My Rule for Life

I would rather live my life as if there is a God, and die to find out there isn't, than live my life as if there isn't, and die to find out there is.

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Troops in Haiti

For some awesome photos of the good our troops are doing in Haiti go to this blog.  Clik Here

Monday, February 22, 2010

Baby Feeding, Bust or Boom?

OK, here goes.  I know I am going to get into trouble on this one but.......you guys know me.  I can't keep my mouth/fingers shut/stop typing.

First let me say I am blogging from the wonderful state of North Carolina and the burg of Fayetteville.  Yes, I am at my Warrior's home while he is away.  Somebody has to go let the dog out at least once a month.  Just kidding he doesn't have a dog here.

While shopping for my young soldier I was in the world's largest retail store.  I am just walking along fat, dumb and happy (my usual state of affairs) when I see this young girl with a cape on backwards.  I thought it was a cape.  It looked like a cape, was shaped like a cape and if it looks like a duck and walks like a duck, it must be a duck.  Right?  As I passed this young lady (?) I noticed two little feet hanging out from underneath the cape.  Now I will be the first to admit I fell off the turnip truck, BUT NOT YESTERDAY! (This is not a politically correct blog.....and never will be.)   It was pretty apparent what was going on and I was not the only person who observed it.

OK bring on the NOW gang or as they are known in my vocabulary the National Organization of Nags!  C'mom folks this was just over the top.  And, I don't mean the cape either.  Wal Mart, Monday at lunch time and no comments from the P-nut gallery either.  I don't mind ah.....bre.....ah boo....OH nursing a child.  I think it's ok.  I have a very close friend who did it.  Me personally am a bottle guy.  However her through 4 children my close friend never nursed a child in public, to my knowledge. When she was at our house she would quietly leave the room at meal time and take care of business.  If out in public, she would remove herself and said munchkin to the parking lot and do what was required. Then she would return.
But walking around in Wal Mart!  This is over the top for me.  Is nothing sacred anymore.  Having said that I will say nothing that would embarress and old guy like me was exposed but, I gotta admit I was uncomfortable and so were some others around me.

OK Fire at will,  or Pops I should say.

Pops

Friday, February 19, 2010

Geeesh! Can You Believe This?

We used to call ourselves "empty nesters".  Now I just call me wild and crazy guy ( a little Steve Martin) with a computer.  Surfing for articles that interest me and perhaps you.  I could write little blurbs about each article but you would want the full story so I just give the Headlines and you can go to the ones that interest you.
Sort of a. I report, you decide.

Teachers fired!  Well my goodness, that can't be true.  Can it?  Read more and why.  Clik here.

Is this possible?  More guns, less crime. Read this article stolen from NRA.COM Clik here.

Although I don't have a dog in this fight so to speak I think this article should be read.  It should not be limited to the JD Hayworth/John McCain race for Senate.  I really like the part where it refers to Senators not owning a seat.  It also has a pretty dog gone good argument about how military personal shouldn't get special treatment just because they were in service of their country. Anybody who still has a flattop haircut and is supported by Sheriff Joe would get my vote, if I lived in Arizona.  Clik here.

Into each life some rain must fall.  This morning I attended the funeral of my cousin.  He was a pretty good guy although we didn't get together as much as we would have liked we shared some common interests.  He was married to a nurse, so was I.  He loved my dad, so did I.  His passed away earlier in his life.  We both played football in high school and he would drive me to practice.  He was older and had his operator's license.  He played guard and so did I.  You get the point.  I feel bad for his wife and two boys one who is named Jacob, just like one of mine.  Of course I went alone.  

As I was riding from the funeral parlor to the cemetery I turned on the radio.  Tiger Woods was making his apology speech.  I listened.  I am only going to say from what I heard and what it sounded like was not good.  It sounded like to me he was reading it from a script.  My ever so humble opinion based on what I heard was not good for Tiger.  Perhaps if I would have seen it on the tube I may have reached a different  conclusion.  It just didn't sound, to me, sincere.  

That is all,
Pops 





Friday, February 12, 2010

Tim Pawlenty, Conservtive?

Mr. Pawlenty is currently being touted as a contender for the republican party as a Presidential candidate in 2012.  Here are his latest thoughts, (Feb 12,2010) on health care.

Here are five ideas that could be passed as separate bills to reform health care:
1) Incentivize (yes, it is a word, I checked) patients to be smart consumers: When people buy food, clothes or cars, they compare prices and quality before making a decision. Why should health care be any different? Well, let me tell you Mr. Pawlenty.  When I buy clothes,  or cars I can read the label.  When I have been with my family physician for 30 years I really don’t care what it cost.  I have developed a relationship with a “person” .  A relationship that transcends money. Being a politician where it is about power, I don’t suppose you would, or could comprehend that.  It’s not about money! In Minnesota, we've created incentives for public employees to seek low-cost, high-quality health care, and given them the information to make smart decisions.  That’s really swell.  In the “public sector”.  Let me guess, union controlled? Was there really a choice? I don’t need the government to “give me information to make smart decisions”.   What have you done for the private section? As a result, the vast majority have migrated to more cost-efficient health-care providers, and we've seen zero or small increases in premiums in recent years. Migrated, hmmm,  sounds like a nice word for accept this or face higher out of pocket costs.  Any federal reforms should similarly make quality and costs more transparent and incentivize smarter health-care decisions.  And, just WHO would regulate this transparency?  Another government agency.  Yep, now there’s a winner!
2) Pay for performance: First I would change this euphemism. Sounds like a hooker to me, pay for performance.  Then again, my first job after graduating from the police acdamey was to work vice.   Under our current system, health-care providers are rewarded for the number of procedures they perform, not for their performance. I like this concept of keeping score.  I think we should do it with Congress.  With the recent  10% approval rating we shouldn’t have to pay them anything.  As a result, the system encourages unnecessary tests that increase costs. Might I point out that I believe every state in the union monitors doctors through a variety of agencies.  Not to mention the Federal government does so. Just an added note.  You and all like you make the assumption that Doctors have no ethics or morals.  This is insulting to the thousands of hard working practicing physicians who put the patient best interests first every time they go to their office, hospital, or clinic. I suggest you make a written a public apology to all hard working ethical physicians.   In Minnesota, we started an innovative program to measure and set performance metrics for providers and make the results public. We are changing our payment system to reward quality rather than quantity. Congress should pass reforms that allow people to stop paying for procedures and start paying for results. New reform? Is that the same as a law? This smells like a new bureaucracy. 

On a real personal note: I am kind of a Bill Cosby kind of guy.  When I go in for an appendectomy I look on the Doctor’s wall.  I want to see if he got an “A” in Appendectomies in college.  If he only got a “C”, I’m looking for a different guy to cut me open!

3) Liability reform: Another way to cut down on unnecessary procedures is to reduce the threat of lawsuits facing health-care providers. This can be a tricky issue for many Democrats, so I was encouraged when President Obama nevertheless opened the door to liability reforms last summer. At a minimum, we should establish uniform standards for medical liability limits to discourage interstate jury shopping that drives up everybody's health-care costs.  We all ready have liability reforms.  It’s called juries of your peers.  If you want to have liability reform why not go after frivolous law suits.  Getting burnt by “hot coffee” comes to mind. 

4) Interstate health-care insurance: There is no reason a Minnesotan should not be able to buy health insurance from any other state. Doing so would dramatically increase insurance choices and cut costs through improved competition. I've proposed legislation to allow Minnesotans to buy health insurance from other states and am working with other governors to establish an interstate purchasing pool with strict standards.  I love this.  “Interstate purchasing pool. Now being the country boy that I am and not having a lot of book learnen  does that sound like or mean one insurance agency for all the states?  One insurance company, one premium, one government agency.  Oh yes, government run health care.  All that has to be done is add the 15 to 50 million, (who knows the real number) of uninsured.   This is an initiative that the federal government could also facilitate.   Beggin’ the pardon of the preachers and ladies who read this blog but, what the hell part of this guy is Conservative?  This is another Federal government agency to be created.  What we need is less Federal government not more of it. 

5) Modernize health insurance: We also need to reform the traditional, employee-based health-care system. Workers today are likely to switch jobs many times over their careers. And that is what makes this America.  It’s called Freedom.  Perhaps it is a new word to your vocabulary but not to millions of Conservatives.  With Freedom goes responsibility.  The responsibility to  make a decision.  If  I take this new job what are the benefits?  What are the disadvantages?   This is the American choice. The current system often punishes individuals who switch jobs or start businesses. That makes no sense. With all due respect to the politician, it makes perfect sense.  Risk, reward.  Advantage, disadvantage.  Freedom, Responsibility. We should make health insurance transferable so employees can keep their coverage if they switch jobs; prohibit insurance companies from discriminating against individuals whose preexisting conditions were covered under insurance they lost through no fault of their own;  I live in a state that all ready does that.  Why do we need the federal government to do that.  If it is important to a segment of society then should and can lobby their local representatives to make it happen and (finally!) encourage the expansion of modern forms of paying for health care, like health savings accounts.   Am I living in the only Utopian state of health care.  My state all does that. I am currently enrolled in an HAS now, as we speak.

With all due respect to the  governor  this sounds like Democrat talking points.  It certainly doesn’t sound  like a true, small government, fiscally conservative, accept responsibility,  hard work ethic, Conservative.  IMHO,  of course.

Pops







Friday, January 29, 2010

Shame on you MTSU!

Shame on you Middle Tennessee State University!  Trying to charge the Pro Life Collegians  a security fee at a Pro Life display!  It would have been fine had you charged other campus organizations or charged the fee before.  What were you thinking?  Oh! You weren't! It took only a letter from the Alliance Defense Fund to persuade Middle Tennessee State University officials the error of their ways.  Shame on you MTSU!  Shame, Shame Shame!              Read the complete article here.

NOW! .....they come after young Christian football players.  That's right folks, NOW, the national organization of women(lack of capitalization mine, they don't deserve it) are going after a young Christian football player.  You may have heard of him. His name is Tim Tebow.  He has done a Pro Life TV commercial to be aired on CBS during the Super Bowl.  NOW says it is derogatory towards women. How in the world is a Pro Life commercial derogatory towards women.  I would think it would be anything but derogatory.  Last time I checked on it only a woman could give birth, the gift of life to a child.  Men have been specifically excluded from this honor of life.   What am I missing here?  Is it ME, or is it the gals at NOW! 

Check this entire fiasco out here at Townhall.com.

Do you really want these people teaching your children? It seems young Gary Tudesko went duck hunting before school.  Having is hunting weapon in his truck he parked it off the school property.  Key word here is "off".  You see he is aware of the school's No Tolerance Policy. He then went to school.   For using good judgment and common sense he was rewarded by being EXPELLED!  You just have to ask yourself who should be teaching who.      This info was respectfully stolen from the NRA!  You know the drill here.

Pops

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

There is Hope

With the President's first year under his belt so to speak and everyone but his brother doing a "Year in Review" I am not going  down that path.  It has been all too easy to stay on the "criticize Obama band wagon" and I admit I did jump on board, sometimes with both feet!  The name of this blog is CONSERVATIVE OUTRAGE, not bash President Obama.  I will attempt this year to keep that in mind with a more Conservative slant or views.  There are many more issues out there to be reported on and discussed.  So, if I get off the mark once in a while forgive me however, if I stay off the mark for too long bring me back home (my name is in the back of my shirt collar). That's a joke for those of you in Loma Linda. This is CONSERVATIVE OUTRAGE and it's here for you to voice  and discuss your opinions.

Thank you for your support.


There is Hope, Too Long on the Back Burner


One of the biggest issues in the recent health care debate has been Abortion.  There is perhaps no issue in America that will divide our populace more than Abortion.  There are the two camps that get the most coverage of this issue.  One is it a woman's right to have an abortion and she is the only one to decide because it is her body.  The other camp is only when the health of the mother is at stake.  There is a third and not so well covered I believe.  It is the hard core Abortion at no time.  This camp places the life of the child and the mother in the hands of G-d. Not, a surgeon, not the mother, but in the hands of the Almighty Creator of all the universe.  I am relatively sure most of my followers fall in the third category, then I may be wrong.  Regardless of which category your opinion may fit a Marist survey* shows the generation I am defined with was and remains to be a generation of rebellion that went too far.

Only 50% of my generation is Pro Life.  Sadly that is the lowest percentage of the four generations surveyed. Of our youngest generation, those 18 to 29, 59% believe abortion is morally wrong.  Correct me if I am wrong but isn't this the generation that has been called the "me" generation.  Isn't this the generation that has their "pants on the ground and their hat on sideways".  


I'll be the first to admit I sometimes shake my head when I see the youth of today strolling the mall or walking in front of me on the sidewalk.  I better remember what my daddy used to say to me, "You can't judge a book by its cover boy.  You gotta open it up and read what's inside."  I really hate it when he is right.  It's a father son thing.  Guess I better do what my daddy told me and read a book or talk to a young person.  How about you?  Need to read a book or.........


*Complete article clik here

Pops








Saturday, January 23, 2010

Help Me Understand....Please!!!

So, unless you've been hiding under a rock for the past week you know some guy named Brown won a Senate seat in the state of Massachusetts.  This guy has been getting more TV time than both Conan O'brien and Jay Leno.  That's not what this post is about.


Help me understand, Please!!!  


First President Obama says we need to bail out the auto manufactures and the banks and the automobile sales, (cash for clunkers).  Ok, the get that, someone is in  trouble we go to help them, ie" Haiti.  It's in our nature.  We are Americans of Judeo-Christian belief and that is our mission in life and the world. But, and here is the but,  on what could be considered the absolutely worst day of his Presidency President Obama comes out smashing the banking system that he just had the American taxpayers bailout.  Is it just me or is it every time something doesn't go President Obama's way he comes out and blames some one else. Just a thought.



Here's what I don't understand.  Were the banks bad a year ago when we had to bail them out?  Or, did they turn bad when we gave them our hard earned tax dollars?  If they were lousy before the bailout why didn't President Obama just let them go and self destruct.  That would have saved the American tax payer millions of dollars.  I have a friend who is a retired banker and he says bank failures make the surviving banks and the system stronger. It's like culling the species.  The strong live and get to be better. Now that makes sense to me. How about you?  


On the other hand if the banks turned bad after the bailout money how did that all happen with the Washington watch dogs that were "watching" the money being spent.  One other thing bothers me.  If President Obama wants to curb the salaries of these bank people and he makes it happen.  Why doesn't just save the American economy by just curbing the wages of the 3.5 million Wal-Mart employees at about a buck an hour for the next couple years.  That should help, shouldn't it?


Point here is:  If President Obama aka the government can void a Corporate President's million dollar salary after the Executive negotiated and agreed to a million dollars contract then what's to stop him from taking a buck or two from the averaged Wal-Mart employee.  After all their salary has been negotiated and agreed on by both parties also. What's the difference?  Money is money.  Breaking a contract is breaking a contract, is it not?


I'm confused.  Help me understand.....Please!!!


Pops

Lutheran Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Destruction of the embryo in the mother's womb is a violation of the right to live which God has bestowed upon this nascent life. To raise the question whether we are here concerned already with a human being or not is merely to confuse the issue. The simple fact is that God certainly intended to create a human being and that this nascent human being has been deliberately deprived of his life. And that is nothing but murder.

Read more about this famous Lutheran Pastor at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dietrich_Bonhoeffer


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