Have You Ever Wondered Why...

...the Mormon church has been running all those 'we're just like you' ads over the last couple of years? Perhaps they're trying to make Mitt Romney more palatable to conservative Christians. It's not working. 


...the Vice President is basically a high-paid, hang out and do nothing most of the time position?  Isn't it time to choose a VP with some really strong points, who could handle tasks related to those strong points instead of waiting around until the Senate needs a tie-breaker?


...so many folks who are labeled as a minority vote for Democrats? Why would anyone want to vote for the party who opposed emancipation? After all, it was the "radical Republicans" who were abolitionists. Lincoln was a Republican. Why do so many forget that? After Lincoln was assassinated and Andrew Johnson (a Democrat) became president, he wanted to readmit the southern states to the Union and allow those states to define the status of blacks. The Republican-controlled Congress wanted the federal government to insure black's rights. They eventually won that battle, took control of Reconstruction (granted - not always handled in a perfect way), and passed the 14th and 15th amendments to the Constitution guaranteeing blacks due process of law and the right to vote. As well,blacks went on to win many elections and were appointed to administrative positions, as Republicans. In the meantime, white supremacy began to raise its head in the south, especially in Mississippi, Louisiana and South Carolina where Democrats used violence, intimidation, fraud and murder to win elected positions. Sound familiar? In 1865-66, in Tennessee, six Democrat Confederate veterans began the Ku Klux Klan as a social club. Admittedly, in the beginning, it was not a terrorist organization, but unfortunately quickly became one and spread to all the southern states. Membership ran the gamut from judges and mayors to sheriffs and common criminals. These subhumans went on to commit unspeakable atrocities against their fellow man (woman, child) not at all unlike those of Stalin, Lenin, Hussein, Chavez, Hitler, Castro et al. There were a few states who took matters into their own hands - in Tennessee and Arkansas, Republicans created police forces who arrested and executed Klansmen. In Texas, Gov. Edmund Davis also created a state police unit, 40% of whose members were black, that went on to eventually rid the state of the Klan. Still, Democrats began to identify their party as the "white man's party" and went on to regain control of the southern states. 


Stay tuned for a little history on civil rights legislation. If the above offended you in any way, just wait.


-OT

May you rest in peace, Steve Jobs.


I confess, I own no Apple products. No iPhone, iPad, iPod or iMac, no MacBook, Mac  Pro or Mac Mini. I am a PC and accept myself as such. I don't understand the frenzy that occurs each time a new Apple product is released. Perhaps I'm not much of a techie. However, that does not mean I don't recognize the brilliance of Steve Jobs and all he accomplished. Between Mr. Jobs and that Microsoft guy...what's his name? oh yeah, Bill Gates, the world has changed dramatically since I was a teenager in the 70s. My last semester of college (1985), I was offered a course in personal computing. I turned it down. Why in the world would I need to know anything about computers? Ha!  I remember life before the internet - message boards and chat rooms. I was a member of one of the first chat rooms in Oklahoma. It was very cool to "talk" to other people around the City in real time. Who knew Al Gore would later invent the internet? A marvel indeed. Thanks Al! What's that? You did not invent the internet? But I thought you said...well, never mind. Nevertheless, thanks to the world wide web, we now have our local television anchors disrupting programming with the 'breaking news' of a 3-car pile up on the Champs Elysees in Paris. You know, just in case your distant relative happened to be driving on that street on that day at that particular time. Fortunately, you can instant message them to make sure they were not involved in that mishap. It doesn't matter that they don't know who in the heck you are (5th cousin thrice removed). You know who they are courtesy of your Mom, who knows the entire lineage of both sides of your family, their email addresses and cell phone numbers. But I digress. 


So thanks, Mr. Jobs, for your foresight and for making the world a much more interesting place. Too bad the hypocrites taking part in the Occupy Wall Street "protest" hate you and others like you. I'd bet at least 50% of them own an iPhone or iPod and probably 99% of them own a computer and/or cell phone of some sort. Come to think of it, if it weren't for your line of products, as well as Mr. Gates' products and the various other cell phone and computer brands, plus the internet, no one would even know they were there. Or care.


- OT

Texas. 


The only way to really understand Rick Perry's thinking on state's rights and the 10th amendment is to get to know Texas. I don't mean the citizens of  Dallas, Houston, San Antonio or even Austin. I mean the citizens of Rule, Dalhart, Paris, Temple, Beeville, Amarillo and the like. Folks are not just from Texas. they are Texas. No matter where you meet a native or under what circumstance, one of the first things you will learn about that person is that they are a Texan. They'll tell you right off the bat. Native Texans live and breathe all things Texas, some transplants do as well. In my opinion, this loyalty has been passed down from those who founded the Republic of Texas. If you can count as kin Stephen F. Austin, Sam Houston, William Travis, Jim Bowie or any of the other well and/or lesser known men who defended the Alamo, then you are as much royalty in Texas as Elizabeth is in England.


Other than moving there to experience it yourself, one of the best and most entertaining ways to discover the meaning of being a Texan is to read James Michener's Texas: A Novel. As always, Michener relates the history behind the story and in this novel, he captures the true spirit of those who settled, fought for and shaped the state to her present form. I've probably read it five or six times and just blogging about it here makes me want to read it again. I always learn something new. 


I personally am a nearly-native Texan. I was made there, but approximately three weeks before I was born, my father was transferred to Oklahoma. All of my immediate family members are natives. I have the luxury of being both an Okie and a Texan. There's really not that much difference, except high school football is not nearly the be-all  end-all here like it is across the Red. If for some reason I couldn't live in Oklahoma, you can be sure I'd be hot-footin' it south down I-35 as fast as I could go!

A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself from within. 
       -W. Durant


Think about it.


So many worthy subjects, so little time. How do you regular bloggers do this? Where do you find the time to work on your blog every day? I may be too long-winded to post each day!


Something to ponder - this has been going around in an email lately, but the subject is one I've thought about more than once, I bet you have too. Where are Mr. O's friends? Where is the grade school/junior high/high school buddy who played b'ball with The O way back in the day? Where are the high school sweethearts, the prom dates who knew him when? What about his college roommates/classmates/dining hall acquaintances? Where are his former teachers, Sunday school class leaders? What about next-door neighbors, or any neighbors, when he was growing up? For that matter, where are his adult friends, other couples he and Mrs. O socialized with in Chicago? Why haven't they all come out of the woodwork to say 'yeah, I knew him when...'?? Can you think of a United States President whom we've known as little or less about? Neither can I!  Where are all those 15 minutes of fame people? Other than his Hawaii days and his overseas school days, the man has no past - as if he were hatched in a laboratory. No, this is not about the 'birther' thing. This is about what's NORMAL. We've known all about other presidents' escapades as kids or young adults in college. Clinton's saxophone and pot smoking but not inhaling days, GW's wild college and cocaine days. We knew about their grades in college, good and bad. All we know about Mr. O is he attended Columbia, was little more than an average student, somehow managed to get admitted to Harvard Law - one of the toughest law schools to get into, went on to become an editor and later president of the Harvard Law Review because of an essay writing competition - not because of his grades. What is the big deal? If his SAT/LSAT, transcripts and editorials are so stellar, why won't he let us see or read them? Oh wait, we can't read any of his editorials from HLR because he supposedly only wrote one and didn't even sign it. Considering how nosy we are as Americans and how good some of our computer enthusiasts/hackers/geeks are, why hasn't this information surfaced? I say it ain't normal!


Hmmm...yes indeedy, something to ponder...

Words and phrases that should be banned from use by one and all:

• Let me be clear (whatever)
• Reach across the aisle (We are the World, We are the People...)
• Bipartisan (sometimes means 'my way or the highway').
• Global warming/climate change (as though Earth has never dramatically warmed or cooled before).
• Green jobs (why not blue or purple?)
• Rhetoric (frankly my dear, I don't give a damn)

Add your nomination!