APOLITICAL APHORISMS

As requests for money increase in fury, and the political scene explodes before our eyes, I thought these Apolitical aphorisms would be a bit of fun. Especially fun for me since I discovered yesterday, I've been the victim of on-line fraud. More on that as I sort through several critical projects. The aphorisms were sent to me in an email and have been around for a longtime. Hope you enjoy them.

If God wanted us to vote, he would have given us candidates.

~Jay Leno~

 The problem with political jokes is they get elected.

~Henry Cate, VII~

 We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office.

~Aesop~

 If we got one-tenth of what was promised to us in these Electionspeeches, there wouldn't be any inducement to go to heaven.

~Will Rogers~ 

 Politicians are the same all over. They promise to build a bridge even where there is no river.

~Nikita Khrushchev~

When I was a boy I was told that anybody could become Prime Minister or Premier; I'm beginning to believe it.

~Clarence Darrow~

Why pay money to have your family tree traced; go into politics and your opponents will do it for you.

~Author unknown~

Politicians are people who, when they see light at the end of the tunnel, go out and buy some more tunnel.

~John Quinton~

 Politics is the gentle art of getting votes from the poor and campaign funds from the rich, by promising to protect each from the other.

~Oscar Ameringer~

 I offer my opponents a bargain: if they will stop telling lies about us, I will stop telling the truth about them.

~Adlai Stevenson, campaign speech, 1952~

 A politician is a fellow who will lay down your life for his country.

~ Tex Guinan~

 I have come to the conclusion that politics is too serious a matter to be left to the politicians.

~Charles de Gaulle~

 Instead of giving a politician the keys to the city, it might be better to change the locks.

~Doug Larson~

 There ought to be one day -- just one -- when there is open season on senators.

~Will Rogers~

BEGGING POLITICIANS OUT IN FORCE.

It is that time of year when politicians are out in force begging for money to keep themselves elected. That money keeps the television and radio stations richer than rich, our elected officials remain greedy, powerful and corrupt, and nothing much changes in government. What a sham. Read columnist Charlie Reese's take on the situation from a few years back. As true today as then.

545 vs. 300,000,000 People
-By Charlie Reese
Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them.
Have you ever wondered, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, WHY do we have deficits?
Have you ever wondered, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, WHY do we have inflation and high taxes?
You and I don't propose a federal budget. The President does.
You and I don't have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations.
The House of Representatives does.
You and I don't write the tax code, Congress does.
You and I don't set fiscal policy, Congress does.
You and I don't control monetary policy, the Federal Reserve Bank does.
One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one President, and nine Supreme Court justices equates to 545 human beings out of the 300 million are directly, legally, morally, and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country.
I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Board because that problem was created by the Congress. In 1913, Congress delegated its Constitutional duty to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered, but private, central bank.
I excluded all the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason. They have no legal authority. They have no ability to coerce a senator, a congressman, or a President to do one cotton-picking thing. I don't care if they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash. The politician has the power to accept or reject it. No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislator's responsibility to determine how he votes.
Those 545 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault. They cooperate in this common con regardless of party.What separates a politician from a normal human being is an excessive amount of gall. No normal human being would have the gall of a Speaker, who stood up and criticized the President for creating deficits.
The President can only propose a budget. He cannot force the Congress to accept it.
The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, gives sole responsibility to the House of Representatives for originating and approving appropriations and taxes. Who is the speaker of the House?
John Boehner. He is the leader of the majority party. He and fellow House members, not the President, can approve any budget they want. If the President vetoes it, they can pass over his veto if they agree to.
It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 300 million cannot replace 545 people who stand convicted -- by present facts -- of incompetence and irresponsibility. I can't think of a single domestic problem that is not traceable directly to those 545 people. When you fully grasp the plain truth that 545 people exercise the power of the federal government, then it must follow that what exists is what they want to exist.
If the tax code is unfair, it's because they want it unfair.
If the budget is in the red, it's because they want it in the red.
If the Army & Marines are in Iraq and Afghanistan it's because they want them in Iraq and Afghanistan ...
If they do not receive social security but are on an elite retirement plan not available to the people, it's because they want it that way.
There are no insoluble government problems.
Do not let these 545 people shift the blame to bureaucrats, whom they hire and whose jobs they can abolish; to lobbyists, whose gifts and advice they can reject; to regulators, to whom they give the power to regulate and from whom they can take this power. Above all, do not let them con you into the belief that there exists disembodied mystical forces like "the economy," "inflation," or "politics" that prevent them from doing what they take an oath to do.
Those 545 people, and they alone, are responsible.
They, and they alone, have the power.
They, and they alone, should be held accountable by the people who are their bosses.
Provided the voters have the gumption to manage their own employees...
We should vote all of them out of office and clean up their mess!
Charlie Reese is a former columnist of the Orlando Sentinel Newspaper.

If everyone of us printed this article out and sent it to every senator and representative in our districts, it might wake them up. But, don't bet the rent.

MONROE FAIR PARADE.

We were on our way to the Library and couldn't get there. We ran into the Monroe Fair Parade, a traditional event held every year at the start of the County Fair.

We were paraded by the Aloha Ladies and their beautiful horses.

A few floats; this one advertising their upcoming Octoberfest.

Various community groups, martial arts...

...a dance group. They were stopped in front of us for awhile and I noticed all the pretty hair-does.  It reminded me of our exchange student from Indonesia who had kinky black hair. We sat in the back row of a church and she pointed out the many colors of hair to me and then became concerned she would be the only student in school with black hair.

I believe the braids are called French braids. I know I envied them on my best friend in grammar school who wore her hair like this. My mom, who is French, could not do french braids.

Politicos were parading, of course we don't vote here. Carolyn let her dog help out.

What's a parade without some neat old cars?

The Harley Club paraded with their hogs.

And various princesses representing their club or group, all unfamiliar to us.

I admire her courage to walk a parade in shoes like these. Only the young.

A marcher gave me a piece of candy and this little girl wanted it. I gave it to her, but what she really wanted was to be able to GIVE a piece to Jim. I guess she thought he was being cheated. Then she hugged him and I got her to pose for a picture.

She turned out to be a real ham and I probably took a dozen pictures of her. That unbridled laugh just makes me smile.

The sun was harsh and overhead for most of the parade. But this group of horsemen were behind us and we caught them catching up to the front.
I noticed the strap of his sombrero held near his mouth.

I'm curious to know why that position instead of under the chin?

Magnificent horses make this parade special. Don't know the breeds by sight, but look at that mane and tail.
This troup danced their horses. You can see the maneuver as the horse is trained to side step and cross a front leg over the other. I've been part of organizing a parade and I was impressed how they do it here. And the cost of insurance to allow horses in a parade is astronomical.

Music provided by a flatbed of singing musicians. I know horses love music. At least, my daughter's horse did. He'd just get silly when someone parked in our pasture and turned on the radio.

Apparently, there is a race track nearby. I noticed that the race cars don't drive the parade. Each one had a black truck with a padded pusher to get them through the parade. Jim told me high performance engines cannot drive and idle at low speeds.

I counted 12 tractors in the parade...
...and one banana.

TIMBER

California's most devastating fire, the Yosemite Rim Fire left millions of board feet of trees lying on the ground. Our local district representative,  McClintock,  pushed to fast track getting that lumber to market before it disintegrated. He pointed out that it would provide jobs and money to locals, open up the mills again and put loggers to work.  Good idea.
In past fires, smaller ones in our county, locals brought out volumes of wood for profit. Volunteers cut up gobs of it for firewood for seniors or people in need. Some of it got to local mills. Some disintegrated on the ground which isn't all bad, since fire blackened areas recuperate faster when the dead timber is left in place, or at least part of it.
Guess what?   SPI went in and machine removed that timber very quickly. It is now sitting on a dock in Stockton to be barged to Oakland to be exported to China and Japan.  So much for opening local mills. There were people who yelled it wouldn't happen when McClintock was making his "heroic pitch." They were right, of course. It is all about big corporate profits, not about local communities.
I love trees and wonder if man has a cog in the brain that dictates let no living thing go untrammeled by we superior beings. The little cog shaped like a dollar sign. It started early, with the giant redwoods. Falling the biggest and most magnificent tree to prove they could do it. The wood unusable because they had no saws or equipment big enough to  handle trees of such size.

Now that we know forests are carbon sinks and necessary to help halt global warming, it doesn't seem to discourage decimating private forest and allowing lumbering on a major scale in National Forests, too. The U.S. Forest Service has sold out to lumber interests all over the country, contrary to what they say.

Politicians see money and workers see job preservation.

There is a 501c3 organization trying to hold up Forest Service Ethics, made up of some Forest Service Employees. Obviously employees serving see a need for this organization or it wouldn't exist.

Homes to critters.

Used as fence posts, here the barbed wire has grown into the tree. Some cottonwood trees in plains states are cut, put into the ground immediately, take root and grow into a living fence.

Enjoy them while you can and remember to protect these wonders of nature if you have an opportunity. I burn wood, but I hate cutting trees and only burn what gets damaged by storms and fits in my stove. I rarely have a fire to clear brush or dead wood, only twice in over 30 years.   I leave most of it on the ground to naturally decay. Many others do the same, or hire a chipper.

TRANSITIONING LIFESTYLES.

Normally, if I'm a member of an organization, I like to contribute  by attending meetings, taking on a job and helping out. Because of my traveling lifestyle, I make it to two or three meetings a year. I enjoy that Len, a club stalwart, is always there to play music while others chat and visit. He learned to play accordion as a child and transferred that to piano and organ. He played When The Saints Come Marching In for me.


Club members are a fun bunch and my dinner partner, Earl Randall, worked in Judge Connit's court, Alameda County,  and knew practically everyone in the Sheriff's Department that I knew, including having met my husband and his best friend Jack Baugh. It is such a small world. The Elks Club Dinner was Wednesday night.


Last night, Suzy and Ron Hayes, invited Karen and I to have dinner with them before I leave today. I could not ask for better neighbors and I treasure them.


Ron and I share similar philosophies of life and we like to rail against our ineffective politicians as in fire them all and start over. I always tease Suzy that I'm going to marry him when she's done with him.


Karen and I usually have one dinner together. I try to see all of my friends when I get home. I managed pretty well this time despite unexpected issues to take care of.  Karen often cooks dinner and brings me a plate to share. She took me out for tacos at Sidewinder, but as close as we are, living in the same house, we didn't manage a sit down dinner together until we got to Suzys.

Today, I leave for Incline Village to have a belated Christmas with my family since not everyone could make it to Calaveras County in December. We've rented a condo and almost everyone skis. Ahh! The card games and cooking together, the loud banter, just seeing everyone under one roof is very precious to me.  Then, transitioning to my rambling life with Jim and leaving the busy chaos of home behind for a while. I'm grateful to have such plenteous choices and two distinct lifestyles.

HOW TO BECOME A POLITICIAN

I get discouraged when I read the headlines each morning and learn what the baboons who are supposedly leading this great country to salvation  have been up to on the many fronts of our “uncivil war”. We, the people are losing this war, there is no doubt about that.  But, now and again, levity comes in my email and instead of ranting, as I’m want to do, I thought I’d reprint this illuminating answer to a question posed to a master politician. It comes at a time when my brother is running for congress, so I have to laugh as I present this piece from the Texas Archives. Don’t know who dug it up but I thank her/him.

In 1952, Armon M. Sweat, Jr. a member of the Texas House of Representatives, was asked about his position on whiskey. Here is his answer:

“If you mean whiskey, the devils brew, the poison scourge, the bloody monster that defiles innocence, dethrones reason, destroys the home, creates misery and poverty, yea, literally takes the bread from the mouths of little children; if you mean that evil drink that topples Christian men and women from the pinnacles of righteous and gracious living into the bottomless pit of degradation, shame, despair, helplessness, and hopelessness, then, my friend I am opposed to it with every fiber of my being.”
“However, if by whiskey you mean the lubricant of conversation, the philosophic juice, the elixir of life, the liquid that is consumed when good fellows get together, that puts a song in their hearts and the warm glow of contentment in their eyes; if you mean Christmas cheer, the stimulating sip that puts a little spring in the step of an elderly gentleman on a frosty morning; if you mean that drink that enables him to magnify his joy, and to forget life’s great tragedies and heartbreaks and sorrow; if you mean that drink the sale of which pours into Texas treasuries untold millions of dollars each year, that provides tender care for our crippled children, our blind, our deaf, our dumb, our pitifully aged and infirm, to build the finest highways, hospitals, universities, and community colleges in this nation, then my friend, I am absolutely, unequivocally in favor of it.  
This is my position and as always, I refuse to compromise on matters of principal.”

BROKEN DISHES AND A COOKING LESSON

In a continuation of yesterday's blog, we left the market place and loaded into a colorful canopied passenger boat into the canal. Again, the contrasts of beautiful teak wood homes built next to tin shacks struck us. The monitor lizard above sunned himself in front of a rich "politicians" house. Panu told us they eat rats. All on the boat agreed the monitor choose the right house. The Thais feel the same way about their politicians as we do, it seems. The canal was built to help prevent flooding. Below we que-ed up to pass through the locks on our way to our home cooked lunch.

Meet Toon, a retired government employee who lives in an expanding compound of family residences and entertains tourists such as we with her engaging personality and authentic Thai cooking. We were introduced to the main herbs and spices used in Thai cooking.
Here fellow travelers, Phyllis Saul and Roberta Berman pound the chilies in a mortar. The dried chilies were soaked for several hours to soften them before grinding.
Then Mason and I were enlisted to grind lemon grass, ginger, shallots, Kaffir lime skin and corriander root into the chili paste.

Sy Shames stirred the paste with oil, then garlic, shrimp paste and chicken broth before the long beans were added. The final seasong Kaffir lime leaf, fish sauce, and sugar. One of the best meals we had on the trip. Fresh, home cooked on an outdoor gas fired wok.


Our next stop was the broken dishes temple. Well, The Temple of Dawn is the correct name. It seems a merchant ordered a load of ceramic dishes from China. When the boat arrived, the load had shifted and much of the order was broken. He sought permission of the king to return the load without payment. The king, before the word public relations was coined, decided it would make everyone unhappy, after all the work and a long journey. The King decided to buy the broken dishes and use them to decorate an old temple that was in need of renovation. I truly love the peaceable philosophy of the Thai. The results below.


Our next stop on the canal was the Royal Barge Museum. These awesome barges are used on cermonial days or any special event. They carry the King, the family or any special dignitary. At one time a new barge was built for every major event. Now, to reduce costs, the barges are used over and over again. Like the temple they are encrusted with broken pieces of glass to add shine along with the gold paint that is typical of temples, gates and anything royal. Beautiful. The prow figures all have special meaning and in olden times were meant to intimidate their enemies in time of war.

Our last stop of the day was the Tailor shop. Here the proprietor shows a sample of a silk jacket. They can be special ordered, measured to fit properly at a reasonable cost. One traveler order two jackets and three pairs of pants. Lovely stuff.
After dinner, our troop visited theBangkok night market. Mason and I were weary and hit the mattress.
The menu and recipe for the Long Bean and Tofu.
Cucumber Soup, Chicken Salad, Stir fried young lufa with egg, Stir fried Chili Paste with Long Bean and Tofu.
5 pieces Dried Chili, 2 Tspns sliced Galangal Ginger,2 Tspns, sliced lemon grass, 1 Tspn Kaffir Lime Skin, 1 Tspn Coriander root, 2 Tspn sliced shallots, 3 Tspn sliced garlic, 1 tsp shrimp aste, 2 Tspns Kaffir Lime Leaf. Follow the directions above and flavor with 2 Tspns fish sauce and 2 Tspns sugar. Add stir fried tofu and serve. Yum.