opinion

IT IS HARD TO STAY POSITIVE

These are just the ones I remember at the time. The current time does not cultivate positive thoughts. During these times it is easy to be consumed by all these negative events and the need to think of positive thoughts is needed more than ever.

 If you are married think of how lucky you are to have a wife to share your good and bad times. Think of your children and grandchildren that have brought you many good memories to reminisce about. We all have health problems occasionally, but one can look around and always find an example that has more health problems than you do. How many times did you go to bed hungry or cold last month? If you believe in a Supreme Being, remember to thank for all you have, not what you would like to have. This country is a blessed country and that is why millions want to immigrate to the promised land of the United States of America.  

THINK POSITIVE! 

A spooky scenerio
I don’t know if this is true, but it is spooky.
 
You’re sound asleep when you hear a thump outside your bedroom door.
Half-awake, and nearly paralyzed with fear, you hear muffled whispers.
At least two people have broken into your house and are moving your way.
With your heart pumping, you reach down beside your bed and pick up your shotgun.
You rack a shell into the chamber, then inch toward the door and open it.
In the darkness, you make out two shadows.
One holds something that looks like a crowbar.
When the intruder brandishes it as if to strike, you raise the shotgun and fire.
The blast knocks both thugs to the floor.
One writhes and screams while the second man crawls to the front door and lurches outside.
As you pick up the telephone to call police, you know you’re in trouble.
In your country, most guns were outlawed years before, and the few that are privately owned are so stringently regulated as to make them useless..
Yours was never registered.
Police arrive and inform you that the second burglar has died.
They arrest you for First Degree Murder and Illegal Possession of a Firearm.
When you talk to your attorney, he tells you not to worry: authorities will probably plea the case down to manslaughter.
“What kind of sentence will I get?” you ask.
“Only ten-to-twelve years,” he replies, as if that’s nothing.
“Behave yourself, and you’ll be out in seven.”
The next day, the shooting is the lead story in the local newspaper.
 
Somehow, you’re portrayed as an eccentric vigilante while the two men you shot are represented as choirboys.
Their friends and relatives can’t find an unkind word to say about them..
Buried deep down in the article, authorities acknowledge that both “victims” have been arrested numerous times.
But the next day’s headline says it all:  “Lovable Rogue Son Didn’t Deserve to Die.”
The thieves have been transformed from career criminals into Robin Hood-type pranksters..
As the days wear on, the story takes wings.
The national media picks it up, then the international media.
The surviving burglar has become a folk hero.
Your attorney says the thief is preparing to sue you, and he’ll probably win.
The media publishes reports that your home has been burglarized several times in the past and that you’ve been critical of local police for their lack of effort in apprehending the suspects.
After the last break-in, you told your neighbor that you would be prepared next time.
The District Attorney uses this to allege that you were lying in wait for the burglars.
A few months later, you go to trial.
The charges haven’t been reduced, as your lawyer had so confidently predicted.
When you take the stand, your anger at the injustice of it all works against you..
Prosecutors paint a picture of you as a mean, vengeful man.
It doesn’t take long for the jury to convict you of all charges.
The judge sentences you to life in prison.
This case really happened.
On August 22, 1999, Tony Martin of Emneth, Norfolk , England , killed one burglar and wounded a second.
In April, 2000, he was convicted and is now serving a life term…
How did it become a crime to defend one’s own life in the once great British Empire ?
It started with the Pistols Act of 1903.
This seemingly reasonable law forbade selling pistols to minors or felons and established that handgun sales were to be made only to those who had a license.
The Firearms Act of 1920 expanded licensing to include not only handguns but all firearms except shotguns..
Later laws passed in 1953 and 1967 outlawed the carrying of any weapon by private citizens and mandated the registration of all shotguns.
Momentum for total handgun confiscation began in earnest after the Hungerford mass shooting in 1987.
Michael Ryan, a mentally disturbed man with a Kalashnikov rifle, walked down the streets shooting everyone he saw.
When the smoke cleared, 17 people were dead.
The British public, already de-sensitized by eighty years of “gun control”, demanded even tougher restrictions. (The seizure of all privately owned handguns was the objective even though Ryan used a rifle.)
Nine years later, at Dunblane, Scotland, Thomas Hamilton used a semi-automatic weapon to murder 16 children and a teacher at a public school.
For many years, the media had portrayed all gun owners as mentally unstable, or worse, criminals.
Now the press had a real kook with which to beat up law-abiding gun owners.
Day after day, week after week, the media gave up all pretense of objectivity and demanded a total ban on all handguns.
The Dunblane Inquiry, a few months later, sealed the fate of the few side arms still owned by private citizens.
During the years in which the British government incrementally took away most gun rights, the notion that a citizen had the right to armed self-defense came to be seen as vigilantism.
Authorities refused to grant gun licenses to people who were threatened, claiming that self-defense was no longer considered a reason to own a gun.
Citizens who shot burglars or robbers or rapists were charged while the real criminals were released.
Indeed, after the Martin shooting, a police spokesman was quoted as saying, “We cannot have people take the law into their own hands.”
All of Martin’s neighbors had been robbed numerous times, and several elderly people were severely injured in beatings by young thugs who had no fear of the consequences.
Martin himself, a collector of antiques, had seen most of his collection trashed or stolen by burglars.
When the Dunblane Inquiry ended, citizens who owned handguns were given three months to turn them over to local authorities.
Being good British subjects, most people obeyed the law.
The few who didn’t were visited by police and threatened with ten-year prison sentences if they didn’t comply.
Police later bragged that they’d taken nearly 200,000 handguns from private citizens.
How did the authorities know who had handguns?
The guns had been registered and licensed.
Kind of like cars. Sound familiar?
WAKE UP AMERICA ; THIS IS WHY OUR FOUNDING FATHERS PUT THE SECOND AMENDMENT IN OUR CONSTITUTION.
“…It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people’s minds..” –Samuel Adams
If you think this is important, please forward to everyone you know.
You had better wake up, because Obama is doing this very same thing, over here, if he can get it done
 
The UN Small Arms Treaty that Hilary is negotiating would take away our 2nd Amendment rights.
And there are stupid people in congress and on the street that will go right along with him.
——————————————————————————————————————-
Just remember – the reason the Japanese didn’t invade the USA is because they knew that Most of the Citizens were armed.

How to fix Congress

*The 26th amendment (granting the right to vote for

18 year-olds) took only 3 months & 8 days to be

ratified!  Why?  Simple!  The people demanded it.  That

was in 1971… before computers, before e-mail, before

cell phones, etc.

Of  the 27 amendments to the Constitution, seven (7)

took 1 year or less to become the law of the  land…

all because of public pressure.*

*I’m asking each addressee to forward this email to a

minimum of twenty people on their address list;  in

turn ask each of those to do likewise.

In three days, most people in The United States of

America will have the message.  This is one idea that

really should be passed around.

Congressional Reform Act of  2011

1.  No Tenure / No Pension. A  Congressman collects a

salary while in office and receives no pay when they

are out of office.

2..  Congress (past, present & future) participates in

Social Security. All funds in the Congressional retirement

fund move to the Social Security system immediately.

All  future funds flow into the Social Security system,

and Congress participates with the American people. 

It may not be used for any other purpose.*

*3. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan,

just as all Americans
do.*

*4. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise.

Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.*

*5. Congress loses their current health care system and

participates
in the same health care system as the American people.*

*6. Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose

on the American
people.*

*7. All contracts with past and present Congressmen

are void effective1/1/12. ****The American people did

not make this contract with Congressmen.  Congressmen

made all these contracts for themselves.
Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career.  The 

Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, so ours

should serve their term(s), then go home and back to work.
*
*If each person contacts a minimum of twenty people

then it will only take three days for most people

(in the  U.S. ) to receive the message.  Maybe it is time.
*
*THIS IS HOW YOU FIX CONGRESS!!!!!*

*If  you agree with the above, pass it on. 

A new tax on home sales

Received this in an e-mail and just passing it on!

Did you know that if you sell your house after 2012 you will pay

a 3.8% sales tax on it?  That’s $3,800 on a $100,000 home etc. 

When did this happen?  It’s in the health care bill.  Just thought

you should know.

 

SALES TAX TO GO INTO EFFECT 2013 (Part of HC Bill)  Why

2013?  Could it be to come to light AFTER the 2012 elections?

 

REAL ESTATE SALES TAX

 

So, this is “change you can believe in”?  Under the new health

care bill – did you know that all real estate transactions will be

subject to a 3.8% Sales Tax?  The bulk of these new taxes don’t

kick in until 2013 If you sell your $400,000 home, there will be

a $15,200 tax.  This bill is set to screw the retiring generation

who often downsize their homes.  Does this stuff make your

November and 2012 vote more important? 

 

Oh, you weren’t aware this was in the obamacare bill?  Guess

what, you aren’t alone.  There are more than a few members of

Congress that aren’t aware of it either.

 

 

I hope you forward this to every single person in your address

book.  VOTERS NEED TO KNOW.

 

So much for the promise that “we are not going to raise taxes,

not one thin dime, for anyone making under $250,000 per year.”

IF this is incorrect, someone please enlighten me!

It’s going to get harder to get a passport

Did you know this?

http://www.consumertraveler.com/today/state-dept-wants-to-make-it-harder-to-get-a-passport/

Learning about this information I remember the following event I had.

Back in 1975 I crossed the Iron Curtain between Hungary and Vienna. This was a very chilling situation. When we got thirty miles away from the border the tour guide was getting off the tour bus. She was asked why and she “replied that she was not allowed to go any closer to the border. ” The border was very chilling. We sat in the tour bus for 45 minutes while the border guards gathered all our passports and took them into the office to check them out and make sure no one was attempting to sneak out.

The border was defoliated for 200 yards and had high machine gun towers  in the center. This was a site you don’t forget.

This kind of passport questionnaire makes me very uncomfortable. In my opinion, I am getting the feeling the United States is leaning towards a strict police state just like the former Soviet Union, and the Communists did not have to fire a shot.

In ten or fifteen years will more people be trying to get out of the country than trying to get in? This is a chilling thought.

This looks awful phishy to me

This email looks suspicious to me. First, the return email address is a hotmail account. I am almost positive MSN would not use a hotmail email address. Secondly, Internet 101 states never respond to an email asking for your password and username. Unfortunately, there are ones out in cyber land that will respond to this kind of email and their account and possibly finances will be compromised. It is too bad there are cyber land crooks looking to find an easy buck.

Dear Account User,

This message is from our data base center to all Msn account owners. We are currently upgrading our data base and e-mail account center. We are deleting all unused accounts to create more space for new accounts. To prevent your account from closing in 72 hours, you will have to update it below so we will know that it’s a presently used account. To do this, You have to click on your reply button to reply back to this message and then you fill the information below.


* Username : ………………………..
* Password: ………………………….
* Date of Birth: ………………………
* Country Or Territory: ……………

Play audio and enter the 10 numbers you hear.

Image with 8 characters

Characters: 

Enter the 8 characters you see

T

How do you want to die?

                                

When you are young you don’t think much of dying. You tend to think you are immortal and death as a far away fact. as you become older you start to think more about dying and death.

I am close to sixty-nine and I am thinking more about death than when I was younger. My parents passed away when they were seventy-five and their health problems started to appear in their late sixties. The same age I am in right now. Is the family legacy going to follow me or will I not follow in the paths of my parents.

                            grim reaper

My mother was afflicted with bone cancer and battled this disease for more than five years. after removal of the cancer and many treatments of chemo and radiation the demon went into remission. After four or five years the demon came back very aggressively. It migrated  to others parts of her body and finally took her. Her death was slow and very painful.

My father was visiting California and he was scheduled to start driving home in the morning. He called me the next morning said he had an upset stomach and was going to wait another day before he started to drive home. That evening his niece called and said she went to get some take out for dinner and when she returned my father was found on the floor dead. He was having a heart attack and didn’t even know it. That major mistake cost him his life.

Recently my true friend had multiple heart by-pass surgery. He is in his mid seventies. How long will this surgery extend his life? Only time will tell. Will this life saving surgery expose him to a more painful and slow death? This surgery may save him from heart failure to just have to experience the pain and suffering of Cancer. Cancer and heart disease is the biggest killer in the US.

A couple of years ago another friend of mine was running his snow-blower and fell over dead from an Aortic aneurism. he died before his wife found him laying on the ground in the snow.

My wife’s mother is in her nineties and in the last year she has deteriorated to the point that she cannot walk and has lost all control of her bodily functions. Medical authorities say her heart and lungs sound good. How long will she have to endure in the sorry state? The quality of life has taken a bad turn for her.

These are just a few examples of death and suffering that I have experienced in my life. Death is a part of life. All of us must some day experience the event. Even now that I am closer to the event,  I still can’t answer the question, How do I want to die? 

How did we survive?

This was received in an e-mail and I am passing it on.

To Those of  Us  Born   between  1930 – 1965  

At the end of this blog is a quote of the month by Jay Leno.. If you don’t read anything else, please 
read what he said.  Very well stated, Mr. Leno.
 
TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED THE
                   1930’s, 40’s, 50’s,   60’s and 70’s!! 
First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they were pregnant.
 
They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can and didn’t get tested for diabetes.
 
Then after that trauma, we were put to sleep on our tummies in baby cribs covered  with bright colored lead-base paints.
 
We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, locks on doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes,  we had baseball caps  not helmets on our heads..
 
As infants & children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, no booster seats, no seat belts, no air bags, bald tires and sometimes no brakes.
 
Riding in the back of a pick- up truck on a warm day was always a special treat.
 
We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle.
 
We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and no one actually died from this.
  
We ate cupcakes, white bread, real butter and bacon. We drank Kool-Aid made with real white sugar. And, we weren’t overweight..   WHY?  
Because we were always outside playing….that’s why!
 
We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on…  
No one was able to reach us all day. And, we were OKAY.
 
We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps  and then ride them down the hill,  only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem
 
We did not have Play stations, Nintendo’s and X-boxes. There were no video games, no 150 channels on cable, no video movies or DVD’s,  no surround-sound or CD’s, no cell phones,  no personal computers,  no Internet and no chat rooms.
 
WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!
 
We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.
 
We would get spankings with wooden spoons, switches, ping pong paddles, or just a bare hand and no one would call child services to report abuse.  
 
We ate worms and mud pies  made from dirt, and  the worms did not live in us forever.
 
We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays, made up games with sticks and tennis balls and, although we were told it would happen, we did not poke out very many eyes.
  
We rode bikes or walked to a friend’s house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them.
 
 Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team.  Those who didn’t had to learn  to deal with disappointment.  Imagine that!! 
 
 The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law! 
 
These generations have produced some of the best  risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever.
 
The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.
 
We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it all.
 
If YOU are one of them, CONGRATULATIONS!  
 
You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated so much of our lives for our own good.
 
While you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave and lucky their parents were.
 
Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn’t it ?  I just did and Look…I’m stil here….
~
The quote of the month is by
Jay Leno:
 
‘With hurricanes, tornados, fires out of control, mud slides, flooding, severe thunderstorms tearing up the country from one end to another, and with the threat of bird flu, swine flu and terrorist attacks, are we sure this is a good time to take God out of the Pledge of Allegiance?’ 
 
For those that prefer to think that God is not watching over us..go ahead and ignore this. 
For the rest of us….pass this on.    https://2tts.wordpress.com/2010/01/24/how-did-we-survive/

 

It’s still a Christmas tree

It was a Christmas tree when I was five years old and it is still a Christmas tree now that I am over 65. It will always be a Christmas tree. I will never call it a holiday tree. I will never be political correct. I will never give into the trend that this country should be careful not to offend anybody at the expense of our own beliefs and traditions.

I was born and raised a Christian and I am still a Christian. Some may say that I am not a very good Christian but that is for another time. When I was young there were Jewish people, Hindus and Buddhist. Maybe there were even a few Muslims, I don’t remember because it was not that important to me. I did not become offended when I am exposed to Hanukkah, Ramadan or any other symbol of some other denomination.

When I greet people I say Merry Christmas, not happy holidays. That is my tradition and I am not giving it up. They can respond with Happy Hanukkah or holy Ramadan or happy holiday, whatever fits their tradition. I won’t be offended and I don’t understand why a simple merry Christmas may offend them. A simple greeting is not an attempt to convert them to my tradition. It is just a greeting of my tradition.

Therefore, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! May we all enjoy peace and prosperity in the years to come.