Recently McClatchy Newspapers columnist Steven Thomma wrote an article headlined “Nation’s mood swings to anger.” The sub-headlines and bold quotes were “Americans’ discontent with Democrats carries over from Bush policies,” and “If the election were held today, the Democratic losses would be huge.”

My reaction to these statements is that I find it idiotic for the American public to blame the Democrats for the crises that the Republicans have created. It is a grave disappointment to me that any American can be so stupid. I know it’s politically incorrect to use the “stupid” word, but it is time for liberals to start speaking their convictions.

The “anger” we see reported by the media comes from a very small minority of “well-organized” conservatives who have “stolen” the liberal tactic of peaceful dissent and perverted it to new “violent” levels. Carrying guns is not only a statement, but also a threat of violence that breaks the sanctity of our freedom of speech.

The depth of anger is overblown by the media, and the direction from which the anger flows is greatly misrepresented. There is a hundred thousand times as much anger directed toward the capitalists who created this mess than directed toward the present administration that is trying to fix it.

The conservative backlash organizations are made up of core groups funded by capitalists and peopled by ignorant “poor folks” (Non PC again) who think that, by supporting capitalism, they will, themselves, become rich. These demonstrators have taken the free-speech tactics that they ridiculed for so many years, and are now using them in new, deceptive and mean-spirited ways.

I must argue that our hard earned freedom of speech was never meant to give us the freedom to lie! Liberals have a tendency to tell the truth to support their ideals; conservatives have a tendency to lie to protect their economic status or religious convictions.

The health care issue is a sad example of the way in which this country is being deceived by those who have monetary motives. The only reason we don’t have a public health care system in this country like every other industrial nation, is the greed of a minority of rich people who think they are entitled to lie, cheat and steal. Because they have the money, they have the media voice, and the poor in this country are foolishly cutting their own throats by believing them.

The Republicans are now talking about a revolution, but their revolution is focused toward giving more control to the capitalist dictatorship that got us in this soup. The conservative revolution is exactly the opposite of the revolution Jefferson said should take place periodically. A democratic revolution frees most people; a capitalist revolution oppresses most people.

I don’t believe that the Democrats are always right; they tend to compromise too often and pander to big business. I feel that a straight liberal agenda is better for the majority of people. And, after all, we are a democracy, and our government is supposed to be for the people, of and by the people.

To the “undecided” in the middle that flop back and forth, one time voting for Republicans, and the next time, Democrats, I ask, what is wrong with you? Don’t you know what side your bread is buttered on? If you think the capitalists are going to help you get rich, you underestimate their spirit of competition. There are just so many stalls in the executive bathroom.

Liberals should be proud of that designation because the liberal intellect demands that we seek the truth. And, as far as our inability to get through to the mass of “undecided,” do not falter or be timid, speak the truth with conviction, loud and clear. Never be conservative with the truth nor aggressive in deceit, as the other side.

Legitimize it, Mon! by John McCleary

If the question of legalizing marijuana were based solely on how dangerous it was, it would have been legalized long ago. With pot, there are diverse groups and divergent opinions about its status. In other words, the process is not as simple as if we were arguing the risks of poking oneself in the eye with a sharp stick.

Marijuana is illegal, not because of any medicinal or mental hazards; it is an economic dilemma, a political issue and a religious theme. The objections many people have are on moral and/or economic grounds.

All of the references to deaths created by marijuana are bogus fear tactics. Here are the most recent statistics on approximate deaths relating to drugs, each year, in America. (The News Tribune, Tacoma, WA)

Tobacco kills 435,000

Alcohol kills 85,000

Secondhand smoke from tobacco kills 50,000

Cocaine kills 3,000

Heroin kills 1,500

Aspirin kills 500

Marijuana kills 0

The Federal government has classified marijuana as a Schedule 1 drug, in the same category as heroin. This insinuates that marijuana is even more dangerous than cocaine, which is classified as a Schedule 2 drug.

Sure, marijuana has its dangerous aspects; you could choke on the baggie. You could smoke so much that you might fall asleep at the wheel of your car. That is, if you could find your car.

The bottom line is that many self-indulgences can kill you or make you do stupid things. People eat themselves to death; starve themselves to death, drink to death, and jump out of airplanes with a scrap of cloth on their backs. Some folks even shoot themselves to death with their own Second Amendment rights.

All of the arguments for or against legalizing marijuana can be synthesized into a battle of conservative versus liberal ideology. Add the economic factor, and it becomes a conflict between capitalist businessmen and the working class “Joe.” Introduce religion, and it deteriorates into a debate over what morality is and who holds the patent on it.

My take on the morality issue is that it is actually just a way for some people to maintain control over other people. Economic or religious dominance and power is an aphrodisiac to some people who are insecure. Megalomania is, after all, one of the most destructive illnesses in this society.

The marijuana debate is between capitalists, Christian fundamentalists and family values people against the live-and-let-live working-class and/or liberal folks. I have no argument with family values; I just want to know whose family values we are talking about and whether or not I will be forced to change my family’s values just to live on the same planet with them.

We must remember, during all of this debate, that this country is a democracy…. No, it is actually the first real democracy, and by most accounts a wondrous creation. So, any time you are intolerant, prejudiced, or arrogant, you behavior is un-American.

And about religion…? I don’t want to get bogged down in the religious issue over marijuana because it offers no answers. The debate over self-indulgence verses self-flagellation has already been beaten to death. (Pun intended.) It is impossible to argue against a religious opinion, not because it is always right, but because it is based on faith; therefore, there is no way to prove it right or wrong.

An aspect more fiscally relevant to the legalization of marijuana, and one that is often ignored, is the basic fear held by many capitalists that marijuana will cause them to loss their passive, subservient and cheaply acquired workforce. Cannabis is a mind-expander, and we know from history that the “Fathers of Industry” don’t want their workers thinking too much.

Alcohol is a pacifier for the masses; marijuana is a liberator of the masses. During the industrial revolution, corporate bosses learned that they could tranquilize their employees by building bars and taverns outside their factories. At the end of each day, the tired and disgruntled workers leaving their assembly lines would be greeted outside the gates by a drinking establishment, often owned by their employer. They would imbibe and forget their pains and woes and trudge back to work the next day!

Marijuana, a mind-expander, makes the user think deeply about his existence and sometimes perpetrates changes in life and directions. The capitalist system does not appreciate such revolutionary thoughts and abrupt actions. It is hard to market your product to a moving target…. It is impossible to control a fertile mind.

Some of the loudest objections and biggest obstacles to marijuana legalization come from the legal, law enforcement, and penal systems. One wonders if they honestly oppose it because it would create more crime or really oppose it because it would reduce crime, thus decreasing their income or eliminating their jobs.

It is interesting to note that this subject, the legalizing of marijuana, is the one thing upon which the drug cartels and the legal system agree. They both oppose it. It would equally impact them both.

At this time, marijuana occupies the same place that alcohol did during prohibition of the 1920s. Any activity at the fringe of society will always appear immoral, sinful or unmarketable. Alcohol prohibition produced the mafia; today, marijuana and the “war on drugs” have created organized drug crime and made criminals of many otherwise ”God-fearing,” ordinary people who are just trying to make it through life.

Legitimizing something puts it in proper perspective. Then, at least we can start dealing with the good and the bad of it, and then it will not defeat us

Mankind is a strangely pragmatic creature. If we ignore something, it will not go away, it will just have more power over us because we have not acknowledged it and then dealt with it. Human beings are problem solvers; we were never meant to turn from the unknown, to ignore an issue or deny a problem.

I don’t want to appear as though I’m beating this into your consciousness, but most everyone is addicted to something, and we can’t insolate them all from their demons. Yet it is our “pleasure” and our obligation as a society to protect others from life’s dangers that, often, eventually spill over into the lives of the rest of us.

Marijuana is not even in the top 100 problems of this society. And there are those of us who think that the application of a little THC into our gray matter might just solve at least 95 of those problems.

Legalize it, mon!

By John McCleary, author of The Hippie Dictionary: A Cultural Encyclopedia of the 1960s and 1970s

Woodstock: 40 years of Peace & Music (3) (1361 words)

The Woodstock Music Festival: 3 Days of Peace & Music, held on August 15, 16 and 17, 1969, was the public, official unveiling of new ideals for a better human future. If you don’t believe that, then you haven’t been paying attention to the world around you since that weekend.

If you realize, as most intelligent people, that greed, intolerance and prejudice are the primary flaws of the human race, then you must agree that Woodstock was a glimpse back into, and a promise of, The Garden of Eden again.

Of course, The Garden of Eden is a spiritual ideal that most cultures adhere to, yet few people think is possible to achieve again. But many of us of the hippie era believe that reaching The Garden is possible with the potential intellectual capabilities mankind possesses.

Joni Mitchell wrote the song “Woodstock.”

“ I’m going to camp out on the land

I’m going to try an’ get my soul free

We are stardust

We are golden

And we’ve got to get ourselves

Back to the garden”

Joni wasn’t even at Woodstock. She was booked for an appearance on the Dick Cavett TV show that weekend, but she felt the energy of Woodstock. She knew the significance of the emotions that were being explored on Max Yasgur’s farm.

I, too, did not make it to Woodstock, but even though I wasn’t there, it defines me, whether I like it or not! And I don’t object because I wish I had been there, and I do believe in the ideals.

Ideals, you ask? Not music?

Yes, it was about ideals; the music was just the wrapping paper.

Although I missed Woodstock, two years earlier I had been to the Monterey Pop Festival, so I was already initiated into the culture of the “love-in.”

Yes, there is a culture of the love-in, just as there is the culture of golf, NASCAR or dog shows!

Ideals and culture are two words that many people would not associate with Woodstock, yet that event was more about social enlightenment than just a hedonistic party.

Of course, the mainstream media of that time over-emphasized the sex, drugs and rock & roll and downplayed the spiritual and political aspects of the festival. That is the problem with the media’s fixation on sensationalism and titillation; they often throw the diamonds out with the pebbles.

After Woodstock and throughout the 1960’s and 70s hippie era, the news media continued to trash the counterculture because of the sex, drugs, and rock & roll. They ignored all of the positive things that came out of the hippie mentality, such as the civil rights, anti-war, ecology, women’s and men’s lib, healthy food, exercise, and self-help movements.

Ridicule of the “Counterculture of Peace and Love” continues today, unabated by the truth of its accomplishments. Without the Woodstock Nation, 1984 would have happened, Oprah would not have her job, Obama wouldn’t be President, and we would all be fat, lazy and breathing dirty air.

Woodstock, now 40 years past, was the beginning of the end of self-imposed ignorance. Few other moments in time have publicized, legitimized and strengthened human goodwill, brotherhood and positive action more than the Woodstock Festival.

If you consider Woodstock, an event that was dedicated to sex, drugs, rock & roll, peace, art, multiculture and tolerance; and compare it to a golf tournament, an event dedicated to sex, drugs, money, fashion and exclusion; or NASCAR racing, an event dedicated to sex, drugs, money, adrenalin and automobile violence, which one of these most exemplifies positive cultural ideals? Alcohol is a drug, by the way, and if you don’t understand the sex connection, then you don’t realize that anytime men compete with guitars, clubs or cars, sex is involved.

Money does not wash away sin or buy your way to heaven; in fact, it carries germs, both biological and philosophical. The only recorded instance of Jesus getting mad was at the moneychangers, in the temple.

Competition and violence are valid only in the jungle…. Real civilized human beings negotiate peace, so that our society can remain in one piece.

I’m not trying to insinuate that counterculture activities are more moral than golf or NASCAR… or perhaps I am. But no one will be commemorating a NASCAR weekend or a golf tournament 40 years from now.

If Woodstock had been merely about sex, drugs and rock & roll, then people would not still be talking and writing about it 40 years later. If that weekend had just been a big kegger, it wouldn’t have changed people’s lives as it did. Sure, the sex changed lives. A good number of people became pregnant that weekend, but it was the enlightenment of the festival that lives on in so many people who attended and who were there in spirit.

The thing about Woodstock that makes it eternal is that it was a turning point in mankind’s evolution. Yes, I can hear the dropping of false teeth all over the world at that statement! But if you don’t think that’s true, then you’ve had your head in the sand since then.

Mankind has been playing the same games of competitive economics, war, politics, violent religion and deadly entertainment since the dawn of history. Starting around 1967, “The Summer of Love,” alternatives arose, experiments in new lifestyles appeared and softer, kinder answers were considered.

At the risk of appearing “new age,” cosmic or politically naive, I will say with conviction that peace and love are nothing to laugh at. The only thing of more serious concern to the survival of mankind is protecting our environment, another focus of the hippie movement that was brought to the attention of the world at Woodstock.

“If someone thinks that love and peace is a cliché that must have been left behind in the ‘60s, that’s his problem. Love and peace are eternal.” John Lennon

The hippie era was the world’s intellectual renaissance. A lot of people missed it, and I feel sorry for them. But those still alive may have time to plug in and help accomplish the dreams of the Woodstock Nation.

Hippies, today, are actually in jeopardy of becoming the mainstream and the dominant culture. But don’t worry, their wisdom will not allow them to cave-in to the pressures of the dark side. The counterculture is constantly moving on, re-discovering the high road, avoiding the stereotype. We move because the “deceivers” are also in motion, and we must stay ahead. To some, we are the whiners, but we are those who guard the world from complacence, from marching blindly and quietly to the slaughter.

Woodstock was not nirvana, of course; after all, it was a human event, and humans have polluted almost everything they have touched up ‘til now. We are frail because of our ego. But Woodstock was a new beginning, a glimmer of the possibilities, and we have been working on our return to the Garden of Eden ever since.

The counterculture that arose in the 1960s is still here, older and wiser, and continually committed to peace, love, tolerance and social commitment…and, yes, sex, drugs, and rock & roll! And the mainstream media, driven by advertising dollars, continues to be committed to the rejection of these ideals.

To put the festival in historic and sociologic perspective, four weeks before Woodstock, the first man, Neil Armstrong, walked on the moon. Eight days before the festival the Manson family killed Sharon Tate and six other people. Over 50,000 U.S. troops were dead in Vietnam, and the President of the United States was considering dropping nuclear weapons on North Vietnam. In that war, approximately 57,000 American troops and 1,500,000 Vietnam solders and civilians died. It was a time of incredible accomplishments of mankind and of horrible examples of man’s seemingly unshakable ugliness.

I suggest at this time of the 40^th anniversary of Woodstock that we all reflect on the things that were started that weekend and renew our efforts to reach human perfection and The Garden again. Thank your God for that event, and pray to whatever deity you believe in that the dreams of peace and love will come true.

By John Bassett McCleary
Excerpt from a future article

Some people say that the whole world is driven by the American economy.  True, to a point.  But first I must say that the real driver is American capitalism and our consumer materialism.  Add to that the US advertising industry pushing false prosperity around the world, and you will see that the direction in witch our economy is driving the world is over the edge of a deep chasm.
What should be driving the world’s economy are people’s necessities and a little extra for entertainment.  The American dream was not to reach gluttony, but that is what it has become, and we have infected the rest of the world.
What capitalists don’t realize, and I hope they are ignorant and not just callous, is that their money-religion has corrupted the world’s natural economic equality, and is polluting the morality of mankind as well as the ecosystem of the world.  Wow, what a trifecta of crimes!
The balance of world economy comes down to an ancient Greek morality that states:  “All business deals should be equitable to both parties.”  And I add:  “Or else they are just common robbery.”
What capitalists did not foresee was the day when their avarice for more profits would finally milk the working class dry of money to buy the products and pay the mortgage.  This is what has happened in America.
In the past, capitalists have banked on consumers from other countries.  But then what happens when all the capitalists in the world have banded together and milked dry all the customers and workers of the world?  Is this what is happening now?
I find it an odd twist of fate that the global economy most American capitalists desire also leaves these capitalists vulnerable to global economic downturns.  It works to the American industries’ favor to forsake their own American workers and market, if they have a market, in another part of the world.  But, if the economy of the world is tied together, and capitalism is doing the same in all countries, then the economy will dry up everywhere.

By John Bassett McCleary
Excerpt from a future article

At no time in the history of humankind has it been more important for all of us to join together for mutual benefit… or, actually, for survival itself.   Not since Homo sapiens were a small tribe, banding together to fight-off saber-toothed tigers and hunt mammoths for sustenance, have we been more in danger of extinction.
Today, an us-against-them mentality is perpetrated by the capitalist ego and Christian work ethic.  This might be appropriate in a world where our only contract with other tribes was an occasional battle over food or mates, but not today when we are affected by the trials and troubles of every other country.  Economies, wars, diseases and famine anywhere in the world cause ripples that reach us.  Our market catches a cold if another country’s economy sneezes.  And it goes both ways.

This present worldwide economic meltdown should teach us something about our vulnerability to economic problems elsewhere in the world.  It is a dangerous mistake to continue to promote our own economic, political and social sovereignty.

Most American Capitalists are economically international.  They benefit from a Global economy, whereas the American worker does not.  Aside from cheap foreign goods, which most often break before their time, the American consumer gets little benefit from the world economy as it stands today.

We need a realistic, democratic free trade and employment agreement throughout the world.
I’m not talking about a “NFTA” that benefits big business and screws workers or favors one country and hurts another.  We, in this world, have to start thinking and acting globally.  We must stop looking at other people of the world merely as customers or workforce, and begin thinking of them as brothers and sisters in the same house–this world!
The world’s human population growth has created a crowed and polluted earth that is becoming more endangered everyday.  This overpopulation means we are influenced and affected by the activities of more and more people all the time.
We can’t ignore other cultures anymore.  We should have also learned by now that we cannot change other cultures.  Short of killing them all, I guess we are going to have to find some way to live peacefully with everyone else.  So let’s talk!
The growth of governments and society, and their involvement in our lives, is directly related to the increase in world population.  When the human population was smaller, we lived in small family groups and then tribes, clans, villages, states, and on to countries as our populations and common needs grew.  It is natural to band together into larger, mutually beneficial groups.  The European Union has done it; soon, a World government will be necessary.
We should begin now to think of the sovereignty of the world. Soon, it will become mandated by the problems that we have ignored for so long.

By John Bassett McCleary
Excerpt from
The Sexual Documentary of a Young Man

Professing moral laws, then breaking those laws and denying it, is much more sinful and damaging than doing what you want to do and accepting responsibility for your actions. In essence you are contradicting yourself and making a lie of your convictions.
If you place moral restrictions on yourself and others, saying that they come from God, and then break those rules yourself, you are sinning against your own God, mankind and yourself.

In recent editorials in newspapers that will remain nameless, columnists who will remain nameless wrote about the sexual indiscretions of politicians, past and present.  These columnists gave lip service to hypocrisy when talking about a recent sexual escapade by a conservative, “family values” senator who has been known for his moral indignation toward the sexual actions of others.
These conservative columnists were less concerned about the man’s hypocrisy than what they called “the lower nature that resides in all of us.”  By this, of course, they implied that sex is a sinful, subhuman activity.
These writers made the same mistake most people do when confronted by “sexual indiscretions.”   They missed the point that sex is not really a sin when compared to hypocrisy.  Deception, not sex, is the true “lower nature” that resides in mankind.
Sex is no more a sin than breathing in and out.  All animals do it, and must do it to live.  How we treat sex, how we react to it, and how we behave with our partners determines whether it is a sin.
Demonizing sex is the first mistake our society makes in raising its children.  Make kids ashamed of the origin of their birth, mix in a lot of hypocrisy about the fact that we shouldn’t live with sex and can’t live without it, and then send them off to have a happy life.  Sure, that makes a lot of sense!
It was evident during the sexual revolution that some people became jealous of others who were having more fun than they were.  The counterculture was enjoying itself, and that gave straight society more reason to dislike it.
It’s almost as if some people are afraid to feel good.  It’s a religious thing; their churches and pastors have told them that certain activities are sinful.   If these activities happen to be fun, this automatically creates jealousy in the abstainer when he sees other people indulging.
People hate their own weakness, fear their desires and then transfer that fear and hatred into indignation directed at those who are doing what they can’t do because of religious commitments.  In self-defense, they choose to ridicule, and even hate, those who are not living by the same restrictions by which they are controlled.
The next step for these people is to isolate this activity, this “sin,” in which “they don’t indulge,” as something only other people do.  In their minds they believe that they are not capable of committing that sin; only other people do it.  So when they do indulge in that sin or a deviation of it, which they most often do eventually, they can lie to themselves and pretend that what they are doing is actually something else which is not really sinful.
These self-righteous people will often continue to condemn others for these sins while they, themselves, are performing them.  This, of course, is hypocrisy, and hypocrisy is actually a sin worse than the sex itself.
When people lie to themselves, they perform the worst of mankind’s sins.  They are lowering humanity and denying the common sense that God gave us as his greatest gift to mankind.  If you say one thing and do another, that is deception of yourself and denial of your own common sense.   If you place moral restrictions on yourself and others, saying that they come from God, and then break those rules yourself, you are sinning against your own God, mankind and yourself.
People who write columns in newspapers or make commentary on radio or TV owe nothing to the public but clarity.   What they have to say is their own opinion.  It is up to the reader or listener to glean their own opinion or take what information they can from what is said.
Lying to the public is not uncommon.  Shock!   Commentators do it all the time.  Often, they do not even know they are lying, and I give them the benefit of the doubt for that.  Passing misinformation by accident is a major industry in the media.
Most editorialists believe in what they say.  Their information may be lacking, and their idealism may be skewed from a strange perspective, but most still think that they are telling the truth.
I become indignant when I feel that a columnist is merely writing what his boss, political peers or the public want him to write.   It especially bothers me when his misinformation is destructive to mankind or to our environment.
Editorialists who misinform are seldom exposed during their lifetime.  Anything can be spun into the truth.  But, if you believe in heaven and hell, and preach them in your media commentary, you better have your hypocrisy squeaky clean when you meet with St. Peter at the Golden Gates!

By John Bassett McCleary
Written  11/1/08

Screw political correctness if it gets in the way of communication. . How are we going to confront issues if we can’t use the words? Communication is humankind’s best creation, and it is what will, if that is possible, save humankind from itself.
I am a tolerant person by nature!  Why else did I not go out and assassinate a few politicians in the last few years?  I am tolerant in my actions, but in my words I am politically, drastically incorrect, as is my right according to my Constitutional freedom of speech.
And yet, although I am verbally uncontrollable, I would never, under any circumstances, purposely lie to someone, knowingly deceive them or omit facts that I know would prove me wrong.  It is amazing how many people think that the Constitutional right of freedom of speech means that they have the right to lie!
When you tell the truth, political correctness be damned.  When you’re lying, even if it is oh-so-polite, it is still a lie.
I have no mouth filter. I say what I think!  But, on the other hand, my brain has no chastity belt. It hears everything that comes its way.  You can lie to me, but don’t expect me to believe you.  You cannot lie, even to yourself, in my presence without my disdain.
I am now welling up with indignation.  There is a limit to my tolerance.  When the pig with lipstick looks like a pig with lipstick and sounds like a pig with lipstick, but tells you it is a Polar bear with petroleum investments, it is still a pig, but it is now wearing expensive lipstick.
Its bad enough that the Republicans are lying to us, but what irks me most is that there are people stupid enough to think they are telling the truth.  There, I said it…the stupid word. We’re not supposed to call people stupid, we are supposed to intimate that they are ignorant; but I have observed lately a thing I call self-imposed ignorance; it is basically stupidity.  In this day and age with the massive amounts of media available, it is almost impossible to remain ignorant unless one tries very hard.
John.9.12.08

Guns Do Not Protect Your Family!  Stop using that as an excuse for owning firearms.
Having a gun in your home greatly increases the chances that a family member will die.  It is a fact!
Numbers show us that, for every one criminal who is subdued by a household gun, there are literally hundreds of family members who are killed in gun accidents at home, not to mention all the thousands of friends and family members who are killed with a household gun in fits of passion.
The facts show that you are actually putting your family in peril by owning a gun.  This alone would cause a rational person to dispose of his weapons.  But then, we are not dealing with rational thought, are we?  Let’s face it, we are dealing with the male macho ego.
Don’t use “the right to bear arms” excuse for your reasoning.  Don’t dishonor the fathers of our country by saying that they meant citizens should own half a dozen assault rifles, Mac-10s and nine millimeter semi-automatics.
Don’t offend the writers of the Second Amendment by thinking they intended it to be used to justify the indiscriminate sale of deadly weapons to just about anyone who can pull a trigger.
Please, let’s start thinking with our heads rather than other parts of our anatomy.  If you own guns, you should look deeply inside yourself to see why you really own them.  Understand where this urge for weapons comes from.  Could it be less to protect your family than to enhance your own image?
Men use guns, cars, clothing, sports, bodybuilding, sex, power and money to enhance their image.  It’s part of life, and most of those sublimations are relatively harmless.  But guns are not.
We have supposedly gone beyond the days of the Wild West.  But some men are trying to drag us back into those times when men were measured by the size of their guns.
Wake up!   Having the bigger gun does not make you the bigger man.  It makes you a weak man hiding behind a big gun.  If you have such a fixation, seek help.
Although most women don’t have such fixations, they often humor their men.  Women, tell your men that you like them just as much, maybe even better, without that cold, steel rod.  You may be saving the life of one of your family members.
But, if your man must own a gun, urge him to do so with common sense.  Keep it locked up and unloaded.  Teach every member of your family to treat every gun as if it were loaded, even though it isn’t.  Never ever, ever point a gun at another person unless you wish them dead.
Keep the gun and the ammunition in separate places.  Put the ammunition someplace where anyone looking for it will have plenty of time to think about what they are doing and cool down, if need be.
So you might get robbed, but the chances are greater that you will be saving the life of a family member.
The gun lobbyists say, “If guns are outlawed, then only outlaws will have guns.”  The truth of the matter is that most gun homicides are perpetrated by people who were law-abiding citizens until the moment when they shot someone.  Most gun violence is a crime of opportunity. The availability of so many guns is what makes the criminal and causes the deaths.
I think the NRA is misguided right now, not because they put guns into the hands of criminals, but because they put them into the hands of potential criminals. Remember, keeping one questionable freedom is foolish if it jeopardizes all of our other freedoms combined.  Death ends all your freedom.
When a danger to society is recognized, a rational society will place restrictions on that danger.   We have automobile speed laws, which some people feel infringe on their rights, but these laws save lives.  It’s about time we became civilized and started considering more stringent gun laws, too.
These are only my opinions.  This is a free country, and I have the right to my opinions, as you have the right to yours.  But please, use the gray matter that God gave you, and think about what I have said.  Don’t let your ego kill someone you love.

And you’re a fool if you take what I say without a question.

John McCleary

Some people have no tolerance for those who are homeless, jobless or drug addicted.  There, but for the grace of God and our politicians, go you.  The Christian work ethic becomes an accusation when there is no work to be had.  The American dream is a nightmare when the bed you sleep on can be taken away overnight.
People are falling through the cracks in America because the cracks in our streets and in our society are getting bigger.  Big business, not people, has been the priority of our government.
Those of us who are financially secure may think that social safety nets and the welfare system are give-aways designed for those other people.  Not so! The welfare system was designed to protect anyone in case they fail.  Even you!  And it can happen to you!
The systems that were originally established, with good intentions, by liberal administrations have been in the hands of conservative management for some time now.  Conservative administrations don’t care whether the systems succeed or survive, so, naturally, the systems have diminished and deteriorated.  They are in shambles, and in jeopardy of total failure.
In the past you may have fancied yourself a capitalist, and, therefore, voted for people who said they would cut taxes and reduce government involvement in your life.  But, look around, government hasn’t become smaller during the present administration; it has just become less efficient and more expensive.
What good are low taxes if all the things that make America great are gone?  If our roads, bridges, tunnels and public transportation are falling apart, libraries are closed, schools inefficient and medical care unaffordable, are we really any better off than a third-world country?
Even with the taxes we pay now, which many people think are too high, we pay lower taxes than almost every other industrialized nation.  And, to top it off, we are getting far less proportionately for the taxes that we pay.
Unless you make hundreds of thousand of dollars a year that will continue coming to you even if you are sick or incapacitated, you are not a capitalist, but just another working stiff.  In that case, you need the safety nets and social welfare, just in case.  Except for the very rich, we need a system that protects us from utter destruction if we fall.
In the last decade or so, insiders and wheeler-dealers have taken advantage of the system.  More money has been stolen from the hands of hard working people by doctors in Medicare scams, bankers in credit card schemes, and builders in HUD rip-offs than will ever be taken by homeless people getting handouts on the street.
I don’t condone heroin addiction, but I don’t think that it is any more destructive than a dry martini addiction.  It just happens that this society has chosen to make heroin illegal, but not gin.  Therefore, the sale and use of heroin is outside the law, which increases the price so much that most addicts have to steal, prostitute or panhandle to support their addiction.
Some people have addictions to gambling, credit cards, sports cars or golf.  These addicts are still able to fit unnoticed into “polite” society, but somehow the rest of us end up paying for it anyway.
Don’t look down at those on the streets who have been short-changed by life.  There, but for the grace of God, goes your stockbroker.