bathrooms had to be torn apart and rebuilt to add 6 inches.

·        Raise the display tables in his apple barn by one inch. The existing tables that held boxes of apples and jars of jellies and butters were one inch lower then ADA requirements.

·        Pave a dedicated walkway leading to a designated disabled picnic table on the three acre grassy picnic area.

·        What Ray hasn’t done yet is pave a network of concrete paths around his entire interactive farm equipment area, which looks to be about a half acre in size and has compressed gravel as a surface. Since he is technically not in compliance, allowing non disabled people to enjoy the equipment as they have done for years violates the ADA and MR. veteran ass hole has threatened to sue. Now it is closed and nobody can have access.

All this and not one handicapped person ever complained about the Larson Farm. Truth be told, it is one of the flattest, most easily accessible of all the properties in the area and Ray told me he receives 75% of all handicapped visitors in Apple Hill because he went to the expense years ago of building a handicapped accessible ramp, even if it was 1% too steep.

There are dozens of ranches and orchard farms in the Apple Hill area that are frequented by visitors this time of year. Not one of them is fully ADA compliant because it’s absurd to suggest, based on the terrain and the allure of the natural setting in the Apple Hill area that they should be, and not one handicapped person has ever suggested it either. It would ruin the area and all that it represents. They are at least as much, if not more sensitive to the wonderful experience natural surroundings provide all of us.

It is beyond absurd to me that we as citizens allow this type of extortion to go on. Every time legislation is proposed to cut down on these frivolous lawsuits and arm twisting, Nancy Pelosi and her communist’s kook balls in the California Democratic Party squash it because they receive mammoth amounts of money from the trial lawyers association to keep the money train running at the expense of good, honest, hard working people. The corrupt and despicable criminals in the California legislature have engendered an atmosphere similar to our emperor’s and have provided opportunities for other equally sleazy criminals to conduct overt racketeering operations. Too many good people are hurt or destroyed by these cretins and they have to be shut down.

Before I left the Larson property I walked back over to the sign with my daughter. Two children, a boy and girl about 10 and 8 years old respectively stood next to us and the boy said to his sister;

            “Dad says that because handicapped people can’t go out there, nobody gets to go.

            Girl- “well that doesn’t seem fair”

No it doesn’t. And it isn’t folks. Nobody, handicapped people included, wants others penalized or have their accesses reduced or eliminated because of ADA issues. It never been the law’s purpose and now good people suffer because of the actions of bottom feeders with Democratic Party government support. 

The last portion of the American’s with Disabilities Act reads, “Or whatever is reasonable” The good people of the Larson Family Farm certainly would have appreciated that consideration.

DOES THIS MAKE ME LOOK FAT?

I noticed the Nordstrom’s Catalogue for October sitting among the mail on my dinning room table last night.  I don’t remember having seen one in my house for any other month this year but there it was, colorful and exotic looking and if I had to venture a guess, somewhat costly to produce. I had a few minutes to kill before my gourmet chicken dinner was ready so I decided to thumb through the catalogue and see what Nordstrom’s was selling these days. It didn’t take long to find out.

The first item on display was an example of what one could expect to look like as a result of the effects of starvation, pure and simple. I saw nutritionally depleted females posing as clothed carcasses. Their faces were sullen and told the story of a distant sorrow and possibly the fading memory of their last meal. They looked sick and weak with not a smile to be found on any of their faces. Maybe the “lost hope” look is all the rage this year and sells clothes but for the life of me I couldn’t figure out who it is that would want to buy clothes modeled by people who look more like Jewish internment camp survivors then clothing models so I asked my son who happened to be sitting at the bar next to me:

Dad: “Hey dude, check these pictures out. Who would even think about buying the clothes that these women are wearing considering they all look like 8 year old boys who just got sent to their room for talking back to their mom?”

Son: “Chicks dad”

Dad: “Huh?”

Son: “Chicks…they all know they don’t look like that but they want to wear the same clothes never the less, just in case.”

Dad: “Just in case what?”

Son: “It’s like guys kinda. We look at muscle magazines even though we know we will never look like those guys, or want to for that matter.”

Dad: “So you’re saying woman know they will never look like these prisoners of war and probably don’t want to, but will buy the clothes anyway?

Son: “I guess”

Dad: “I don’t get it.”

Son: “Me neither. What’s for dinner?”

The next several several minutes was spent drifting through page after page of bony, meatless, sunken chested, miserable looking, unattractive clothing models; all wearing unflattering outfits that I wouldn’t take off the store rack if they gave them away free. I was perplexed and confused. What is going on here? Skinny and cute is one thing and I get that, but what I don't get is the the half dead, recently injected heroin into my bloodstream look?   

I kept turning pages until I came upon the bra display section and almost spit my wine all over the floor. The perplexing enigma was instantly apparent and could not have been more obvious. It seems that Nordstrom’s has decided the best way to sell their female clothing line is to hang them on walking dead skeletons with messy hair on heads that droop and with faces that display the effects of life long suffering, however; when selling the bras that presumably are worn under the aforementioned outfits, one must have since accumulated very ample well situated bosoms, curves galore, lots of going out on the town make up and  pouty smiles that hint of someone willing to shoot tequila and jump on the back of a speeding hog with a guy named Dirk! How is that possible!!  The clothes for sale in the first twenty pages of that catalogue wouldn’t fit on most Chihuahuas, much less the women who were advertising the suspension devices for their proud mcguffies!

These kinds of mixed signals and impossible situations must put a lot of stress on woman out there and they have my sympathy and support. Society puts tremendous expectations on their shoulders and retailers like Nordstrom's don’t help them much with that. I will rise tomorrow, grab my pants off the floor, pull a shirt off the armchair and go to work. I will give thanks that society couldn’t care less what I look like and that I don’t have to be a slave to what looks to me to be a no win situation for woman in our culture in their battle to keep up with current fashion demands. A confident woman in a torn sweatshirt and jeans exhibits more beauty and allure then any bolemic fashion model. I hope they can stop looking at themselves like they are always on display for others to judge. It just sounds like too much work.

And I will stop looking at the mail on the dinning room table.

 

SUITS ME

Last week’s presidential debate was an invigorating and uplifting moment for Romney supporters, Republicans and conservatives. Conversely, to left leaning pundits, liberal network news reporters, the Communist Party, The Muslim Brotherhood and Whoopi Goldberg, it was a horrific nightmare that not only touched off panic within the ranks, but required a level of straight faced  spin doctoring never before attempted by unmedicated Obama media servants. It was a hysterical and entertaining bit of circus and I would like to personally thank Chris Mathews at MSNBC for certifiably confirming everything I have ever said about him. The emperor had his ass handed to him as a hat. Sleep came easy for me that night.

If you missed the debate last week, fear not for there will be three others in the ensuing weeks and based on my observations, the results may be identical to the first. There is still meat on the emperor's carcass and  I realized something while watching the Obama-que last week. The emperor cannot win a debate because his most pressing problem is simply not correctable. He lies.

The whole of the emperor’s rule revolves around sound bites and specious blurbs. The truth to him is whatever he chooses it to be. His mendacity and his arrogance, coupled with  a hero worshiping media has given him the green light to say whatever he feels is good for the particular situation without any possibility of attack or review. His whole life has been this way.

Romney stood adjacent to the emperor during the debate and confronted him on his tall tales and Obama was helpless to defend himself. His tele-liar was not there to help him. He knew sound bites would come off somewhat childish in a conversation of real issues being watched by grown ups and unlike the funeral of North Korea’s Kim Jung IL, the emperor was unable to place adoring supporters in crucial positions to react with positive hysteria every time he smirked and said something really cool. The emperor knew that the same slogans and platitudes that played so well in the company of Whoopi, Letterman, college crowds and the Kool Aid Kids, would fall flat in front of non-worshiping, critical thinking, hard working tax payers. Still, Obama showed up to the debate ready to play Chutes and Ladders when Romney brought a chess set.

So the emperor bowed his head in petulant rebuke and tried to make it all go away in front of 70 million viewers. He was disrobed and exposed. He had nothing of substance or quality to provide. How could he? He had successfully used his gift of gab to cover up his failed presidency up to that point. Maybe he thought it would work on the debate stage also.  He took some solace in the realization that many of his supporters weren’t watching the debate anyway because Honey Boo Boo was on another channel and his adoring media servants would certainly edit the holy begeeezus out of the debate and show their viewers only what they wanted them to see.

The truth can be suppressed for a while, but it will come out sooner or later. The emperor is not the first ruler to have that fact handed to him at the business end of defeat. Hans Christian Anderson tells the tale of two tailors who weave a phony suit of clothes for their emperor that is supposedly invisible to anyone who is either stupid or incompetent. When the emperor rides by, no one in the crowd dares to say anything until a child, unaware of the social pretense in effect, points out that the emperor had no cothes on. With all pretense lost, the emperor was no more then a naked man on a horse.

The emperor will lose the next two debates for the same reason he lost the first. He hasn’t got a single issue that he can support with anything more then comical and child like Big Bird jokes. Facts are devastating to Obama because he can’t distort them while standing right next to Romney. Obama knows all too well after last week’s debacle that Romney will firmly and politely call bullshit on him. Nobody calls BS on the emperor. Obama will not be able to stand up next week and continue to blame George Bush, or Europe, or banks, or congress, or small business, or you, or me for his failures. That ship has sailed long ago and now the naked emperor’s boat is taking on water.

Whether you vote for Romney or not next month is your choice. At least now you cannot cast your vote under the spell of feel good racial ignorance and pixy dust dreams. At least now the truth that has been kept on the editing room floors of the Obama networks has surfaced. At least now we will find out where we are as a country. This will be our IQ test.