Obama Plays The Race Card Early

Wednesday, The Barack of Obama threw down the race card in the US presidential contest.

He's told America that he was a different kind of politician, but it looks like he's just more of the same Democratic tradition.

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) - Democrat Barack Obama, the first black candidate with a shot at winning the White House, says John McCain and his Republican allies will try to scare them by saying Obama "doesn't look like all those other presidents on the dollar bills."

Stumping in an economically challenged battleground state, Obama argued Wednesday that President Bush and McCain will resort to scare tactics to maintain their hold on the White House because they have little else to offer voters.

"Nobody thinks that Bush and McCain have a real answer to the challenges we face. So what they're going to try to do is make you scared of me," Obama said. "You know, he's not patriotic enough, he's got a funny name, you know, he doesn't look like all those other presidents on the dollar bills."

Do you notice there what Obama is saying?

Notice the "will try to say...", and "they're going to do...", McCain "will resort to..."?

No facts at all, just conjecture.

He doesn't have one instance of ANY Republican saying that Obama doesn't look like the Presidents on dollar bills. Not one instance.

Instead, Mr. Different Kind of Politician is trying to create non-existent Republican racism by making racist statements himself. He has NO examples of racism said about him other than the racism shown toward him my his fellow Democrats from the heatied primaries with Mrs. Clinton, so Obama puts racist words into the mouths of non-existent racist opponents.

The Barack of Obama tries to make enemies of fictional racist Republicans, but the only thing he's succeeded in is showing that he WANTS a racist enemy on order to gain more sympathy for himself.

Sorry Barack, it ain't working. I grew up in Louisiana public schools, but even I'm not dumb enough to fall for your lying about what you think Republicans "might" say some day in the future.

Obama is trying to create a racist "problem" where there is none.

Obviously, Obama is playing the race card himself in the absence of any real racism, and by doing this shows that he himself is guilty of racism.

I once heard a co-worker say that black people could not be racist. That only white people could be racist. Mr. Obama proves today the falsehood of this former co-worder of mine's claim.

I sure have disagreed with the policies Barack Obama has built his campaign on, and I disagree with many of the lame generic pronouncements in his speeches, but I've tried to carefully consider him ONLY on his policy stances.

But he sure has proved today that he isn't beyond a lame attempt himself to create racist scandals where there are none.

He's living proof that having a Harvard law degree doesn't mean you're smart.

Please go read the article and pay close attention to Obama's quotes. You'll notice that he has no actual examples of the racism he's talking about, he is, time after time, putting words into mythical racist Republican's mouths, with no actual quotes other than his own falsehoods.

The Democrats have proven so far that they are the party filled with racists:

Democratic Senator Joe Biden on Barack Obama - "I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy," Biden said. "I mean, that's a storybook, man."

David Ehrenstein in the Los Angeles Times - 'But it's clear that Obama also is running for an equally important unelected office, in the province of the popular imagination — the "Magic Negro."'

Harry Belafonte - "In the days of slavery, there were those slaves who lived on the plantation and [there] were those slaves that lived in the house. You got the privilege of living in the house if you served the master ... exactly the way the master intended to have you serve him. Colin Powell's committed to come into the house of the master. When Colin Powell dares to suggest something other than what the master wants to hear, he will be turned back out to pasture."

I'm not stupid enough to believe that there are no racist Republicans, but I do absolutely believe that there is at least one racist Democrat for every racist Republican.

Mr. Obama strikes a low blow here today by projecting on Republicans the racist things he thinks they might say about him in the future.

To quote the great philosopher Gomer Pyle, "For shame, for shame, for shame," Mr. Obama.

Sorry to bring up politics again, but this just got under my skin.

The Atlanic Ocean Last Night (Mon. July 28)

We went out to eat last night after I got off of work, and then went over to the ocean to take in the view.

It was almost dark, but the Atlantic was as green and as calm I have ever seen it.

The wind was very light but it sure was pretty.



Here's the western view toward the sunset over the Lagoon.

Move Over Jesus, Mary, and Elvis

Allah Meat is here!

We all know by now that Our Lord And Savior, His mom, and even Elvis, can appear as a beacon of hope to us in mold stains on damp walls, burned miraculously into pieces of toast, or even the shape of a Kellog's Corn Flake, but now Gool Ole Allah is getting into the miraculous appearance game.

As a restaurant goer in Birnin Kebbi, Nigeria was digging into a meal of beef, he luckily glanced at the piece of food he was about to put into his mouth and saw the word "Allah" written there.

Of course, the man was a good Muslim and didn't eat the bite but brought it to the attention of the others in the restaurant:

"He was about to eat it, when he suddenly noticed the words in the gristle, the restaurant owner said."

And not only the name of Allah, but the name Muhammad was found in meat in the kitchen when the rest of the beef was searched.

A total of three pieces of the "miracle beef" were found to have writing on them.

I'm not sure if they found Allah written twice, and Muhammad once, or if they found Muhammad written twice and Allah once. I was curious about this, but since the article didn't reveal this, I guess it's not really as important as the fact that Allah chose to bless the Muslim faithful in this way.

"When the writings were discovered there were some Islamic scholars who come and eat here and they all commented that it was a sign to show that Islam is the only true religion for mankind," he said.

This amazing news totally eclipses The Barak Of Obama's holy presidential campaign in raising the hopes of mankind for world peace in the near future.

Now I personally have had similar life changing messages sent from the great beyond to me when I was younger and partaking of the occasional bowl of Alpha-Bits, or noshing on some Campbell's Alphabet Soup (though I cannot recall the exact messages now, but I'm SURE they were important), but nothing as public as Allah writing a message to me in a piece of gristle in a restaurant.

Heck, I would most likely have missed this myself, since there's few things on earth I hate more than getting a piece of gristle in my mouth. Yuck! And would have just glanced and discarded it.

This is WAY better than that bogus Shroud of Turin thingy.

Why Is This Guy Always Yelling At Me?

Since I wrote yesterday on the subject of men on TV assuming on my trust, why is this guy yelling at me about something different every time I watch TV?



Billy Mays, you need to tone it down a bit, OK? You do seem like a pretty nice guy, but is all that yelling necessary?

I think not.

Do you yell like that at home? When you come in the door after a hard day of filming OxyClean and Kaboom commercials, do yell at your family?

(Mentally picturing Billy Mays walking in at home...wife and kids frantically trying to stuff those yellow foam ear plugs in their ears...)

Door slams open:

"HI HONEY! I'M HOME!

GEE, SOMETHING SURE SMELLS GOOD!

YOU LOOK GREAT BY THE WAY! HOW'S ABOUT A KISS! SMOOTCH! WOW, IS THAT STRAWBERRY FLAVORED LIP GLOSS?! YUM! THAT IS SO SEXY, AND SO 1970S! BUT I LIKE IT!

HI, BILLY JUNIOR! HOW WAS YOUR DAY!....

---

Speaking of Kaboom, it's now a cleaning product, but does any one out there that is my age, around 45, remember a cereal in the early 1970's called Kaboom! with a clown on the box and in the commercials?

Oh, well. I guess I'm the only one.

Oh. My. Gosh. I looked for an image of a box of Kaboom, and General Mills still makes this cereal!

That kinda reassures my faith in humanity just a wee little bit.

Who The Heck Is T. Boone Pickens?

Seems like every time I turn on the radio or that newfangled contraption, the TV, some older gentleman says, "Hi. I'm T. Boone Pickens…" and proceeds to tell me how wind energy is gonna save America.

First of all, I'm no genius, but I know that wind energy will only be part of the answer to our energy dependence on foreign oil.

I'm one of the great unwashed masses that firmly believes that America can, and should, pursue Each And Every proven energy source that we know of and quit paying billions of dollars per year to people who hate us and if they had half a chance would kill us all, for oil.

So while I think we should be drilling for oil every place in America and off our shores that we can, I also believe we should be building nuclear power plants out the wazoo, wind farms, solar, EVERYTHING, including oil.

When I hear politicians talk about "alternative" energy as if it is there, we're just not using it, I want to scream. The truth is that wind and solar energy and hydrogen powered and battery technology for electric cars are ALL in their infancy. They aren't nearly ready to be our prime sources of energy for power and locomotion yet. It will be years.

Oil infrastructure and nuclear power are well understood, and if the politicians, both democrat and republican would "fast track," or reduce the legislative red tape on using them more, we could meet our own energy needs in a matter of years.

But I'm way off subject now, back to T. Boone Pickens.

Who is this guy, and why should I listen to him?

Because, silly or not, I have an instinctive mistrust of men or women who use their first initial AND their middle name, like lots of lawyers do. Maybe I just answered my own self as to why I have an innate mistrust of people who use their first initial and their middle name, because lawyers do that a lot.

Then this guy whom I've never seen nor heard of comes on TV and says he's T. Boone Pickens like some personal injury lawyer that assumes I surely know who he is, when I don't. And there's that "T. Boone" initial and middle name thing that sounds so stinkin' self important, and that I have a natural born distrust of and it makes me immediately want to not believe what he says.

But I truly believe that wind energy is only a part of any long term energy solution, simply because the wind doesn't blow all the time. Same with solar power, there are lots of cloudy days, and heck, we have this thing in Florida, The Sunshine State, that is called night, where the sun doesn't shine AT ALL for many hours every day, so solar energy can't be but part of a long term energy solution for us.

Like it or not environmentalists, and normal folks like me who care about the planet but aren't stark ravin' crazy thinking that plants mean more than people and their livelihoods, plain old crude oil is THE major source of our energy all over the world, and it won't cease to be number one for years yet.

I believe that by the time the oil runs out, we'll be able to have the mature forms of nuclear, hydrogen cars, solar and wind energy to fill in the void. But we're nowhere near that point yet, SO LET'S JUST DRILL FOR AND GET OUR OWN DANG OIL, OK?!

And as for YOU, T. Boone, I'm not at all sure yet that I trust you.

Sarcastically yours,

J. Alden Masters

Rain

We picked up Big Brother's Daughter Sunday night at the Orlando airport.

She's 20 and down from Utah to visit with us a while. We plan to grind her down to nothing with just how boring life can be in Florida. It seems that the rain will be an integral part of our nefarious plan.

Almost every day for several weeks now it has been raining. Florida rains are a bit different from what the rest of America gets.

The thunder storms mostly happen in the afternoons, when the winds shift between westerly to easterly. The warm ocean air hits the drier air of the morning and Poof!, instant rain showers.

Then, when it's all over, since most of the ground here is sandy, the water is gone pretty quick, so you can get back out and do stuff.

The land is so flat and low here, that anywhere buildings are put up, they are required to dig retention ponds next to them to provide adequate drainage until the water can be absorbed.

These retention ponds around businesses are often made into an attractive part of the landscape. The one for the set of buildings where I work is really full and pretty now. It has a nice sidewalk all the way around it and is a great place for walking...when it isn't raining. (And if we're really lucky, an alligator wanders into a pond at work, prompting our Security to interrupt their endless games of spades and send out a warning email to us all to neither approach or feed the alligators. Duh.)

The buildings where I work are mostly without any windows, and are pretty well sound proof, so when I can hear thunder inside at work, I know it's really bad outside.

So Niece and Number One Daughter went to the beach this morning and hopefully got their fill of the incredibly hot sun and humidity before this afternoon's storms started.

If you have ever been near here to Orlando's attractions, you've probably experienced the afternoon showers, only ours here on the coast tend to be more stormy than the one's in-state.

The worst part of the storms is that one of our dogs, Lilly, is scared of thunder, and when I hear it thunder during the day at work, I picture her cowering under something at home, trembling. She's really emotional and thunder truly scares her, while the other dogs look at her like, "What's wrong with you?"

Here's a pic of Lilly in Alpha Dog Mode, barking at us, demanding whatever food we were so foolish as to leave on the counter where she can smell it.

That's about all I have to say for today. In fact, I'll probably be entering this post in the "Most Boring Blog Post Ever" contest, if there is such a thing.

I think I have a real winner here.

Unless You Are Deaf, Dumb, and Blind...

...you are aware that The Barak Of Obama is in the middle east and Europe on a whirlwind campaign tour to people who cannot vote in our election this fall.

Michelle Malkin's site was showing photoshopped examples of what Obama's world tour t-shirts should look like.

Here's a couple of my favorites:


The three main news anchors from the three major networks are over there following The Barak Of Obama's every move with love and adoration. If you were suspicious that the main stream news workers in America where totally in the tank for Obama, you no longer have room for any doubt, do you?

On Glenn Beck's radio program this morning, they had a fake news story that Obama had taken a tumble at one of the events for him in Europe today. Apparently Katie Couric, Brian Williams, and Charlie Gibson were kissing the ground that Obama was about to walk on instead of the ground that he had walked on , and Obama tripped over them. The way they did it was perfect, as if the reporter was breathless in worry over Obama having "fallen."

President Bush With Some Great Quotes

At a press conference on Monday, President Bush got a couple of really stupid questions from reporters but in turn gave great answers to them.

I saw film of these answers, and what does not show up in the transcripts I'll print below, was that President Bush visibly surprised that these dumb questions were asked in the first place.

Mark Smith from AP Radio: "Why have you not, sir, called on Americans to drive less and turn down the thermostat?"

President Bush: They're smart enough to figure out whether they're going to drive less or not. The consumer is plenty bright, Mark. The marketplace works. People can figure out whether they need to drive more or less. They can balance their own checkbooks. I think people ought to conserve and be wise about how they use gasoline and energy, absolutely. But my point to you, Mark, is that, you know, it's a little presumptuous on my part to dictate to consumers how they live their lives. The American people are plenty capable and plenty smart people and they'll make adjustments to their own pocketbooks. That's why I was so much in favor of letting them keep more of their own money, you know? It's a philosophical difference: Should the government spend their money or should they spend their own money? And I've got faith in the American people.

And then he was asked...

Unidentified Reporter: "Mr. President, do you think the oil companies are investing capital to find more reserves with the price at $140 a barrel?"

President Bush: Absolutely. Take an offshore exploration company. First of all costs a lot of money to buy the lease. They tie up capital. Secondly, it takes a lot of money to, you know, do the geophysics to determine what the structure may or may not look like. That ties up capital. Then they put the rig out there. Now, first of all, in a federal offshore lease if you're not exploring during a set period of time you lose your bonus. You lose the amount of money that you paid to get the lease in the first place. And once you explore, do your first exploratory, if you happen to find oil or gas you'll find yourself in a position where a lot of capital is tied up, and it becomes -- and your interests, your economic interests will continue to explore so as to reduce the capital costs of the project on a per barrel basis. So I think they're exploring.

President Bush having to hand out Capitalism 101 lessons to the journalism graduates.

Did you notice in that first question that the reporter assumed that Americans are so stupid that they need the President to order them to do sensible things?

Signs of the Apocalypse

I'm 45. I have grown up in the rock 'n roll era.

So, I can't help it, I love rock 'n roll music.

The harder, louder, and more screaming electric guitars, the better I like it.

But here's where it starts to get weird, as a Christian, I do NOT like to hear most of what many modern rock and heavy metal bands sing or scream about.

So I gravitate towards bands that are either Christian rock bands, or rock bands that have Christians in the band, and their lyrics tend to be uplifting and yet have the heavy music that I love.

For example. I have two cds by the band All That Remains, This Darkened Heart and The Fall of Ideals and both of these cds are simply amazing. Absolutely some of THE best musicianship and good lyrics I have ever had the pleasure of happening upon.

Their two guitar attack in their music almost makes my head spin with just how incredibly fast, precise, and melodic guitar playing can get. I can honestly say that I've never heard better guitar playing than are on those two All That Remains cds.

These days I don't listen to the radio much, even the rock on rock stations turns me off. I end up finding stuff on my own.

But years ago, I did listen to the radio a lot. There was lots of rock music that I liked.

One of the rock bands from the 80s that I liked was Def Leppard.

Now regardless whether you love or hate them, Def Leppard has been together now almost 30 years, and have toured and put out cds of the music that they love to play. That's gotta count for something.

I've always liked Phil Collen, their lead guitar player. He's a great lead player, and he happens to look a lot like my younger brother, so I like him and his playing a lot.

Plus Def Leppard has always been content to do their own thing, hard rock without trying to sound like anyone else, or to try to change to fit their music to whatever style is most popular today.

This past Friday night/early Saturday, I was hurting something fierce (my back) and went to get into my recliner for a while.

I turned the TV onto VH1 Classics channel and they were playing what they call, Classic/Current videos. This is where they'll play a classic old music video of a band, and the next video will be a new video by the same band.

As I watched, they played an old video by Def Leppard, and then played a new video by them of a song called "Nine Lives."

The song was pretty good, and standard fare for Def Leppard. Just a good solid Def Leppard song with a nifty guitar lead by Phil Collen.

But John, why did you title this post as Signs of the Apocalypse?

Because the new Def Leppard video for their song Nine Lives had country crooner Tim Mcgraw in it. In fact, Tim McGraw cowrote the song with the band.

Now I don't dislike Tim McGraw, heck he's from the same part of Louisiana I'm from, but I don't like country music. At all. (Tim McGraw seems like a swell guy)

Tim McGraw or no Tim McGraw, the Nine Lives tune sounds pure Def Leppard, and is pretty darn good.

But c'mon! Tim McGraw in a Def Leppard song and video?

Jesus has GOT to be comin' back soon.

Pathetic

Not too long ago, on a TV show we were watching, in preparation for a wedding, the groom jokingly said he wanted an ATM machine at the reception.

The wedding planner dude thought he was serious and got him one.

I thought it was kinda funny.

But today on the radio I heard that in Israel having an ATM machine at the wedding reception is a growing trend.

The machine conveniently produces a slip of paper showing who gave money via the machine and how much, so the newly flush with cash bride and groom can later thank them properly.

I knew that America was quickly heading for aych-eee-double-hockey-sticks in a hand basket, but it now appears that the whole world is headed there as well.

I can't think of anything tacky-er than this off the top of my head.

Quote of the Day

"If they're driving slower than me, they're a moron. If they're driving faster than me, they're a maniac."

I heard someone say this on the radio and thought that pretty much sums up how I feel when driving around Brevard County Florida.

I Keep Waiting

I keep waiting for something profound to pop into my head and then I'd type it all out and post it here and then bask in the glory of the comments from all the changed lives.

But really, I've got thuthin'.

Lovely Wife was nice enough to prepare a whole bunch of stuff for July 4, and then I crawled out of bed at 4pm and trotted out on the field and threw the game winning touchdown, er, grilled a bunch of hamburgers and hot dogs.

Same old whiny story, except my back was hurting even more than usual, and me and my buddies, Lortab and Skelaxin got the grillin' done and then we all ate like animals.

Years ago when I worked for Delta Air Lines, I got a recipe from a coworker for fruit pizza.

Fruit pizza is a dessert that is made with sugar cookie as "crust" and cream cheese and I forget what else as the "sauce" and then you chop up a bunch of fruits like kiwi, strawberries, bananas, pineapple, mandarin oranges and so forth as the "toppings" and finally a sugary-fruity glaze is drizzled all over the top.

She bought enough stuff to make two fruit pizzas, and of course the first one was demolished that night of the 4th. Then she made another one on the 5th, and we ate on it for a couple more days.

That's easily the best desert I've ever tasted, and we hadn't made it in years, so it was even better after so long.

I love to read, so I've still been on my almost-year-long science fiction kick, and when my back wakes me up and keeps me from sleeping, I go read for a while, and I'll tell you, some science fiction writers have THE most amazing imaginations.

But it's a very rare science fiction writer that has that super imagination AND is able to write really well.

My favorite science fiction writer so far, and by far, is Jack McDevitt. He's the only author so far that has me wanting to go and buy copies of every one of his books, because I know I'll want to read them all over again in a few years. He's a great writer for pulling you into the story so that you feel like you've gone along on his adventures.

Some of the books I've checked out are so bizarre that I had no idea what the author was talking about, so I just read for a while and then finally have to put those away.

I also read all four of the Space Odyssey books by Arthur Clarke, 2001, 2010, 2060, and 3001. The first two were really good, while 2060 was mediocre and 3001 wasn't very good at all.

Mr. Clarke definitely phoned in 3001. It was as if he wrote a list of everything he thought was wrong in present day earth and showed how all of those "problems" were done away with in the next thousand years. Books where an author injects all of his or her likes and dislikes into book form, with a thin coating of fictional story on top, sounds really preachy and I found myself talking back at Mr. Clarke and rolling my eyes with 3001.

At any rate, my recent foray into reading lots of science fiction has been fun, but I find that I have to bring home at least two books from the library for every one I want to read. In other words, if I want 3 or 4 books to last me a couple of weeks, I need to check out at least 6 or 8, because I end up putting half of them down.

So, between hurting, working, and reading, I haven't done much worth blogging about.

I wanted to get out and take some photographs this past weekend, but it has been raining on and off most every day, so when I get up and feel like going, it's usually raining.

That leaves reading.

I could write about politics again, but I need to keep my blood pressure in check, so I'm laying off that for a while.

Take care folks, and I'll be around when I can.

July 4, 2008 Help Wanted: Visionaries and Statesmen

I was trying to think of something to say that was moving and profound but flat-out drew a blank.

So I went back through my digital image archives and found some photos that I like that have American flags in them and worked on them a little in Photoshop Elements.


When those men signed the American Declaration of Independence, they were committing treason and by placing their names on the document, essentially signed a death warrant on themselves.

These days in America it has become popular to denigrate our country's founding fathers, some even calling them evil for owning slaves.

All I can say is America's founding fathers were entirely human, yet they were used by God to create an incredibly strong, free country in which, eventually, ALL men and women could be free.

These flawed men were still great men. There aren't really any great men on the national scene in America right now.

We sure could use a couple more visionaries of the stature of Washington, Jefferson, and Franklin today.


Neither John McCain nor Barack Obama even come close.

Bumper Sticker Humor

Yeah, I keep up with the news and what is going on in the world and, possibly most damaging, the current US presidential race, so that has a tendency to have me in a negative frame of mind.

Keeping up with world events and news is not a recipe for happiness.

But yesterday I got a small reminder that my sense of humor still functions.

I was about to turn north on to the death trap that is Interstate Highway 95, and I was behind a pickup truck with the following lone bumper sticker:

Women Love Me and
Fish Fear Me

I know I looked like a dummy sitting there laughing while driving along, but that snapped me out of a foul mood.

Well, I thought it was funny.

Several years ago I saw a man in his truck with a bumper sticker that said: Fish Tremble At The Sound Of My Name and I laughed at that one too, because I mentally pictured fish trembling.

But for my life lately, I've been more like the unfunny bumper sticker I saw one time that said: Losing My Faith In Humanity, One Person At A Time. That one is sorta funny, but mostly sad and depressing, but it pretty much is how I feel after keeping up with current news and world events.

Maybe I need to stop caring about so much that I cannot possibly change,and just learn to live in a personal life bubble as small as I can possibly get by with.

I'll probably be much happier that way.

Here's a purdy picture.