Christmas in July

The Fox News manufactured war on Christmas is partly to blame for the gift buying frenzy that so many Americans go thru at this time of year.  I'm reminded of the Jewish family that before leaving on their winter vacation in the Caribbean on Christmas morning at their store they surveyed empty shelves, held hands and sang "What a friend we have in Jesus."
   I used to think it would be a smart marketing ploy to manufacture something in mid-summer that would set off another buying frenzy like Christmas.  Then I woke up to the fact that it already exists for 1.6 billion people that make up the majority in over 50 countries and 23% of the world's total population.  Toward the end of Ramadan, Muslims make a donation to the poor of actual food so everyone can have an Eid feast. The feast of Eid al-Fitr falls for several years in mid-summer. It's celebrated by a gathering in the morning of the first day for a sermon and a community prayer.  After the prayer, people go home to give gifts, especially to children & reconnect with old friends and distant relatives. School is out for three days and it's a National three day holiday.  If a retailer can't make a summer profit from 1.6 billion people with kids, he needs to find a new line.  The British call it the Ramadan rush and make many millions of pounds sterling.  There are estimated any where from 2 to 7 million Muslims in America.  Our Islamaphobia and stupidity prevents marketing to them although nearly all are loyal Americans.  If only America had a brain smarter than Donald Trump.






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Dress Codes

I think American men are so uptight about sex and so many other things is due to what is customarily known as business attire.  The biggest problem is the upper torso where they have little choice other than color.  Most politicians wear a light shade of blue because it shows up better on color TV pictures but they are required to wear a colorful rag around their neck on a shirt buttoned as tight as possible again around their neck.  In the rodeo game they tie a rope tightly around a bull's testicles to make him angry and he bucks wildly trying to free his balls.  Then they put a man aboard and he tries to stay atop for eight seconds or so. The bull probably doesn't even feel the man any more than he would feel a tick on his back.  I believe that psychologically human males feel the stricture around their neck and equate it with the bull's anger about the rope around his testicles and the tension created by society's unwritten rules.  If men would just wear a causal shirt with an open collar they could stop worrying about their balls and get along with each other a whole lot better.
   Women politicians are another breed of cat entirely.  I notice that so many of them are blessed wth humongous posteriors necessitating the wearing of pants suits.  From Hillary Clinton on down to Houston mayor Anise Parker women in pants suits are never photographed below their waists. Camera people have this unwritten rule probably out of fear for their own testicles.  Every so often a snapshot will slip through and you quickly agree with this photography rule.
   One day I'll discuss the Middle East and their night shirts and towels wrapped around their heads. The question exists that like the Scottish kilts, what's under those flowing gowns?  That's for another time though.  Check back.

Cell Phone Generation

Does anyone not have a cell phone  Too poor; the Federal Government will send you one for free with some free minutes attached.One of the funniest things I have ever seen involved two inebriated, homeless men.  One had obtained a cell phone and was trying to activate it while his pal watched.  He tried several times to enter the required numbers without success.  His friend said "wait, I'll get my phone and we'll try again.  When he returned, he said "now call out the right numbers and I'll enter them for you."  The numbers were called out and he carefully entered them, except he entered them on his phone instead of the new one.  It obviously didn't work and both threw down their phones in disgust.  "The hell with it" they agreed and "lets go and get some more vodka and maybe it'll start working."  And off they went in search of more alcohol.  As I observed; everyone has a cell phone whether they need one or not.
   Also, they always need a new one. The Chinese roll them out by the boatload and the distributors and sales people want more and more added to them to increase their sales until they seem like a Swiss Army Knife with about fifty fold outs with some scissors, a nail file and two kinds of screwdrivers till one is hard pressed to find an actual blade to cut something with.  Cell phones will find food for you. lock or unlock your home, guide you when you want to go somewhere, do your banking, etc. until it becomes a task to find the button to push with which to make an actual telephone call to somebody.
   I fully expect one day they will make a cell phone that can be implanted in someone's head.  I will then witness long lines in front of  "The Apple Store & Surgical Center" for the debut of the new I-26 skull phone.  Maybe a Republican Congress will pass a rule that will take us back to the good old days of two tin cans and a long string.  I guess I'm too old to be surprised by anything anymore.

Day of Rest?

I was going to relax and take off with the excuse of Sunday rest.  But laying back. I thought of all the people that don't get the luxury of a respite from hard work.  All the fast food outlets and workers in the food service industry that pays so little in wages that people are forced to work as many hours as possible to just survive with out the pleasure of losing even one day's pay.  Or enjoy the fruits of living in the richest country in the world.  It's really unbelievable at least to me how people with money and power that claim to be Christians or charitable people are consumed by such greed, they can't even think of others that only want a living wage that enables them to just move beyond mere survival for themselves and the people they love.  Watching the republican campaign debate shows that not one is in favor of any raise in the minimum wage.  Several of them even advocate doing away with the minimum.  How anyone with an ounce of brain, compassion or concision vote for any Republican is beyond belief.  If one opens their bible and finds the word Pharisee and substiutes Republican, they will understand why Jesus condemned them so strongly.  

Frustration

I'm a cranky old man but I do like to keep my eye on the young whipper-snappers that live up north in Washington pretending to run the government or trying to get in on the money feeding frenzy that goes on there.  To this end, I get this thing called E-mail and every day I get about thirty or forty letters from people that want to change things to make them better for me.  For example they ask if I want more money from social security, well sure I do.  Or make it eaier to vote or help out veterans more.  All good things I think and they ask if I agree and will vote for them or not.  Well, I sure will support their efforts.  Then they ask if I would chip in to help them get elected and they have a page with little blocks representing amounts I'm supposed to check on what I want them to deduct from my bank account or credit card.  But unfortunately by the time they ask, I have paid for my room and board, the internet access, medicine, etc.,there is nothing left to send them except my promise to vote for them and their causes.  There is no box to check for this, hence my frustration.  I truly want to help them financially but it's not possible until I get the income they will try to get for me.  So we have a catch 22.  Just put a box in there for that and I won't feel bad about ignoring their message.  As Tom Hanks says - "that's all I got to say about that."

Vacation Over

Back to work. I dreamed I was running for congress from the Doofus Party. They are a lot like the Republican Party except as our name implies we are a cut above republicans as far as intelligence levels in general.  Even more like republicans, we embrace religion as we interpret it.  Our holiest books were written in the sixties by the prophet, Max Schulman along with his disciple, Dobie Gillis.  One of our beliefs is a commandment to wash the feet of strangers whether they want it or not.  Taking a cue from the Mormons and the Jehovah's Witnesses, we also work in pairs or groups as our potential converts often struggle as the devil is removed from their feet where Satan likes to hide. Our
platform is to designate the American cockroach as an endangered species.  This ties in with our economic plan to impose a fine of $5.00 for killing of each endangered cockroach. And a fine of $10.00 for only crippling a cockroach without killing it and requiring our administration to supply necessary medical care for it's emergency status.  I just woke up and realized it's the new world order.  I want to go back to sleep but I can't; too much to do to get this campaign on the road in time for the primaries.





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Dylan Lyrics

I have been posting lyrics from early and mid-sixties songs written by Bob Dylan in an era of coffee houses, and singers dis-satisfied in the directions our people and government were taking us toward War in Vietnam and the general blase' attitudes about civil rights for all people, black or white.  I lived in New York those years and I am hearing young people voicing those same concerns now.  I feel I'm am witnessing a new awakening in the air.  It feels good to hear it on the internet from coast to coast from youth even after the indoctrination suffered in our broken education system.

                            ---  A Personal View  ---

Given that six financial institutions have assets today about 60% of the GDP of the United States. I do not believe that Congress has to ability to regulate Wall Street. I believe that Wall Street regulates the Congress and you have to break these guys up. --- Bernie Sanders ---  

Not much more to say. Just that in spite of Republican efforts to stop any voter who might oppose them, I have to believe there are enough of us to overwhelm their best efforts to just vote Democrat and throw their do-nothing people out with the garbage. I myself am being dis-enfranchised by rules keeping me from exchanging a drivers license I've had for over sixty years and replacing it with an ID card needed

to vote absentee since I am confined to a wheelchair and have no transportation for my chair and oxygen tanks to go to a drivers license office for an ID card. Thank you, Greg Abbott, Republican Governor of Texas for rejecting any increase in Medicaid. He campaigned about his being in a wheelchair for the sympathy vote. He didn't mention that it was caused by a tree falling on him or that a lawsuit resulted in a handsome settlement. They say every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings. They should also say every time a poor person dies, a Republican gets his horns.