A Quote to Start Things Off

""I'd love to go to Santa Fe at some point, Emmett said, but for the time being, I need to go to New York. The panhandler stopped laughing and adopted a more serious expression. Well. that's life in a nutshell, aint it. Lovin' to go to one place and havin' to go to another. Amor Towles in the Lincoln Highway.

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Pictures of Memories I

Pictures of Memories I
Snow kidding! These "kids" now range from 17 to 23
Showing posts with label Occasional Rants. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Occasional Rants. Show all posts

Thursday, June 23, 2022

Poetry Friday: For The First Time



I hope you are not confused by the title of this post.  It is simply the name of the weekly blogging event  I am participating in, and the title of my poem which will appear therein. 

I did not mean to imply that I was participating in Poetry Friday for the first time.  This, in fact, is my 4th appearance in as many weeks.  Prior to that, I was an irregular reader of some of the entries through links to some of the other poetry blogs I follow.  My blog is not a poetry blog as such, it is more a mixed bag of miscellany in the shape of a blog. It is true that I am certainly on a poetry kick these days. While this is not the first time I have posted on Poetry Friday, this is the first poem I have written specifically with this blogging event in mind. 

I really enjoy these blogging events.  Back when I was homeschooling my kids, and this blog was called Home School Dad, I participated in weekly blogging events called Three Things Thursday, Works for me Wednesday, Wordless Wednesday, and my favorite the Carnival of Homeschooling.  Some of my favorite posts in my 13 + years of blogging were when I hosted the aforementioned carnival.

In a few months, I will be hosting one of the Poetry Friday's which I am very excited about and have already begun drafting.  One thing I will put an end to, at least for the week I host it, is this whole Poetry Friday on a Thursday thing.  This is very typical of all the blogging events I've ever participated in.  If you want to be one of the first posts on the Linky list, and who doesn't?, you need to post the day before.  Now I must ask you my fellow existentialists, is it really Poetry Friday when you post it on Pre-Poetry Thursday? 

Therefore, When I host in August, my post will drop at 11 p.m central time on Thursday Night.  That's because it will be Friday in New York City and if that's good enough for New Year's Rocking Eve it's good enough for me.  

I believe that's more than enough pre-amble/rant.  Here is my poem for the week ...

 For The First Time

Meeting someone

Is like

Walking

Into the middle

Of two movies


They walk into yours

You walk into theirs


You both walk into

What could be

The pivotal scene

Of your lives

Poetry Friday is being hosted this week at Reading to the Core


 


Thursday, July 5, 2012

Fragments of rants, thoughts, and feelings.

Mommy's Idea

Fragment 1: Stupid is a swear word in our family.  It is not a word that we want our kids to use nor  do we use it ourselves. It's a crippler.  And it's everpresent.  Consider these lyrics from the beginning of Book Report from You're a Good Man Charlie Brown:

"Peter Rabbit is a stupid book about a stupid rabbit who steals vegetables from other people's gardens."

Be that as it may, stupid things fascinate me.  I don't mean that I am fascinated by things that nobody else finds interesting.  That is true.  I am very random, and the oddest things do strike my fancy.  What I mean is the nonsensical things that people say and do fascinate me.  Nonsensical is a kinder gentler way of saying stupid.

Before, I continue with fragment 1, let me digress. This whole introduction to fragment 1, is a fragment to itself.  So let's call it a prefragmenace (part fragment part preface). 

At the 4th of July parade I described in my last post, I saw one illustration of the nonsensical.  It was a sign that a man was carrying in the above picture.  I have isolated the sign below.



The reason why I think this sign is stupid nonsensical is mainly because it doesn't make sense.  Voting independent will not end fascism for a number of reasons. 

Fascism is defined at dictionary.com as  a governmental system led by a dictator having complete power, forcibly suppressing opposition and criticism, regimenting all industry, commerce, etc., and emphasizing an aggressive nationalism and often racism.

So A,  if the U.S. was a fascist state, this mans opposition  and criticism of it would be forcibly suppressed. 


B, our governments checks and balances and our current 2 party system and free elections  show that we have no dictator leading us. 

C, voting independent will not necessarily keep us from a fascist state.  Imagine a fascist running as an independent.  His plan to get in power and become a dictator. Voting independent in that case would actually put a fascist in office rather than remove one from office.

Fragment 2:  Not  all isms are Puppyisms.

Bunny Girl just walked into our bedroom and said that she was thinking and when she was done thinking she began thinking credits.   Then she walked out. 

Fragment 3: Obligatory heat wave post.

It's been hotter than heat itself for the past week or so.  It is 10:30 at night and the temp have finally dipped to 85 degrees.  It was 104 at 3:00 when we left the swimming pool  I am not sure how I feel about these real feel forecasts.  It is 85 now, but it feels like 95.  Who cares how it feels? What's next  if were at work at 2:00 in the afternoon but it feels like 5:00 in the afternoon, are we supposed to leave for the day?  It's anarchy I tell you.  And if there's anarchy, can fascism be far behind?


For more fascism free fragments head back to half past kissing time


Saturday, March 24, 2012

Occasional Rants: Primarily Speaking

A few months ago the website Teacher Certification Degrees put HSD on their list of the Top100  homeschooling  blogs.  In their description of my blog they described me by saying, "Dave is the “Home School Dad”, White Sox fan and movie buff whose sense of humor shows in creative nicknames and occasional rants;"

While I appreciated the mention, I was especially tickled by the phrase "Occasional Rants".  I thought that would make for a pretty good segment here.  So here is my rant for the occasion of political primaries.

The Illinois Primary was last Tuesday.  I voted in it, as I do in most elections.   I voted in every contest listed on my ballot.  I tried to do as much homework as I could in deciding who to vote for. I even took Spider Droid to see one of the Presidential candidates speak. 

Because I have been asking for a Republican ballot in primaries for better than 2 decades,  I get targeted by Republican pollsters and candidates come election time.  For example, I received no less than 15 calls from representatives of one of the Republican Presidential Candidates in the 4 days prior to the Illinois primary.

Not once in any of these calls was I told why to vote for this candidate, a former governor whose name fits him like a glove. I was only told repeatedly why not to vote for one of his opponents, Rick Santorum. 

It has been repeatedly said of this robocalling Republican that since he has run a successful business, he will know how to use our money.  I don't think so! He doesn't even know how to spend his.  He outspent all the other candidates in the Illinois election and not once with all that money spent, did he tell me why to vote for Him

It turns out that all the spending did not get my vote.  If the calls were enough to dissuade me from voting for Santorum, I would have simply voted for another one of his opponents.  He  had 15 opportunities to tell me why to vote for Him and failed each time.  This candidate, okay, okay you dragged it out of me, Mitt Romney, ended up winning in Illinois by a pretty good margin.  On Tuesday I heard his victory speech on the radio and when he finally got around to telling me why I should vote for him  he had some convincing reasons why I should support him.  They might not have swayed my vote, but I would much rather heard them before I voted rather than 14 hours after.  Sure, I could have researched him on my own, but if a guys gonna call you 15 times shouldn't that provide you with all the information you need to get about Him?

Following up Romney's victory in Illinois, one of his top advisers was asked about his social policies.  Here is what happened . . .



I found this particularly disturbing as every one of Romney's 15 calls were about Santorum flip flopping to the left on social issues. It seems Romney's plan is to outspend his opponents telling voters why not to support his opponents.  His adviser's comments make me wonder if the reason why he doesn't tell social conservatives why to vote for him is because he doesn't have anything to say.

A to Z 2023 Road Trip

#AtoZChallenge 2023 RoadTrip