Friday, November 22, 2013

When Kennedy was Killed

I was two weeks short of eleven years old.  School was out and I was at my sixth grade post of traffic boy at the intersection of Rockaway and Hollingsworth Streets, outside of the Highland school in Lynn, Massachusetts.

  As I motioned a couple of kids to cross the street, Bobby O'Leary, the traffic Boy covering the opposite intersection yelled over to me.  "Hey Nestor, did you hear what happened?  Kennedy got croaked."
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I didn't understand.  "What did you say? " I asked.  "He's dead. Kennedy was shot." came the reply.
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I remember just feeling confused, and when the crossing shift was over, I ran the quarter mile down Hollingsworth street to my house.
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when I went in the front door, sitting at the kitchen table was my Mother and Father... just sitting silently.   I said, "Bobby O' Leary just told me that Kennedy got croaked."  My father just kept sitting there, and my Mother said "Well, he must be a Protestant."  She was taking offence at the glibness of the remark.    Back then, we as Irish Catholic Democrats, were keenly aware that Kennedy was the first Catholic President.... and the Camelot legacy was not pronounced like it is now.  Kennedy was still proving himself.

My father remained silent and it started to feel ackward, so I broke the silence by saying, "Well it must of been his time to go."   That brought the rise from Dad who said, "It's not your time to go if you are murdered."  Then more silence.

I went into the living room, leaving them sitting silently at the kitchen table.   Sitting on the couch was a Life Magazine picture article about Kenndy, playing with his kids and with John John crawling under the desk in the Oval Office..  I stared at that magazine for a long time.

That was fifty years ago.  I remember it as clearly as yesterday.

Thursday, November 21, 2013

Bash Countdown

Tommy O just dropped by with two gallons of award winning Bobby Byrnes Restaurant clam chowder from Cape Cod, which will be consumed by the Peeps who make the sacred pilgrimage to this year's Thanksgiving Eve Bash.

Super peep Brian Butler has already put his order in for the White Trash Balls, and your MOAM has started to ready the turkey frier to meet the expected demand.

Momentum is building.... Six  more Days!

Too Harsh?

My parents were Democrats.... And very hardworking.     But that seems like a different era.


Sunday, November 17, 2013

Pendulum Swing

Watching the Sunday Morning News Show.
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The President is taking a beating, and Martha Radatz is holding the Dems feet to the fire.
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Is this an alternative Universe?
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The most that the Dems can say is that the Website is going to get fixed...... but that is the beginning of the problem.   When the website is operable, and people can actually see what ObamaCare has done to emasculate their insurance choices.... when it is apparent that they are screwed with deductables which basically give them the same options as being uninsured.... that's when the doggy doo will come ripping off the fan.
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The Liberals , in their self absorbent basking in the power to control people's lives, have demonstrated a huge weakness in trying to shift basic life choices away from the individual.  Real power exists when each individual is challenged and positioned to think for herself.
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Central authority is always disastrous when solely relied upon.   The Germans controlled the continent of Europe, but their extremely competent military could not make a move without the express consent of Hitler.   The Americans and Allies, on the other hand, always empowered their people in the field, down to the lowliest grunt private, to take initiative.   The US Army was an Army of One.  
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The United States Army crushed the competent Germans with unprecedented superiority and efficiency.  Had the Germans been able to act on their own, without being held back by Hitler's control, the ordeal would have been vastly more difficult.
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This is a dangerous analogy, because I am not saying that Obama is like Hitler, I am just saying that seeking control and sapping individual initiative is never the successful approach
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Who is Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama to say that individuals can't make their own insurance choices and force the free market to cater to this choice?  Their incursion into the intiative of people to provide for themselves is going to backfire into the demise of their political position.
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The average person really doesn't care about national politics.... doesn't care about the national debt, who's responsible for sequester cuts, whether people vote without ID's, and who is entering the country illegally.    None of these things hit home.    
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But now.... when they have to take their kid to the emergency room for stiches.... and it costs a grand that is not deductible.... and that goes straight back to the President who imposed this system that never impacted them before.... that is something that they care about, and something that will translate to the ballot box.
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The pendulum is swinging back to the Republicans, and the Democrats have given it an abnormal push.

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Pyrrhic Victory

I just don't have the energy to rant and rave about ObamaCare today.  It was abnormally cool, and I read an article that the ice cap in the Antartic is at its thickest point in history.   Even though I've  been vilified in the past for disclaiming global warming, I just don't feel like pointing out to Lefty Libs the folly of their cherished Al Gore scam.   

It's only fun chiding the Dems when the verdict is not concluded on an issue.   But they are so freaking wrong lately that there is no joy in it for me.... No celebration in being right.

It just saps your energy,

Plus there is such a mess they are making that our future generations have to clean up.

Monday, November 04, 2013

Biology Factory

Ryan and I pulled the Pram off of the Village Street Wharf ring last Friday.
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I didn't put bottom paint on this year..... thinking.... just a little algae... how bad could it get?
 
 
 Pretty Bad!   Hard to believe all of the growth, and crawly stuff on the bottom of the pram... Shrimp like creatures, slime pods, barnacles cemented to the surface. 
Had to remove it with a brick chisel and it doubled the weight of the pram.
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All this from the murky Salem Harbor.
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Life finds a way.

Saturday, November 02, 2013

Fooling the People

How does it go???
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You can fool some of the people, all of the time,
And all of the people, some of the time,
But not all of the people, all of the time.
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Kind of think that this little ditty is starting to bite the Obama administration in the Ass.
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I remember early in my career, dealing with Community Organizers in the City of Lynn, that at the beginning they seemed committed and credible, but later on, it was apparent that they were malcontented ideologues who were not interested in answers... just wanted to wield power over people's lives.   There was a lot of hype and no common sense.
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And even though I generally don't harbor conspiracy theories, it was an eye opener back then in the seventies when we exposed their allegiance to forming organized communist cells.  Even now, I hate to articulate this because it seems so out there.  But it was true.  Their only commitment was to agitation and disruption.
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Now it seems that one of them is the President of the United States.
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But getting back to the ditty above, the act is starting to get old as more and more people see through their actions and motives.  The reality of ObamaCare with its cost and bureaucracy, will ultimately be the downfall of the administration, rather than a crowning achievement.... because the real motive is not better and cheaper health care.... it is control over people's lives, and this will become apparent and ultimately be rejected as the program rolls forward.

Friday, November 01, 2013

ABC Propaganda

So this morning on ABC News....
A heroic story of how a female police officer in CA took a bullet in the face and one in the chest, yet still pursued a 20 mile car chase of three Hispanic males who did the shooting.
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The Three Perps were illegal aliens, but ABC News described them as "happen to be undocumented immigrants."
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THis is the kind of ideological, thought police, rhetoric that makes me a complete mental case.
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Propaganda, disguised as news, is hard to swallow.