Category Archives: Lessons of Life

Friday Follies for February 20, 2015

Posted on by

The Church of Man-made Global Warming claims all the snow falling this winter is a result of greenhouse gases. Some NASA pseudo-scientist said this in an interview. We have proof these pseudo-scientists have falsified data to support their fraud. They arbitrarily raised the temperature reported by sensors around the world. They were caught when someone else checked the raw data for those sites and the results didn’t match the claims of the pseudo-scientists.

But this isn’t a rant against those charlatans. I just wanted a lead-in to this:

Ice-Geyser

Frozen geyser in Letchworth State Park, NY

CASTILE, N.Y. (AP) – The arctic conditions have turned a fountain at a state park in western New York into a five-story-tall “ice volcano.”

The pressure-fed fountain is in a pond near the Glen Iris Inn at Letchworth State Park, which straddles the Wyoming-Livingston county line 40 miles south of Rochester. Days of subzero temperatures have formed a solid cone of ice several feet thick with water still spouting out of the top.

Park officials tell local media that the formation dubbed an ice volcano is at least 50 feet high. — MyFoxNY.

***

NATO, or perhaps, just the EU, appears to be on a collision course with Putin’s Russia. After a shaky ceasefire between the Ukrainian government and Russian surrogates masquerading a rebels, the war of words has shifted further west.

Ukraine crisis: House of Lords criticises EU and Britain for ‘sleepwalking into crisis’ as Moscow and Nato remain on diplomatic collision course

Kim Sengupta, Thursday 19 February 2015

The fraught relationship between Russia and the West, which was supposed to improve following an agreement over Ukraine, has descended instead into renewed acrimony after a series of tense military and diplomatic confrontations.

France and Germany, which had brokered the Minsk accord last week, were yesterday trying to hold together the increasingly fragile ceasefire in Ukraine amid reports that fighting was spreading once again. Kremlin-backed separatists and Cossack fighters triumphantly paraded through the shattered town of Debaltseve, a strategic point they had captured in the past 48 hours.

Britain, which along with the EU will be strongly criticised by a House of Lords committee today for “sleep-walking into this crisis”, was drawn towards centre-stage after two Russian Bear bombers off the coast of Cornwall – but just outside UK airspace – were met by RAF jets scrambled from their base in Coningsby, Lincolnshire.

British Defense Secretary Michael Fallon, speaking before Parliament, “accused President Vladimir Putin of trying to extend his campaign of destabilisation to the Baltic countries. The Russian leader, he said, presented as much of a threat to Europe as Isis.” — The UK Independent.

Amid this discussion, there is one glaring omission: any comment from the United States. “The US administration has put on hold a decision on whether or not to supply the Ukrainian government with heavy weaponry; White House spokesman Eric Schultz said.” — The UK Independent.

After decades of dependence on the US military to safeguard their countries, the EU and other European nations have suddenly realized they are defenceless against Putin’s aggression. Europe has allowed their Cold War militaries to wither, failing to maintain their contributions to NATO and now, when that NATO strength may be required, it no longer exists. Europe depended on the United States for protection but now, suddenly, that dependence has proven to be fool-hardy amid Obama’s incompetence displayed around the world.

***

Words, actions, have consequences. Marie Harf has been presented with this lesson. After her farcical response to a question about opposing ISIS with a Jobs program, her self-generated controversy has cost her a promotion.

Report: Harf Won’t Get Top State Job; She ‘Failed Spectacularly’ In Test Run, Official Says

5:00 PM 02/19/2015

Jen Psaki might be getting the call to the big leagues, but that doesn’t mean Marie Harf is taking her old spot.

After a multitude of ineffective television appearances, headlined by her remark that helping ISIS fighters find jobs instead of killing our way out of war against the terror group should be the U.S.’s priority in the Middle East, Harf is not in line to become Psaki’s replacement as the top spokesperson at the State Department, according to a Daily Mail report.

A source told The Mail that Harf “failed spectacularly” during her “test run” for the top spokesperson job, as Psaki’s move to the White House had been in the works for some time.

“Jen’s move to the White House isn’t something that happened overnight,” a State Department official said, “and Marie’s TV appearances were an audition of sorts, a test run, and she failed spectacularly.”

Will Marie Harf learn from this lesson of life? I doubt it. She is still the poster-girl for every blond joke ever told.

Facebook

Passages

Posted on by

To use a phrase from a time past, yesterday was a bummer of a day. Mrs. Crucis and I went to the funeral of a 29-year old man who died suddenly last week. The funeral was in a small town about 100 miles SE from here. We didn’t go so much for the young man. I hadn’t met him and Mrs. Crucis hadn’t seen him since he was a child. We went to help support his parents and grandmother, all whom we have known for decades.

The young man had two kids, a boy and a girl, neither old enough for school. I was thinking that now they would likely have no memories of their father when they grow older.

Most of the funeral attendees were friends and relatives. A significant number were from the local Amish community.

The young man had helped them during their harvest although he had acknowledged that he was no ‘farm boy.’ But his willingness to help buys a lot of credit in a community built around self-help, cooperation, and the willingness to share labor for kith and kin.

His kindness with the Amish, and theirs to him, is proof that when it counts we are all kith and kin.

***

More of the story about the shooting in Ferguson, MO, is coming to light. Witnesses now are confirming the cop’s version of the event. The instigators of the rioting is not the local residents, but from outside agitators like the New Black Panthers from Oakland, CA.

Add to the mix that the toxicology reports reveals that Brown had marijuana in his system, the facts are now replacing the myths spread since last week by the media.

***

“Stalinesque tactics!”http://www.msnbc.com/sites/msnbc/files/styles/ratio--3-2--830x553/public/articles/rtr41tt3.jpg?itok=C92iL83P Rick Perry vows to fight the indictment issued by a select Travis County grand jury. Even David Axelrod says the indictment has no basis.

Facebook

Expectations

Posted on by

I was listening to the radio this morning and the topic was the expectations of new college graduates. In essence, their excessive expectations. The conversation started with a report, a complaint, from a recent graduate. He couldn’t find a job!

No, that’s not right. He had a number of interviews, he couldn’t get hired. There’s a difference.

The grad’s expectation, fed by his school, was that all the grad needed to do was to wave his degree in the face of interviewers and he’d magically get hired.  Surprise! Surprise! Real world intervenes.

I worked for a large telecommunications provider, first as a team leader, then a manager, later as a design engineer and project manager. I was as high as I could go in the company without being an executive. During that time, I interviewed prospective employees, hired some and had to fire some as well. One of the activities I liked was screening college students who recently graduated or would be graduating within months.  Most were bright, knowledgeable and eager to commence their post-school  real-world life.

Then there were the others.

A tactic my employer used was called the “carousel.” Prospective employees would arrive enmass. They were given a stanard benefit package and then sent, in sequence, to managers and engineers for interviews. That allowed each potential employee to be interviewed by a half-dozen managers and engineers. At the end of the day, we interviewers met and discussed the applicants, selecting those for the next round of follow-up interview.

Those meetings were instructive. Some of the applicants would be very surprised with their impression on potential employers.

Case in point: one applicant that I still remember. You could say he did everything to not get hired. We received his resume some days earlier to allow us to be prepared for the interview. From this applicants resume and transcript, I noticed that he attended a number of universities—six as I remember. He had been in school eight years starting at age 19. He had changed majors at least three times.

He arrived in my office wearing jeans, sneakers—no socks, a pullover shirt, and a wrinkled sportcoat. We reviewed his resume and I asked my usual questions to determine what he’d learned in school. “What projects did you complete? What extra-curricular activities were you involved in? What were your priorities in school?”

The job slots open were for entry-level engineers. Instead of answering my questions with engineering examples, he spoke of all his “social awareness” activities.

Apparently, he was anti-war. 9/11 had occurred only months previously. He was against retaliation—“violence never solved anything!” was his response as I remember. I controlled my usual response to such inanities by reminding him of Rome and the Carthaginians. Rome still exists. Carthage doesn’t.

I asked him what he brought to the table that would be an asset to the company. I received a lecture on fairness, the evils of capitalism and the “banker’s cabal.”

At the end of the day when we reviewed the applicants, this character was on the bottom of the pile. We ordered the applicants in order of preference, the best on top. When his name finally appeared, the lead reviewer asked for comments. Silence. No one spoke. Finally, one reviewer ventured, “he has a heightened awareness for politics.” Translation: troublemaker. He wasn’t hired.

Flash forward to the present day. I listen to comments from present day graduates. They are being taught to…fail. Reading comprehension is low. Universities are teaching at a high-school level. The educational curricula has been trimmed to a point of being useless. But applicants are still being told that jobs will miraculously appear by waving a degree before the interviewer.

Nothing could be further from the truth. What graduates should be taught is that the job market is for buyers, not for sellers. Applicants need to impress employers. The first opportunity to impress is the applicant’s initial image. Yes, first impressions are important.

When coming to an interview, be prepared. Get a haircut. Shave. Wear a suit, or at least a sportcoat and tie. Be neat. If you don’t have a suit, there are many thrift stores that have good, well care for suits at a low price. At least do your best with what you have. If you arrive with a scraggly beard, tattoos all over, you will not be hired. Your freedom to acquire tattoos and piercings doesn’t extend to your prospective employer. You can not force him to accept your lifestyle. 

Ladies, don’t come to an interview wearing a top that is open to your navel. Don’t wear shorts or skirts so high that you can’t sit without exposing yourself. The interest you elicit will not get you hired. Not fair? Well, it’s time you learned the world is not fair. Live with it.

Bring copies of your resume and school transcripts. You resume MUST be accurate, clearly written without typos and misspellings. Your history WILL be verified. There are companies out there whose business it is to verify resumes and transcripts. Most importantly, don’t lie on your resume. You will be found out.

If you have a police record, don’t bother applying to any position that requires you to handle or manage cash nor any position that requires a security clearance or a bond. That includes the military as well.

The last point for an applicant to remember is this: your expectations are worthless if you can’t fulfill the expectations of your employer. You must work to meet his expectations. If you don’t fulfill his expectations, he can easily find someone who will, who can fill your vacant slot.

If you have interviews but can’t get hired. Look in the mirror. That’s where you’ll find the problem.

Facebook

Spot shots

Posted on by

I don’t have a central theme for this morning’s post. I was checking my usual sources and came across this article. We now know the cause of the increasing number of democrats. The average intelligence level is dropping!

Leading Geneticist: Human Intelligence is Slowly Declining

by February 17th, 2013 | Updated 02/18/2013

Would you be surprised to hear that the human race is slowly becoming dumber, and dumber? Despite our advancements over the last tens or even hundreds of years, some ‘experts’ believe that humans are losing cognitive capabilities and becoming more emotionally unstable. One Stanford University researcher and geneticist, Dr. Gerald Crabtree, believes that our intellectual decline as a race has much to do with adverse genetic mutations. But there is more to it than that.

According to Crabtree, our cognitive and emotional capabilities are fueled and determined by the combined effort of thousands of genes. If a mutation occurred in any of of these genes, which is quite likely, then intelligence or emotional stability can be negatively impacted.

“I would wager that if an average citizen from Athens of 1000 BC were to appear suddenly among us, he or she would be among the brightest and most intellectually alive of our colleagues and companions, with a good memory, a broad range of ideas, and a clear-sighted view of important issues. Furthermore, I would guess that he or she would be among the most emotionally stable of our friends and colleagues,” the geneticist began his article in the scientific journal Trends in Genetics.

As I understand the article, we are supporting the “stupid” while not-supporting the “smart.”

My first degree was in Clinical Psychology.  One of my professors in Child Development had the opinion that most of our intellectual prowess was directly proportional to quality and quantity of teaching and challenging children at an early age and throughout childhood into adulthood. Note: he said prowess, not capacity. According to him, intellectual capacity was largely determined by genetics. Intellectual prowess, how well you used your intellect, was determined by training, education and most importantly, culture.  He had plenty of studies to support his views. From what I’ve observed in the forty-plus years since, I agree with him.

In past centuries, those with greater intellectual prowess had a greater probability of passing along their genes. Unfortunately, that isn’t the case, today.

***

Our next Spot Shot could be filed under the label, “Well, Duh!”  From Rasmussen…

Only 11% Say Congress is Good Reflection of Americans’ Views

Sunday, February 17, 2013

Despite a deeply held belief in Washington that Congress reflects the views of the people, most Americans don’t share that sentiment.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that just 11% of Adults believe Congress is a good reflection of the views of the American people. Seventy-four percent (74%) say Congress is not a good reflection of those views, while another 15% are undecided.

That poll, according to Rasmussen, has a sampling error rate of ±3%. Rasmussen is one of a few full time polling agencies and is viewed by many, including me, as the most accurate.

***

Chuck Hagel is still the nominee for SecDef. He truly is unfit for the office but the nomination proceedings isn’t about fitness, it’s all about politics. For a few days, it appeared that Harry Reid was going to throw in the towel. Then he looked again and found that the blocking filibuster was in John McCain’s hands. That gave Reid the confidence to continue pushing Hagel.

Byron York: In Chuck Hagel filibuster, all eyes on John McCain

February 16, 2013 | 12:07 am | Modified: February 16, 2013 at 12:25 am

Members of the Senate have left Washington for the President’s Day break, scheduled to return February 25.  That means Republicans who voted to filibuster the nomination of Chuck Hagel to be Defense Secretary have ten days to search for new evidence against him and lobby colleagues to keep up the opposition.

With 41 votes needed to uphold a filibuster — exactly the number Republicans mustered against Hagel on Thursday — the GOP has no votes to lose.  And the most critical of those votes appears to belong to Sen. John McCain.

“McCain is the one to watch on this,” says one senior Republican Senate aide.  “He seems wiling to vote for cloture on the grounds that cloture should be invoked on cabinet-level nominees.”

What the aide meant is that McCain supported the Republican filibuster Thursday not because he believes Hagel should never receive an up-or-down vote but because McCain wanted to delay Hagel as a way to pressure the Obama administration to release more information on the deadly September 11, 2012 attack on the American consulate in Benghazi.

In fact, McCain has said clearly that he believes Hagel is entitled to a final vote, something that would surely result in Hagel’s confirmation, given overwhelming — so far unanimous — Democratic support. But at the same time, McCain joined the filibuster, at least for the moment, to squeeze more details about Benghazi out of the administration.

All Harry Reid has to do to get Hagel confirmed by the Senate is to throw McCain a bone. A bone that would give McCain more face time on TV. Yes, the Benghazi hearings are important but not so important that Hagel should be confirmed. The Benghazi hearing can continue without giving anything to Reid or the White House. If Hagel’s vote comes to the Senate floor, he will be confirmed. There are enough dem votes and maybe a few more from some RINO senators to confirm Hagel.

Of course, there’s nothing more important than McCain’s ego.

Facebook

Repost: Life is Risk

Posted on by

I’m at loose ends this morning. There are a number of topics that I could opine over but none strikes my interest. The NorKs apparently have finally created a working nuke after numerous fizzles. Iran is thought to be six months away from building their first nuke. The likelihood of a theater-level nuclear exchange, the risk of war within five years has just increased—greatly increased while the idiots in Washington blow on the embers of a future war.

Life is risk.

That thought drove me to this old post from 2010. I wrote it three years ago today. It’s a life lesson. A lesson those in DC never learned.

Life is Risk

Mrs. Crucis had lunch with her cousin today. That allowed me to escape and spend some time at one of my favorite greasy spoons. While I was eating, one of the waitresses came over to talk a bit.

I’ll call her Tanya. Tanya isn’t the brightest bulb on the string. She dropped out of high school “because it was too hard.” She’s married and has two kids. One is her 11 year-old son, Sonny. (You can see I’m very original making up names.)

Tanya sat down across from me and said, “I’m mad!” It seems her son and some friends had built a bicycle track completed with jumps and potholes in a vacant lot. They were racing. Sonny jumped a ridge and on landing, his front wheel dug in. Sonny’s face met handle bars. His nose was broken and the bone just below his nose containing his front upper teeth was broken and caved in. Sonny will require surgery for a complete recovery.

Tanya wasn’t mad at Sonny. Nor was she mad at his friends for building the track. She wasn’t mad at the bicycle manufacturer. No, she was mad at the bicycle helmet manufacturer. She felt they should have made the helmet with a full-face shield.

She continued in this mode a bit while I finished lunch. I don’t like being in these positions. I’m a private person. I like eating lunch alone with a book for company. But Tanya wanted to talk and I’m a patient listener. I finally had enough. I asked her, “Do you think Sonny will be bicycle jumping again?”

“No,” she replied, “he doesn’t want to race anymore.”

“Why?” I asked.

“Well, he doesn’t want to get hurt again,” she said.

I was hesitant to ask my next question, but sometimes I just have an urge.” “Tanya,” I said. “If he did have a full-face shield on his helmet and hadn’t gotten hurt or only bruised, would he have continued to bike-jump? Maybe getting hurt worse the next time?”

She thought on that for a bit and finally said, “Yeah, he would.”

“He learned a lesson, didn’t he?”

“Yeah.”

“Consider this. Yes, it was painful and he’ll have to have surgery to fix everything. It’ll be expensive. But, he’ll know better next time.”

“Yeah.”

“So, isn’t it better that he learns that lesson now rather than sometime later—maybe in more dangerous circumstances? Maybe when driving a car?”

“But he’s my baby!”

At this point she was almost at tears. We continued talking for awhile longer. I explained that she couldn’t protect her kids every moment of the day. Growing up means learning skills, learning how to live, and learning what is dangerous. If she protects him too much, he’ll never learn what is dangerous and what isn’t.

I think she understood some of that. Life is not without risk nor consequences. Freedom is freedom to learn. Freedom is also the ability to grow and plan, to risk and if necessary, to suffer the consequences. Risk is also the means to succeed because without risk, success will never occur.

Tanya is a good parent. Like all parents, she doesn’t want her children to come to harm. Life, isn’t, unfortunately, without risk and the potential for harm. Risk can be good and the process of growing into maturity is learning the ability to weigh risk. Weigh the effort, the potential rewards, weigh the cost and the possible loss and consequences.

I fear that the forces behind the Nanny State have forgotten these lessons—if they ever knew them at all.

Facebook

Ingratitude!

Posted on by

There is a story coming out of New Jersey this morning that really steams me. We know New Jersey is a haven for dems, liberals and bloodsucking unions.  That sentiment extends as well to some municipalities.  Late last night, reports began to appear that some cities in New Jersey were turning away out-of-state repair crews—because they weren’t in a union.

Nonunion Ala. crews turned away from Sandy recovery

Posted: Nov 01, 2012 10:05 PM CDT Updated: Nov 02, 2012 8:43 AM CDT
By WAFF.com Staff

(Source: Derrick Moore) SEASIDE HEIGHTS, NEW JERSEY (WAFF) –

The hurricane-ravaged east coast has been receiving north Alabama help, but crews learned they’ll be doing work in Long Island, New York instead of in New Jersey.

Crews from Decatur Utilities headed up there this week, but Derrick Moore, one of the Decatur workers, said they were told by crews in New Jersey that they can’t do any work there since they’re not union employees.

The crews that are in Roanoke, Virginia say they are just watching and waiting even though they originally received a call asking for help from Seaside Heights, New Jersey.

Understandably, Moore said they’re frustrated being told “thanks, but no thanks.”

Nothing like ingratitude in New Jersey. In New York City, it is worse. Mayor Bloomberg is diverting relief supplies intended for repairs and the residents to—the New York Marathon. It’s perfectly find for Bloomberg to let his constituency sit in the dark without food, water and utilities as long as the Marathon is not hindered.

Bloomberg Diverts Food, Generators from Devastated Staten Island to NYC Marathon

by Michael Patrick Leahy 1 Nov 2012

Fresh off his “climate disruption”-driven endorsement of President Obama, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has chosen to divert critical food supplies and power generators from desperate residents of Staten Island to Sunday’s New York City Marathon. Gothamist reports: 

[T]hose urging the city to halt the run believe that the thousands of Marathon volunteers could direct their efforts towards post-Sandy relief and cleanup, “and they also argue that the event will divert thousands of police from important hurricane-related duties.” But despite petitions circulating, work started up again yesterday on the Marathon route.

A tipster, who wishes to remain anonymous, told us there were lots of workers in and out of the park today, who had “started before the storm and then came back starting yesterday.” Trailers are lined up from around 71st to 66th Streets on Central Park West, a food truck was set up today, and “generators have been sitting there at least a week.” The tents that were taken down prior to the storm have also been set back up, and there is a stage set up near 73rd Street.

Considering all the volunteer help and NYPD attention that’s already being diverted to the Marathon, the added sight of generators and food being channeled to the event is probably going to strike some New Yorkers as a little misplaced—we’re thinking of the ones who are currently lined up waiting for the National Guard to ration out MREs and bottles of water.

Staten Island residents are frantically calling for help, ABC News reported on Thursday.

Democrats, read this and learn. Your party leadership doesn’t care about you. You are only a tool to be used to get your liberal leaders whatever they want. In this case, it’s the Mayor’s Marathon. When you’re used up, they’ll toss you aside. They did that with Obamacare.

Here you are. A life-long faithful democrat. You’ve voted the party line all that time. You belong to a union. You think your party and your union with take care of you. That’s the big lie.

When you retire, you find your Social Security payments aren’t enough for you to maintain your standard of living. Your union pension fund has been leveraged so much that when it’s your turn, you get less than expected. If you are a retired public employee, your pension may not exist if your state, like California, is about to go bankrupt. And Medicare? Now you discover it’s been destroyed by Obamacare and when you really need medical care…you’re too old and your care is too expensive. Just go off somewhere and die.

Remember the lessons of ingratitude from New York and New Jersey. Socialism doesn’t work. Unionism doesn’t work either. Unions are a scam to siphon your union dues into the union leadership’s pocket and to be used for their benefit, not yours.

Wake up! Vote Republican. Toss out the parasites; the liberal oligarchy at all government levels and seize your future with your own hands. You are the first step in national recovery. Do so by tossing the liberals out of office.

Facebook

The Meaning of Life

Posted on by

I listened to a radio conversation this morning. I don’t remember how it started. The essence was that over half of the population of the US received government paychecks in one form or another. The majority of the recipients did so through some “entitlement” program.

The conversation morphed into the lifestyles of those recipients—what did they do with their time while sucking on the government teat. Studies had found—not much.

The recipients were broken down into several categories. Those on Social Security over the age of 55 were excluded for obvious reasons. They were about half of the total people. The remaining half, multi-millions of people, just existed, except for a small minority. That minority, on an individual basis, did not remain on government assistance for very long. A few years at most.

But it was that other group, those who just existed, that was the subject of the discussion. The discussion was not on the justification of the government payments. It was on the lifestyle of the recipients and the difficulties they faced.

The bottom line was that this group of people appeared to have no goals, no vision for their lives. The overall quality of their life was poor, not for a lack of funding or resources but as the people themselves stated, “My life is meaningless!”

That is a very good question, one that has been asked as long as Man has had language and the ability to look further than the next meal.

What is the meaning of Life? That question evokes a number of responses. Many will state that the meaning of life is a relationship with God. I agree with that but there are other reasons as valid for those who do not subscribe to a God-filled world-view.

I remember a statement from my college philosophy prof. It was the only thing I remember of him. The meaning of life is having something to do, something to achieve, something to look forward to. A future-ward view, he said.

I can agree with that statement too. When I was working, my work-week regularly exceeded 60 hours, sometimes more. My day would start early to allow me to speak with suppliers in the UK and extend well into the evening to allow me to converse with our construction crew in New Zealand and Australia. I was responsible for multi-million dollar projects from coast-to-coast and beyond our shores.

I had great satisfaction doing a job well, meeting requirements and delivering a finished project on-time and on or under budget. My life was problem solving. As I grew older and more experienced, the problems grew in size and complexity as did the stress.

I had several methods to combat stress. Many, like reading fiction, I retain today. But the one that worked best for me was having something to look forward to—a vacation trip, an activity, a movie (I was a Star Wars and Indiana Jones fan,) something that I could plan and take my mind off the current job at hand.

The critical component was judging what was truly important in your life, not to mistake the means for the end. I saw so many make that mistake and ruin their lives and those around them. I lived amongst workaholics and the divorce rate was astounding. They had lost sight of the final goal.

So many lost that view or never discovered exactly what the final goal was for them. I’m reminded of a scene from the movie City Slickers. Jack Palance played an old cowboy. Billy Crystal played a stressed-out urbanite.

Crystal: “Curly, what’s the meaning of life?”

Palance: “The meaning of life (holding up one finger) is one thing.”

Crystal: “What’s that one thing?”

Palance: “That’s for you to find out.”

That one scene holds so many truths. A large segment of our population has never made that discovery. Nor have they ever desired to make the effort. They have been covered, supported by the government not only all their life, but for generations before them. They exist for the here and now. Maybe tomorrow if that’s the day the government refreshes their debit cards.

A meaningless life. Not because they’ve had that life imposed on them but because they’ve never made the effort to better their life. Like Lotus-eaters, life is too easy. It’s too hard to make goals, to achieve. It’s easier to be numbed through alcohol and drugs to relieve the tedium.

I can’t say I pity those folks. They’ve done it to themselves. They had numerous opportunities to escape and have let those opportunities slide by. However poor it may be, everyone has the opportunity for an education through high school. Yet, many drop out as soon as they can and that act shuts them out of further opportunities for betterment.

One day, perhaps one soon, the gravy-train will cease. No more government money. No more life without effort nor without responsibility. The change for them will be horrifying.

I can not block that occurance, nor would I want to. Each of us is responsible for our own lives, our livelihood, our own welfare and that of our families. The public trough is drying and will be empty. What will these people do?

We’ve seen some of that in Wisconsin. The public employee unions and the leadership are a part of this group who’ve lost sight of their goals. They believe if they cry and scream, riot, ignore their responsibility, they can continue to live off others.

They lost.

The coming years, as trough after trough goes dry will see more riots, more strikes from a dying philosophy. It won’t be pretty. They, as a group, have no goals other than to maintain their current existence. They’ve not found that “one thing” that makes their lives meaningful other than maintaining the status quo.

For those of us who oppose this parasitic lifestyle, we must be strong, vigilant, and unswerving. To do otherwise is too terrible to contemplate, not only for us but for our coming generations.

We have discovered that “one thing.” It may be more than just “one thing”, it may be many. We have a goal, a destination, a completion to work towards.

We have something to look forward to and that is the One Thing.