Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Leap Day


29 February 2012

It’s Leap Day! We get an extra day today! If I was born on February 29, I would have been born in 1960 (I was born in 1959) and I would be celebrating my 13th birthday!!!!! That means I joined the Air Force in 1978 when I was 4!!! I wonder if my Drill Instructor needed to potty train me?

Now you know me, this is where I slap a little history on ya! Leap year was invented by liberal Democrats, led by President Barrack Obama, as a means to evenly distribute the time amongst all the days of the solar year! It also fulfills his campaign promise that voting for Obama will add days to your lifespan!!! OK, maybe I am embellishing the facts a little. Leap year was invented by Julius Caesar and originally it was part of the Julian calendar. Despite having the power to invent a year, he messed up.  Everyone should know that the earth travels around the sun in 365.24 days. That is its orbit, however it is a little over a full year and, as we are now using the Gregorian calendar, our calendars would be off by 24 days every 100 years if we did NOT have leap years. So to balance it out, February was chosen to be given an extra day every four years to balance out the time loss. It’s actually a lot more long math and science than I care to think about.
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Now here is a question. If the Mayan calendar, which is not set to the actual Gregorian calendar, is correct and time runs out for us sometime in what June or July?, if we apply the leap year principle of the Gregorian calendar to the Mayan calendar, have we already run out of time or do we have a lot more time???

Are you planning anything special for Leap Day? It is an Irish tradition that any man that receives a marriage proposal on this day must accept that proposal!!! I’ve no idea what happens if it is not accepted but given the fact that you’d be getting married, what’s the worst thing that could possibly happen? (Just kidding sweetheart!) I have no real plans for anything today.  However, I hope everyone takes a little time to celebrate an extra day, look at things with positivity and be thankful of all the good things and people in your life. And for you ladies out there with an Irishman in your life, go out and make it real special!!!!

Have a Blessed day Ya’ll!

Related Links:

Leap Year Explained:

Some Leap Day Traditions and Superstitions:

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

So This Comedian Walks Into a Bar….


28 February 2012

I’m not a fan of Jon Stewart or Bill Maher. No particular reason. I can say that I have never really watched an entire episode of their shows or watched any of their stand-up routines. I’ve never taken the time to sit and watch and listen to what they have to say. I don’t watch the “talking heads” on the Sunday morning news shows or the daily blathers from other “serious” news programs on TV these days.

“Serious” news program analysts, pundits, seem incapable of unbiased reporting and spend way too much time casting hate on any opinion different from their own. Based on that alone, I do not watch those shows. I think shows like Stewarts “The Daily Show” or Bill Maher’s “Real Time” are at least entertaining. I’ve seen and laughed at clips from these shows. People are sure spending a lot of time talking about what they say and posting these clips all over social media. I get a kick out of how their routines are melded into the fabric of a political discussion as serious input. Will Rogers once said “People are taking the comedians seriously and the politicians as a joke” He hit the nail on the head there!!! It’s funny when we hear comedians doing their bits on politics and politicians. It’s easy to sit back and make fun of something. And that’s what gets me sometimes. It seems people are quick to form their opinions and base their facts on the word of a comedian’s routine. The usual exchange goes something like this:

Person 1: Posts a clip of a shows segment and says “I agree! I can’t believe this political party thinks like that”

Person 2: “OMG! That was so funny!! Yeah People like that are stupid!!”

It just seems to me that people are taking the work of comedians too seriously. Maybe the comedians are taking themselves too seriously. We have Bill Maher traipsing around the country telling everyone how “Conservatism is based in stupidity.”  Funny stuff but there are people out there that are going to take his bit and form a “serious” opinion because he is funny.

I don’t really have anything against comedians. They are funny and that’s what their job is, to make us laugh about what’s happening today, to bring humor to us and make us laugh. I prefer to form my own opinions on the issues of the day from news reports and available information on the internet. I tend to focus more on articles reporting facts and steer clear of editorials and opinion pieces. I feel it’s better to make up your own mind instead of listening to someone else’s simply because they sound witty or urbane.  And that is what I think about that!!!!!

Have a Blessed Day Ya’ll!

Today’s “Did Ya Know” Today is “National Public Sleeping Day” So get out there and show your support!! Go to sleep on a park bench, at your desk or in a restaurant!!! If you aren’t sleepy, you can tune into CSPAN and watch Congress sleep!!!


Monday, February 27, 2012

Everybody Wants to Get Stoned!!!


27 February 2012

We hear a lot about marijuana in the news these days. It comes to us in three separate issues, one being the legalization of it and the other it’s authorized use as a prescribed drug. There are efforts underway in many local and state governments to discuss and possibly adopt new laws for both of those issues. The third issue comes to us through media reporting of criminal activity and law enforcement’s pursuit and apprehension of those criminals. We even get news on how the marijuana “problem” originates in places like Mexico, where drug lords rule the day.

Is making marijuana a legal and controlled substance in the best interest of our country? I think that understanding marijuana as we know it today, the answer is no. It is not. But if you want to look at some of the history of marijuana and compare it to the history of tobacco and alcohol use then you can readily presume that when humans first began walking on this earth, the first things they set out to do was eat, drink, mate and get high. And maybe not even in that order!!! We find the evidence of beer, wine and spirits being made as far back as the dawn of time. The same holds true for weed! The earliest known discovery of its use dates back to the 3rd millennium BC in what is now Romania. We even have evidence that Shakespeare himself liked to fire it up!!!! The Bard had a bong! Just kidding on that but evidence was found in his old home that old Bill liked to get his buzz on. Everyone knows we’ve been growing hemp since before we were a country. Of course, that was when we used it primarily as textile and agricultural product, developing it into rope, fabric and fertilizers. It has many uses! But smoking it to get stoned? I think that should be left up to the individual as a personal choice. I think that we should be free to use it without fear of persecution by society and the law and exposing ourselves to the dangers of exploitation and violence from the criminal elements, regardless of where they came from. I do not believe that marijuana grown locally and naturally is any more harmful or addicting than tobacco and alcohol. If you are an addictive type personality, you will probably have problems with it and shouldn’t use it. I think tobacco is far more harmful to a person than marijuana is. Tobacco has little use beyond smoking and is more hazardous to the soil it’s grown in than marijuana. However, today people are cultivating new, stronger, hybrids and strains that carry much more THC (Tetrahydrocannabinol), the chemical producing the “high”, than a normal naturally occurring plant. On this I am not in favor of. I think it should be natural. It definitely should be legal, regulated like alcohol and tobacco, and taxed.

Medical marijuana is a hotbed topic these days too. I am not so in favor of this issue. I do not believe that any doctor would prescribe smoking anything as a sound remedy. I don’t dispute that marijuana possesses some medicinal qualities and if it indeed does, it needs to be seriously studied and developed into a sensible medicinal application. By that I mean, make a pill out of it. Put it in elixir form or at worse as a vaporizer treatment which seems to be a popular method. At any rate, if we are going to say that marijuana is good medicine then it is deserving of further, serious study and used in a responsible fashion as other medicines. I think these “legalized” stores we have now in some states where Doctor Feelgood comes out and gives you a bag of weed after you give him a prescription is bull. It’s not serious medicine and they have just found a way to take advantage of the system. Honestly? If I lived in a state where that was allowed and I used their services, it would not be for medicinal purposes. And that I think exposes the hypocrisy of the medical marijuana movement, at least for me. I doubt if I am the only one that feels that way.

Have a Blessed Day Ya’ll!

Related Links:

Wikipedia article on Cannabis:

Official website for the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws:

Today’s “Did Ya Know?” Its National Marijuana Awareness month!!! Today is National Kahlua Day! Time to open up your brand of that awesome coffee flavored liqueur and let the good times roll or as is the theme for this month, roll your own good times!!! I don’t know if coffee liqueur is really good for cottonmouth though!!!

Thursday, February 23, 2012

A Friendly Reminder


23 February 2012

Yesterday Terry and I had the good fortune to meet an old friend from out high school gang in Austin, Texas. We met Janet for lunch at Matt’s El Dorado and I probably had the best afternoon I’ve had in a very long time.

Janet was my next door neighbor in the townhouse apartments we lived in while growing up in Elizabethtown, Kentucky. The last time I saw her may have been 1980 when I came home from Japan. After high school, I joined the Air Force and she joined the Navy. We both served 20 years. We almost got the chance to meet up in 81 while I was stationed on Crete.

First off the restaurant we ate lunch was out of this world!!!!  Their house salsa was hot and they didn’t even carry anything mild!!! That was great for me and Janet, not so much for Terry but we all loved the Bob Armstrong Dip. Janet and I both had the Chili Relleno and it was absolutely the best we both had ever had. It was covered in their house Chipotle sauce and the chilies used were the dried Ancho (Poblano) peppers. The dish had a nice smoky taste and just a hint of heat. Terry had the mixed fajita plate and she was very happy with that. A squirrel had the tortilla chips and was apparently satisfied with how they were prepared and how well they tasted.

Anyway, this isn’t about the restaurant. Seeing Janet was great and it was like we had never really spent a lot of time apart. We spent the afternoon there talking and laughing about things we had done and places we’ve been, things going on now and things that went on back then and basically caught up on the old gang and some of our other classmates and friends. It was comfortable being with her again. The sense of peace and happiness of the moment was nearly intoxicating in its serenity. We made loose plans to visit her again in Florida. I have no doubt that we will.

Seeing Janet reminds me that you can have a lot of different kinds of friends. Close friends, work friends, family friends, best friends, Facebook friends, military friends and friends that are family. But I think really all friends are good friends and having friends of any kind is a blessing.  Sometimes I forget what having real friends is like. Seeing Janet was great for me and a reminder of what a real friend is all about. Terry and I both will miss her until we see her again.

Have a Blessed Day Ya’ll!!


Today’s “Did Ya Know?” Today we have National Dog Biscuit Appreciation day, part of this month’s theme for animal and pet awareness observances. I actually have a recipe for dog biscuits!!!! It’s also Banana Bread Day!!!! As one of my good friends knows, I LUV me some banana bread! And finally, it’s National “Play Tennis Day”. Here in south Central Texas, spring is definitely kicking in and today, with temps forecast in the high 80’s, is an absolute smashing day to get in a few sets!!!!

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

George Washington’s Birthday


22 February 2012

Today is the birthday of our First President George Washington! As a country we cannot forget him and the rest of our Founding Fathers and I have always been saddened that we moved from having formal observances of his birthday to having a “Presidents Day” observance. Not to degrade any particular president from the past or present but clearly some are richly deserving of honor and recognition based on their leadership and achievements while others, not so much.

President Washington was the man! He led our fledgling rag-tag army up against the greatest military force of the time and won our freedom from tyranny and subjugation. His leadership then forged the beginnings of the greatest free country the world has ever seen. No small achievement I would say! Had he failed at any point in his tenure as General of our Army and President he would have surely been the first to hang. And for added thought, can you imagine where we would be today if he had failed? Or for that matter what would the world be like today? Anyway, something to think about when considering our first president. However, today is a day to celebrate his birth and to honor him by celebrating our freedom! Rather than bore you with facts and history that most of you should already know, here are some myths debunked, facts and quotes concerning the truly great and honorable President George Washington. Enjoy!

While it cannot be determined that George Washington did or did not chop down a cherry tree in his youth and then said “I cannot tell a lie, I did chop down the cherry tree” it is a story based in some degree of truth. He was a deeply honest and open individual. Known for his courage and open-ness, he was known to “tell it like it is”.

George Washington never had wooden teeth. He did have dentures but they were made mostly from his own teeth, a cows tooth, hippopotamus ivory, metal and springs. In fact, Paul Revere made Washington’s teeth!

He did serve as a British Officer during the French and Indian War.

He never wore a powdered wig a pictured in that famous unfinished picture and on our dollar bill. He kept his hair long and tied in a ponytail.

He never lived in Washington DC.

Labour to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire, called conscience.”  - Rules of Behavior, undated.

I hold the maxim no less applicable to public than to private affairs, that honesty is the best policy.” - Address to the People of the United States.

Truth will ultimately prevail where there is pains taken to bring it to light.” - Letter to Charles M. Thruston, Aug. 10, 1794

To contract new debts is not the way to pay old ones.” -  Letter to James Welch, Apr. 7, 1799

Have a Blessed Day Ya’ll!

Related Links:

American History “Suite 101” article on George Washington

About.com articles on George Washington

A better About.com article about George Washington

George Washington Quotes: