From helicopter parenting comes helicopter government

The greatest generation is raising a generation of wimps. Here we are on the cusp of celebrating our independence as a nation and a little turmoil at an airport across the pond gets Homeland Security all wound up again. Folks, no one gets out of here alive, so best live it the best you can while you're here. All the parents who hovered over their kids protecting them from every little bump and scrape are setting up the future for a big fall. Since mommy and daddy protected them from all those little life hurdles, too many folks want Uncle Sam to take over on into adulthood. I'm here to tell you, a life too safe is a boring one. Sure you don't have to take up rock-climbing or parachuting, but you have to put yourself out there once in a while to really live. You have to take some chances, you have to get hurt sometimes. You remember those things while forgetting the routine of ordinary life. We don't need to get all in a tizzy every time some whackos go boom. We don't need Unc to hold our hand. If so, why not just stay at home? You learn to ride a bike or a horse by falling down a few times. It builds character, something this country could use more of.

Mindwashed media monkeys

Folks once heralded the Information Age as a new revolution. Access to information was going to set free the masses and make our lives better. What has happened? Is it a case of the more we know, the more we don't want to know? Mr Duncan mentioned it in a comment below. This I don't care feeling that has spread throughout our society. I've mentioned it in past articles. Hell in a way this whole damn blog is partly because people just don't care enough to do the right thing. We see it all around us with low voter turnout and a lack of participation in the community. Oh, people have plenty of time to vote for American Idol, and take the kids to soccer and softball and karate and you name it, but don't have the time or energy to show up at local council meetings or even the polls on one or two days a year. Have we cranked out a generation or two of mindwashed media monkeys that just care about those things the talking boxes tell them to? Folks, I don't know the answer, but it's a crying shame when people care more about some fool singing and dancing on tv than their own elected officials stealing away their rights and future. We need a wake-up call and we need it now.

Time to teach some old dogs new tricks

The Hillsborough County Commission have gone off and done it again. When are we good people of Hillsborough County going to get outraged enough to boot these carpetbaggers off the Commission? They voted on Thursday to eliminate the Wetlands Protection Division of the Environmental Protection Commission, a local entity that helps protect us from thoughtless over-building and preserves precious wetlands. Wetlands are those things that buffer hurricane impact, reduce flooding, help filter pollution, provide habitat for animals and are just plain pretty to look at. Even in the wake of lessons taught by Katrina we have these cretins wanting to allow more destruction of wetlands. In addition to supposed budget savings, their reasoning was it was restrictive to development. Blair said it delays home construction with an extra layer of regulation. No shit Sherlock, that's the point. We don't need a "Damn the environment, full speed ahead" development policy. Just who are these guys working for? Don't answer that, we all know who, and it ain't the citizens of the county. They're so comfortable that we won't do anything that they're not even pretending anymore. The stings are out there in the open and they're not even ashamed of it. Good folks of Hillsborough County it is time we stand up and say No More! We must send the message that we are tired of the puppets in power. Cut their strings and take back our county. More information can be found on Sticks of Fire:

http://sticksoffire.com/2007/06/22/
selling-out-our-wetlands-for-developers/

U-Can is another resource where you can keep informed of these issues

National Tab Out Day

Every year now it seems that someone brings up a National Gas Out Day. I've read all about how it won't work, but I've got an idea that just might, if enough people participate. It won't save gas, but will conserve a lot of hot air. Let's have a National Tab Out Day. Hell let's make it a whole week, or a year. But for now let's start with just a day. We bloggers can spearhead it. No tabloid-style news for just one day. Let's for that one day not mention Paris or the latest missing white girl, or the other fluff that's out there being passed off as headlines. Let's change the channel when they try to give us celebrity "news" and refuse to even turn on CNN, MSNBC, Faux and the like. We might even expand it to the papers too. Don't buy a paper that day. If you get it delivered, don't open it on that day. If this catches on maybe we can even collect them all and dump them back on the steps of their offices. Let's take back our news. Let inaction be our action. Now what day shall it be? How about we pick release day. The day we release ourselves by refusing to talk about who else is getting out.

Divine comedy indeed. There must be a God and he has a sense of humor

As with most folks, I often ponder my own mortality and what may or may not be out there. I gotta tell you, the longer I live the more I gotta believe He's out there and he gets a big kick out of messing with us. Not truly bad things mind you, though maybe there's some of that too. But those little things that just get you going. Like why else would it be that a whole flock of birds take a dump on your car right after you wash it. Or how it rains on the day you're allowed to water your grass.
I can't count how many times I go into a store, looking for one or two particular things, and that's the only section in the whole store that is crowded with people. There's always someone just browsing at a leisurely pace right where I need to be. Tell me that's not divine comedy. Let's screw with the old man and put that lady right there browsing the nail aisle just as he rounds the corner. Better yet, let's have the lady back up her cart right in front of the nails that Grumpy is buying. Oh and get this, she won't buy the first box of nails. She'll eventually just move on! Hardy har har har.
I've lost track of all the times where I've been driving around the parking lot and just as I make the corner of the aisle going the wrong way a spot opens up. Now I NASCAR around and just as it looks like I'm gonna pit in time to make grab the win, a spoiler meanders around mere seconds before, taking the checker flag of the primo spot. Tell me that's not funny stuff for the guy upstairs. I just keep on keeping on. Its happened so much and so often that I just laugh now, and give a nod to the big Guy. "I see where this is going" I muse.
How about you go to the beach, find yourself a nice secluded spot, you know the one, just far enough away from everyone or even better out of sight of the next group. Next thing you know a few minutes after you're settled in, the friggin' Brady Bunch shows up and entrenches themselves right next to you. Here's your friggin' story, have something more than a hunch and take your girls with hair of gold, and three boys of your own, and leave us all the hell alone. It's a big beach, find your own spot. I'm sure that tickles the funny bone of You Know Who, every time.
So anyway, even when it's frustrating as hell at times, it's nice to think in some ways we might be playing our part as the Royal Jesters. He's up there and the world always needs more laughs.

Slow Down, What's the Hurry?

Every day it seems things are moving faster and faster. I don't know if it's me gettin older or the world gettin faster. Seems like we're in a hurry everywhere we go. No one has any patience. I'll be the first to admit I get a bit short-tempered when I'm forced to wait, but it ain't the waitin so much as it's the incompetence or rude behavior that ticks me off. I kinda like it when I'm forced to slow down and see what's going on around me. A stroll through the neighborhood, a walk around a park, an afternoon at the beach. Heck, takin the two hours to go see a movie is much more therapeutic than two full days of running errands, even if you get those errands done. Ever wonder why we continue to pile so much on our plates? Do we really need to schedule and fill every moment of every day? I feel like I might miss something if I sleep in on the weekend, but that's just plain silly when you think about it. Me and the Mrs. truly enjoy each other's company, but neither one of us can sit still at home. I reckon we should take the time more often. I can't recall the last time I just spent the day without thinking about all the things I could be or should be doing. Seems to me we oughta just schedule in some time without a schedule, without something to do, some time to just be, to just live. Oops, I'm late for my nap, got to go.

The nobles are revolting.

As she was likely never properly disciplined as a child, so goes her life as an adult. Calling Paris an adult is using the term loosely I know. Here is yet another example that folks with money are treated differently. The ill-behaved little brat can't even serve her pathetic little sentence which should have been much harsher to begin with. So now, the sheriff sends her to her room. Like many little brats, it's no punishment at all. I reckon she's got all sorts of fancy things at her house that make house arrest little more than an unplanned vacation. I wish someone would order me to spend that much time at home. I just might get some of those honey-do's done. It's a sad day when we get such a clear confirmation of the new aristocracy. We peasants don't stand much of a chance when the nobles are above the law. Welcome to the dark ages friends, it's time for an uprising.

We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming

I read about that reality tv show they were putting on over in the Netherlands and just shook my head. I'm happy it turned out to be a hoax, but it sort of makes you wonder. People took it so seriously, you gotta figure it won't be long before someone pushes good taste that far. I was pretty disgusted by the Jerry Springer show when it was masquerading as real people at their worst, then with the reality tv shows that followed, to see just how far people were willing to go for a few bucks and some camera time, really turned my stomach. I hope reality tv comes full circle one day, and we have a reality tv show made up of reality tv producers competing to get their show aired. Only instead of getting voted off the island they're tarred and feathered and banished to a mud hut far away from any place. Maybe send them to Guantanamo or some other such fitting punishment. Or better yet, in honor of the Dutch hoax the losers all have to donate some organ(obviously not the brain since that would be a downgrade for any recipient) right then and there. Surgeons will be standing by each episode. Maybe then those parasites could actually contribute something to society. That just might be some must see tv.

Overtime belongs in football not the government

Overtime is either for extraordinary circumstances or poor as shit planning. I'll give you one guess as to which it is for Tampa. Never understood why so many government types get so much overtime. You figure out how many people-hours it takes to do something, like staff 4 firemen on a truck each shift if that's what you want, and divide it by 40 hours per person per week, that's how many folks you need on staff. Then you could avoid the huge waste of overtime. I mean think about it, most normal folks work about 40 hours a week maybe a little more. Get much beyond that point and folks start getting tired and burned out and it's at that point we start paying them half-again as much for each hour. So, in essence we're paying more for getting lower quality work. It doesn't take a genius to figure out this is bunk. Just hire more people, do your homework and figure out how many people we need. The other problem I've seen over the years with overtime is so many folks become dependent on it as part of they're regular income. That creates a problem if you ever try to fix the system, like we need to do now. So the city's solution for overtime staffing for events, hmm lets hold fewer events. Brilliant! Our tax dollars at work.