New Years Eve-The Last Day of 2012

New Years Eve-The Last Day of 2012

The last day of 2012. I'd like to spend it in bed, but I don't think that is going to work. We are hosting a New Year party tonight. I'm betting I have responsibilities.

The year was not bad for us. We're settling into our new home here in Arkansas. It takes a little getting used to. For one, I'm not used to all the snow. Nine inches recorded at our home, fifteen not far away. That was preceded by at least two inches of ice. Needless to say, it was a mess. The trees took a beating. Our power was out for 21 hours. Some people are still without power. It was a White Christmas. Just what we didn't want.

We redid our finances, preparing for the worst, updated our will, and tried to figure out how to cheat Uncle Sam. So we pretty well have our house in order. Now, for some more New Year Resolutions:

1. I'm going to eat healthier foods. Of course, this assumes there are healthier foods. It's getting harder and harder to figure that out. And I don't count tofo as food.
2. I'd stop making fun of people, but what fun would that be?
3. I'm going to try to stay up later, which means after 9pm. I keep hearing about Jay Leno and David Letterman. It's about time I met them.
4. We moved here for the warmth. The jokes on us. Maybe it's time...
5. I'm going to start my second book. It will have something to do with sex after death.
6. I'm going to try to improve my language. I picked up cussing from my grandfather. He believed cussing kept bad luck away. If it wouldn't have been for that semi, I would almost have believed it.
7. I'm going to be 65 in April. Welcome to Medicare. I'll be an official ward of the state. They say 65 is the new 50. Yea.
8. If this all sounds like the ranting of a 65 year old who is wondering what to do with the rest of his life, well, it pretty much is.

Have a safe, healthy, happy, and prosperous New Year. If we fall off the "fiscal cliff," so what? We weren't living that high up anyway.

2012 Outlined America’s New Political Reality | Common Dreams

2012 Outlined America’s New Political Reality | Common Dreams

Yet the Republicans can still muck up progress.

Some Final Thoughts For 2012

Some Final Thoughts For 2012

1. I believe, when it comes right down to it, that human beings are inherently good and nonviolent by inclination. When you look around, that's definitely an optimistic view. We had a bad year. War continues, more mass shootings, including children, of all things, people throwing others in front of subway cars because of their skin color, the NRA suggesting we put armed guards in all our schools. It can all get disheartening. With the good and responsible, there is always the bad and irresponsible. It can't be any other way. We have to learn from our mistakes, not make further one's.
2. I continue to believe you cannot kill and expect good to come of it.
3. I still don't think foreign terrorists are the most dangerous people we have to worry about. Congress, the Supreme Court, and an ever growing military-industrial complex are much scarier to me. 
4. I don't think the people in Washington are working for our benefit. They can't seem to figure out anything. We have a Democratic President, a Democratic Senate, and a right-wing dominated House that stops everything. That ain't right.
5. Capitalism is becoming more and more troubling. It does not match up well with democracy. Greed and an insatiable thirst for profit undermines an economic system on the brink of collapse. The rich keep getting richer and the poor keep getting poorer, and we act like there is nothing we can do about it.
6. We need to all take an interest in what is happening. The alchemist's job is to stir the pot, hoping to turn the status quo into chaos, allowing something better to emerge. Nothing good ever comes out of sitting on your ass all day moaning about how bad things are.
7. We continue to have no universal health-care system, and fighting in wars that are senseless and ill-conceived. We cannot make any decisions about the economy, what to do about global warming, or how to protect our children or ourselves from harm. We have a right-wing Supreme Court, continue to elect the same yahoo's to represent us, and continue to sell guns and arm idiotic people how think guns will protect us. All in all, we have a lot of improvements to make in 2013.
8. Still, I believe common-sense can prevail. We can right this ship, if we so choose. It will take compromise, compassion, a willingness to be flexible and creative in our problem solving, and will require an unwavering commitment to making the world a better place to live for our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Quote of the Day

“It's a fine line between Saturday night and Sunday morning.”
― Jimmy Buffett

Explaining The Downward Trend of Humanity

Explaining The Downward Trend of Humanity

1. Blame it on the monkeys. If that don't work, blame their cousins, the politicians.
2. It could be the fluoride in the water.
3. I personally think things started going to hell when Jack Benny died.
4. Wal-Mart.
5. Too many people. Not enough disease.
6. Perfumed toilet paper. Makes even assholes smell good.
7. The decline of intelligent sperm.
8. The increasing gap between the rich and the poor. And the rich and the richer.
9. If you take the creation story literally, it's time to rewrite it.
10. When it's all said and done, I think Noah should have left the animals on board and thrown himself over. That would have been a big break for the Earth.

Quote of the Day

"Old age is the most unexpected of all things that can happen to a man."  Leon Trotsky

Peever Law #74

Peever Law #74

A dog is a much better companion than most humans. He won't bite you for no good reason.

NEW YEAR RESOLUTIONS

 Everyone should make some. New Year Resolutions. It is a great opportunity to do some life planning, to set some goals that you can work towards in the coming year. It is a time for renewal. What better way to make yourself depressed than to realize that you have very little control over your life. Still, I think it is worthwhile to get some things down on paper:

I'm going to work on my patience. I have way too much. I've been waiting for Congress to do the right thing for 65 years. It ain't going to happen.

I'm going to learn more about computers. After all, computers are the future. You can do everything and anything from a computer. I heard the other day a guy had sex with a woman in a chat room. And here I am blogging.

I recently made a commitment to change everything I possibly can in a 24 hour period. I started with my underwear. Today I'm going to work on changing people's opinions about war. Most people seem to like war. Once I explain to them how getting shot can really hurt, I'm sure they will change their mind. Later, I'm going to change my socks. Then I'm going to work on changing our health-care system. The fiscal cliff. I already fixed that. Who cares? Most of the country is already over the cliff.

I'm going to try to be more patriotic. I love this country, although there are a few things I would like to see changed, like starting universal health-care, ending corporate control of Washington, protecting individual rights, sending the Supreme Court to Afghanistan, ending corporate welfare, cutting the defense budget in half, and eliminating corporate donations to candidates to zero, and allowing individuals to contribute $20. Other than those things, and maybe a half-dozen others, this place ain't all that bad.

I'm going to try to stop cussing, although I don't see the point of it. Cussing has become quite common. Books, TV, radio, newspapers, school yards, nursery schools. Everybody cusses. The first word me son said was damn. I tried to kid myself into believing he meant dam, like a structure that holds back water, but who was I kidding. The whole "damn" thing still upsets me.

I have to get over being disappointed with ministers. I was almost one myself. I think my disappointment with most reverends has to do with expectations. I expect them to help us with our spirituality, not our ideology, although I do think Christ would have been a liberal Democrat.

Forgiveness is hard. I need to work on forgiveness. Forgiveness is closely linked to forgetting. I'm good at forgetting, but bad at forgiving. A lot of times I forget who I forgave. This can end up being embarrassing. So if I forgave you, but I'm not acting like it, forgive me.

I have to start trusting people more. After 9/11, I have become terrible. I no longer open the mail, which has vicariously helped my financial position, and when my kids call, I make them give me their social security number. The only person I really trust is my wife, which I have no explanation for. I'm beginning to trust people of color a little more, but I can't find any here in the Village. I have flown since 9/11. It wasn't that bad. I was only detained for 24 hours. I think it was the wig and fake beard.

So there, another year of resolutions.I think it will work out fine.

Have a Happy New Year. And remember, if you drink, don't talk.