Racist Commentary

The following comments were forwarded to me in an email. I edited the content and decided to post it. Just pushing a button here............

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You pass me on the street and sneer in my direction. You call me "whiteboy", "cracker", "honkey", "whitey" and you think it's OK. But if dare to I call you kike, towelhead, camel jockey, beaner, spear chucker, gook or chink you call me a racist. Not to mention using the "n" word, that is a reason for ejection from society as a whole and is proven to have murder charges dropped. So I can't respond to you in public the way you respond to me and I can't even have these thoughts far as that goes.

You say that whites commit violence against you, so why are the ghettos the most dangerous places to live? Read the police blotter in the local newspaper each day, watch the local news on TV, what do you see? The majority of crime isn't committed by whites.

Spend some time at the local Drivers License Bureau and observe the immigrants who can't speak English applying for license. Try the local Social Services and see who gets the assistance for food stamps, welfare, job placement or funding to help during hard times. Many are not even US citizens. Yet if the average person applies they are told they make too much money and don't qualify.

Each time you make a purchase have you noticed the instructions are in multiple languages, ever notice the street signs being bi-lingual, the warning signs in most companies, the local school systems are almost impossible to get a job in unless you can speak Spanish. This is the United States of America if I remember right, the native language is English [even though the majority of native born users have no clue how to use it]. I often wonder who would want to live in country to start with when they can't communicate in a proper manner with society as a whole. So why do we have to change for them? Is this right?

Watch as someone is advanced above you or hired by your employer because of their race due to government regulations. Equal Opportunity Employer isn't quite the right phrase for the practices we observe. Yet we can't say anything or we are racist. You have the United Negro College Fund. You have Martin Luther King Day. You have Black History Month. You have Cesar Chavez Day. You have Yom Hashonah. You have Ma'uled Al-Nabi. You have the NAACP. You have BET. Numerous Spanish channels and radio stations.

If we had WET(white entertainment television) we'd be racists. If we had a White Pride Day you would call us racists. If we had White History Month, we'd be racists. If we had an organization for only whites to "advance" our lives, we'd be racists. If we had a college fund that only gave white students scholarships, you know we'd be racists. What about a Ms. White America beauty pageant? We can't even think of that. There are over 60 openly proclaimed black colleges in the US, yet if there were "white colleges" that would be a racist college. In the Million Man March, you believed that you were marching for your race and rights. If we marched for our race and rights, you would call us racists. You are proud to be black, brown, yellow and red, and you're not afraid to announce it. But when we announce our white pride, you call us racists.

You rob us, carjack us, and shoot at us. But, when a white police officer shoots a gang member or beats up a drug-dealer running from the law and posing a threat to society, you call him a racist. Why are hate crimes only committed against the minority?

I am proud. But, you call me a racist. Why is it that only whites can be racists?

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OK, last word. Last time I checked my skin was not white. I've never seen a real black man for that matter, nor a person who is yellow, red or the other multiple colors used to describe people. I think I need my eyes checked.

The Power Ball Upside The Head

What would we do if we won the lottery? How many have never given this a serious thought? Even if you never buy a ticket these things do pop into our minds from time to time. 100 million, 200 million, more? How much does it really take to be happy? Let's play the numbers game here, how much [seriously] do you need to be happy? I've always told my wife, "If we can't be happy living in a two room shack then chances are we won't be happy living in a mansion".

A good portion of lottery winners end up filing bankruptcy in just a few short years. Others end up cursed, family issues to deal with, major issues that led to deaths of love-ones and themselves. All due to dealings relating to one thing, money. Some see it as power, that power is greater then their minds in the long run and using it only brings the problems. Sort of like the old saying, "money can't buy happiness but it can rent it for 30 minutes". First thing anyone should do when winning any amount of money is make it clear that your name should never be published with amount you won. I don't care if it's $10,000 or ten million, you have the right to keep it out of the press. If you have a need to brag about the good, then you have lost already.

OK, here is my answer to the numbers game. The actual figure to win to set you up for life would be around $500,000.00 A cool half million after taxes, yeah that should do it for anybody. If your figure is higher then I think you should stop reading. The greed you have or personal needs are above my dreams and if it evolves helping others, well that can be accomplished with my plan but not make anyone rich.

First you need to know the rules. This is your money alone. Nobody should come into play with the plans to use it. Don't pay to have the church parking lot paved, don't donate a certain figure to a well known charity and for God's sake don't answer the countless phone calls from lost friends and relatives until you are clear in your mind how you plan the money out. So I repeat myself here, "don't let your mouth write a check that your ass can't cash". Take a minimum of a month to decide this with input from your immediate family and close chosen relatives and friends. Still remember, it's your money. You don't owe anything if it isn't in writing.

My mind has simple ways to plan this. How many of the lost friends and family knocked on my door, called me or even emailed me two years or more ago when I was facing losing everything I had due to illness and unemployment? I know the answer and those will be remembered. The rest are fare weather, my weather is rarely fare. You have to figure this portion into the plan, making friends isn't hard during the good times, it's the bad times that define this.

Now to the plans to spend my fortune [that even I know is a false dream]. Put $200,000.00 into a house, a nice one, in a rural area that gives you room to grow, yet doesn't exceed this amount [if you need more then you also have too much greed for one person to bear]. Put $35,000.00 into paying off the average household debts, credit cards, car loans, personal debts. A good bit of mine is medical but each has there own prison. Another $50,000.00 to help family, friends, donations or whatever [you figure this one out] but keep this a basic rule, the 10% thing! Where I did I get that?

At this point you are dept free, your have nothing to pay. Buy a new car? Sure, but does that car need to cost $55,000.00? I think not, pay cash for a good one around $10,000.00 and it serves the same purpose. Seriously it does. So are we stupid or what? Or am I the stupid one? I still have a new car, a new house, I'm dept free and still have the same income I had before since nobody has quit their job yet. But now we have options. I can look for something that makes me more happy or even invest part of the $200,000.00 I have left over after a nice family vacation which cut $5,000.00 out of the picture.

But the basic plan is invest the $200,000.00 into nice nest egg fund. One that will pay me up to say the rate of 12% per year or more. Never touch the remainder of your money [unless you change your mind] and that is a guaranteed $2,000.00 a month to live on. Take out around half for normal things [utilities, food, etc.] and it still leaves a one thousand a month to play with. $250 a week to play with. Do you have more now? Seriously if you do then I'll swap with you now.........if you actually need more then I have to pass, I wouldn't won't to be you.

The Old Man On The Porch [part I]

Certain things seem to get under my skin, they always have. Today's youth and the car stereo thump, thump drives me crazy. You never hear music, just the thump. Is it necessary to have someone two blocks away know you are coming? Do these young people have any idea the damage they are doing to their hearing? The Ipod age will face a much more severe problem then our generation did in terms of hearing loss.

So did we play our music loud in the during the 70s? Yes we did. As loud as we could during those times. So many memories do I recall of riding in friends cars listening to 8-track tapes blaring through busted speakers. Most speaker systems then could handle around 2 watts, now even the stock Detroit autos have outstanding sounding stereos that can handle up to 100 watts with ease. My how that has changed from the times when our first autos had only a AM radio with one mono speaker and we could pick up three stations that were worth listening to. Well I guess not that much has changed, I still have trouble finding three stations worth listening to. We do have the CD players to fall back on if it weren't for the fact I'm too lazy to grab one each day to take with me.

But this isn't about the type music they listen too, that is another topic all together, but the way they evade others privacy doing it. Yes I love my music and I like it pretty loud at times, but I don't recall going into convenience stores and leaving it playing to drive others out of their mind. I would always turn it down when I pulled into the parking lot and turn it off when I got out of the vehicle. Shouldn't there be laws enforced a bit better on this stuff? I know it was like that when we were growing up or maybe we just knew better.

And another thing, who thought up that stupid slang saying "24-7". I'd like to a chance to slap who is responsible. What a waste of breath it is for someone to say that. That is nearly as bad as "you go girl".

Bird Cage Liners

When my wife came in from work today she brought home the local Sunday newspaper. As I looked through it I thought of how much less importance they are now, newspapers in general of course. How much longer can this form of media stay vital or even necessary to the public? I remember when I was a young lad, maybe 11 to 12 years old I would wait eagerly for the paper to arrive each day, especially in the summer. I would run to the front yard, grab it so I would be the first to read it. All just to look at the baseball box-scores.

The average home which still subscribes to one or two newspapers daily generates much more waste in this area. Recycling has yet to catch on for most of the rural areas, so that translates into waste. I can't remember the last time I clipped an article from a paper to save and the excitement is long past to read the sports page. We have 24 hour cable channels to keep up on anything we need to know at a click of a remote as well, just too much competition in the long run.

I do keep up with local news by way of the Internet. All local newspapers have their own websites, not all the daily content is available but the most important things are. I would be happy to pay a small fee each month for access to more this way rather then pay to subscribe to have one be delivered to my home. Most of the sites have limited data bases but that could easily change, add better search engines and the ability to trace back old editions for vital research articles. Anything of interest for that matter and you now have a vital tool to use from your home as you wish. I could see myself paying the $12 a month it cost for subscription.

The cost of printing and delivery alone is staggering compared to the cost of maintaining a proper website. In the future I see this being the outcome as few homes now aren't online, as the next generation takes hold of the system a lot of changes along these lines are inevitable. Sometimes progress is a good thing. Notice I write "sometimes", I don't agree with all progress.

So save a tree, surf the net!

Well The Cat Likes Me

At least I think she does. This is really my animal, she was gotten for my oldest daughter after her cat was ran over by a car around 8 years ago. After a year or so she really took up with me and stays close by most of the time when I'm home. Of course she doesn't do much; eat, sleep, walk around a bit. Her name is "Pissy", don't ask me why, there isn't really a reason.

This animal has a distinct personality. She is a picky eater, only cares for certain foods and demands them prepared for her the way she wants them. She also does things most normal cats don't do; walk on a leash, lie on her back in your arms like a baby and allow small children to pet her as well. As far as water, she can almost say the word when she wants it and she won't drink from a bowl. You have to turn on the faucet and it has to be the right flow for her to be pleased.

So what does all of this have to do with anything? For one I think our animals are an extension of ourselves. They have a way of calming you down at times you need a friend, they love you for what you are and never really see your mistakes in life. As long as you give in return to them what they offer to you, a good friend can be found. When I was growing up we only had dogs, I never really cared for cats. Now I have both, two of each but a cat is easily the choice for an inside animal. You don't really choose to own a cat, they choose to live with you.

Beam Me Up Scotty

As I reminisce I think of all the technological advances I've been privileged to witness in my lifetime. From an age when we can remember certain homes that still had outdoor bathrooms, nobody had air-conditioning and we never locked the backdoor. There was no reason, nobody had anything good to steal anyway.

So let's look at just one area of the broad scope of things, television. What this visual tube in the wooden cabinet that was the cornerstone of our living rooms then has become now. What it spawned as offspring to the ones who spent way too much time in front of it.

From the late 1960s on things really seemed to take off. We who grew up the black and white TV era can remember the late night test pattern that signaled us we were up way too late. Then we saw TV change to color. By then we had added the UHF channels and could pick up nearly 8 channels on good nights with the new rotary antennas. In the late 70s video recorders became popular but were very expensive, few had one. Around 1980 or so, cable TV was beginning to catch on, a chance to have up to 28 channels with perfectly clear picture. TV would never be the same again. From cable to satellite, options increased and multiple channels were created to increase the amount of income it took just to watch what was once considered free with a simple set of rabbit ears!

As video recorders became common place in every home, the large early top loading decks which took up the entire cabinet space of a floor model television set started to fade away, new slimline VHS models began to emerge. Still they cost around $400 by the mid 80s, now you can pick up a decent stereo model for around $40 at the local Wal-mart. By that point I think Sony had figured out how bad an idea it was to sink so much money into Beta [me too for that matter]. Sort of like the lazar disc, another brilliant idea. The first video club I joined at a local rental house cost me $89 per year. Within two years it was down to $9 per lifetime membership and then became free as competition increased. But all of this is fading fast into the past too as DVDs have now become the standard.

And the sound, who would have dreamed stereo TV was even needed. Today's surround sound systems can emulate the sound of a theater in your living room. We have so many choices of what to watch, when to watch, how to watch, it all just seems a bit much. What will the next twenty years or so introduce to us? I can only just imagine when virtual reality becomes of age.

I never mentioned video games either, now where is my Atari 2600?

And You're Little Dog Too!

Time to show your age now, can you remember back when the Wizard Of Oz was shown once a year on TV? What a classic time that was, everyone did nothing that night, all were tuned in to see this movie once again. Wonder how high the ratings actually were, sort of hard to recall things like that when you are referring to years in your life that could be numbered in single digits. My main memories of this were between 4 to 7 years old I guess, 1961 and up. Strange, I was in my teens before I ever knew the movie turned to color. I do recall the rumor that Ted Turner wanted to colorize the first 15 minutes however.

Anyhow the scenes of this film were part of our childhood whether we liked it or not. Just one of those "givens" in a way. The argument between Auntie M and the old crabby woman on the bicycle. The tornado scene, a classic piece for that time, then to learn the actual tornado was a pair of pantie hose. Sort of takes away part of the suspense learning that. I do remember quite well how hot the good "Witch of the North" [or whatever part she represented] was. What a childhood fantasy she created!

One thing I do recall standing out, was this film had the most horrifying clip of any in my childhood memory banks. The flying monkey scene. I remember hiding my head and being terrified of these creatures as the witch sent them out. As they took that left turn as they flew out the window into the sky, I trembled and shook in fear. I had nightmares about them and was in my teens before I could really watch this scene and not be scared.

The times provide you the option of just going to a local video rental store and rent it, take it home and watch about 50 times if you want. You can buy it for that matter, probably a personalized expanded editors edition or something on DVD. But it won't be the same, never will be. That time has passed us by too.

It Sucks To Get Old

You know it sucks to get old. The health issues we never had in our youth, the decline in certain activities in life you enjoyed or just the tired feeling that comes along for the ride. The hard part is seeing certain things in yourself you never saw before. The way you react to certain situations the same as your father did, relating to the Hip Hop music scene, not understanding the direction Hollywood is taking with films, not knowing who is the latest star or what is on NBC, ABC, CBS or any channel. I just don't get it anymore.

Musically I grew up when the musicians played their own instruments and recording was done in a few short weeks in between tours. Now it's all electronically generated sounds, drum machines and the vocalist for the most part don't even sing, they just talk real fast. "All of it sounds the same", ever heard that before?

Movies? Give me a good Clint Eastwood spaghetti western or a Alfred Hitchcock suspense film and I'll dare Hollywood to do anything that matches. Sure the have better effects now, more detail, more then should be on film actually. How many ways can you cut someones head off anyhow? There was a time it required more writing and acting to create the image in your head, now it's just...."show this scene now" and you figure it out. Pretty boring to me.

Television is one I have no clue on. The sitcoms were replaced by suspense shows, reality tv or god forbid, those star search things like American Idol. But we still have TV Land and other cable or satellite options to keep the balance. I will say the variety we have is much better then the old days when we had three channels [most had black and white TV then] and remote control was my father hitting me in the head and saying, "Change the channel boy". Any satellite adjustment then was made with aluminum foil on the rabbit ears.

So I grow older [sort of hope that continues] and I think back to times when it was special. Or it seemed that way. Just think, our children think this time is special now. So I try to keep my mouth shut and not ruin it for them.

The Gift Of Gab

A close relative of mine once told me I was lucky because I had the "gift of gab". Never really gave it much thought actually before that but I was well aware I could talk my way into and out of many situations. This so called ability has helped many times in expressing myself in certain circumstances. Dealing with the opposite sex came easy at times but at the same time it also became more difficult then it should be.

I've never been a really good liar, nor do I wish to tell something that isn't true out of self respect. So being overly honest, it sort of placed me in a position to harm when I didn't intend to. Words can cut deep, leaving deep scares which never really seem to heal. I've felt it and noticed myself dishing it out many times, so I ended up confused. Why do we open up our mouths and talk without really thinking about what we are saying till it's over? I've let my mouth write too many checks in the past my ass just couldn't cash.

So with age we gain some sort of wisdom I'm told. In my case it's learning when to shut up, I'm working on that. Then I face people thinking I'm upset because I'm not talking, when it's really the opposite. So I came to the conclusion that this so called "Gift of Gab" should be renamed "The Curse Of Gab".