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5/31/2012
ROMNEY CELEBRATES WITH RACIST AMERICA
Birtherism is for the Ignorant
By Victor M Adamus
I still can’t figure out Mitt Romney’s strategists. People around him who are suppose to cover
his back and make sure he is set up to take on a moderate tone for getting the
independent vote which we all know is what pulls the winner over the line in a
Presidential Election. No. Mitt’s strategist won’t let go of Donald
Trump and his birther movement even though the people who believe these lies
are of low intelligent, largely white supremacists, and living in the 19th
Century with 19th Century ideas.
Crackpots, all of them. And to
celebrate Romney reaching the magic number which puts him over the top for his
party’s nomination, he hangs out with Trump and the crackpot crowd in Las Vegas
rather than having an historic moment in Texas, the state that handed him the
nomination.
In PR we call it trying desperately to hang onto your
base. If that is true, then Romney has
accepted the fact that the fringe group of white racists is the Republican base. Even at risking the opinion of 75% of
Americans, both Republican and Democrat, who see these birthers as fools, he
would rather be with them than voters who have an IQ. It makes Romney look like his entire audience
going forward is made up of morons. This
could be the reason he loses the election and ends up blaming it on the media.
But what is the media suppose to do when Donald Trump,
that “bloviating ignoramus,” has taken away your stage? When the guy runs a fund raiser like a circus
barker? It must have been embarrassing
for the silver spoon guy who never associates with anyone who makes less than a
million dollars a year. Now he is forced
to embrace white people who use the President’s birth to hide their
racism. White supremacists have never
wanted a black person in the White House.
Poor strategy for sure.
How is Romney going to distance himself from this toxic, totally unpopular,
idiotic conspiracy theorists if he has any chance at all to win the election? Well he started with passing out a fake birth
certificate of himself at the rally.
Wanting his white racists friends to know he was born in America. Of course the fonts used on the certificate
had not been invented yet in 1947. And
his middle name is not Mitt, it’s Milton, but it may have also been passed
around as a joke. Is Mitt Romney a
joke? The birth certificate says his
father was born in Mexico. Now isn’t
that convenient? It suggests to many
that Mitt might have a little Hispanic blood in his veins. But that would make for another story.
No, his strategists, same ones who worked for George
Bush, blew it. They will be in the
recovery mode all summer and Romney will have to disavow, on stage when he
gives his acceptance speech, that there’s no room in the party for racism . . .
wink, wink.
What do you want?
 |
| NO! Not the cartoon! |
As a recent student in a simulation class, I experienced a very interesting lecture about peanuts. We were asked if we liked peanuts or not. We were asked what kind of candy bars we liked and what kind of ingredients in those candy bars did we prefer. We were asked, if given a choice, would we want candy bars that had no peanuts, just a few, more than just a few, many more than just a few or fully loaded with peanuts.
 |
| These peanuts . . . |
While our class size offered a small size and the data collected was simply not scientific, we did discover that there was clearly no winner among the choices we had been given.
We were asked about our favorite candy bar and how many peanuts we thought that candy bar had inside. We were all amazed that our favorite candy bar did not match the amount of peanuts that we thought we wanted inside.
We were asked to select and retrieve candy from a bowl that was being passed around that contained samples of all the candy bars that we had indicated were our favorite plus some that we did not mention. By the time the bowl got to me, my favorite was gone so I selected one that I did not really want but ate it just like all the other students in the class.
The entire exercise took about 20-30 minutes to complete.
While our results varied widely, what all of us did discover was that what we thought we wanted did not match what we wanted and we were willing to accept a substitute if what we thought we wanted was not available.
Was this little research experiment a reliable predictor of the whole?
Was it 99.7% accurate where 2600 out of 1,000,000 would show other results?
Was it 99.9999997% accurate where 1 to 3 out of 1,000,000 would show other results?
Does the accuracy matter at all because in a class of 20, 100% of us were wrong on what we thought we wanted even though our tastes varied substantially?
I personally think the irony is very funny since the more educated we become, the less we truly know about ourselves and about each other. So, are our expectations really being met or are we being told what our expectations are or should be?
How many peanuts
do you want in your
favorite candy bar?
5/30/2012
VOTING PURGE RAISES CONSTITUTIONAL QUESTIONS ABOUT VOTING RIGHTS
Governor Rick Scott Should Be Impeached
By Victor M Adamus
By Victor M Adamus
I was born and raised in Florida. And even though I followed my Dad to the
Pentagon when I was 9 years old, I returned in 1979 and but for a brief 5
years, left again only to return to my home state.
Back in the early 50’s we kids would sneak out at night
to watch a Klan gathering; we heard stories of native American indian tribes
stop cars on U.S. 1 and bargain for their money or what they had in their cars;
we learned about girls who dropped out of high school to work the farms and
some who traveled to Flagler Beach when the New York bankers came to town. They made more money having sex with the
bankers then they could make in a year on the farm. We all knew there was no police control on
our beaches, so High School kids would fish, catch lobster and drink beer. It was a way of life back then. Even swimming nude was acceptable and
families enjoyed those outings as much as we enjoyed watching them. People came to Florida to party because they
couldn’t do what they wanted in northern
states. This was a land of the free and
I was sad to see upon my return in 1979 that all this had changed. The state legislature was taken over by
northerners and religious groups and in order to form a more screwed up union,
they placed laws and taxes on people who were property owners and tourists who
came to vacation at Disney World.
We were home to Apollo and Walter Cronkite. The Space Shuttle program would be our anchor
for 30 years of space exploration. Real
Estate would boom and the population on the space coast grew from 48,000 to
550,000 in 15 short years. Yet it still
had that hometown flavor. You had to
drive to Orlando to get that big city feeling.
But something went terribly wrong for Floridians in the
late 90’s. Governor Jeb Bush’s brother
George W ran for president against Vice President Al Gore. The vote was separated by 537 votes and it
was Florida, the swing state, that would determine the next President of the
United States. A challenge of paper
ballots was approved which made history known as the dangling chads. Tiny circles of punched paper that either
stuck to the voting ballot or was dangling off an edge. The Secretary of State enforced a deadline
which eliminated counting the absentee ballots and the Supreme Court agreed and
appointed George W Bush President. It
should have gone to court. Most
Floridians agreed Gore won the state.
But the count was stopped. We had
egg on our face.
In the eight years of Republican dominance the Koch
Brothers wheeled in their so called educational arm, a lobby group, financed by
the National Rifle Association and fortune 100 companies to write bills for the
legislature that would impact gun carry laws, stand your ground laws, and take
away health care rights for females.
 |
| Rick Scott |
Yesterday things got even worse down here. Governor Rick Scott (R-FL) started a purge of
DMV records to remove as many Democrats and Independents from the voting
records in all of Florida’s counties.
Scott is trying desparately to grease the state for a Mitt Romney win in
November and is doing it openly. Letters
to 182,000 people who voted in the last election were told they had 30 days to
prove their American citizenship or they could not vote. One retiree, a surviving World War II
veteran, has stirred up a hornets nest being denied his right to vote. Bill Internicola, who fought in the battle of
the Buldge and was awarded a bronze star, got the letter that he was ineligible
to vote. Here’s a guy who fought the
evil empire and helped win it. And here
in Florida, just by being a registered Democrat he was taken off the voting
rolls. He has 30 days to prove he’s anAmerican citizen. We all know it’s time
for the Justice Department to jump in and reverse this attack on our voting
rights. We also know that the
Republicans have lost faith already in their candidate and are resorting to
cheating to get the win here in November.
We know more Koch Brother tricks are planned; maybe have the state
troopers park outside the voting polls to intimidate black voters like was done
in past elections.
This is what Florida has come to. A Commie legislature, a Commie Governor,
running the state for their parties interests only. To hell with the Constitution. It’s not the Florida I loved when growing
up. Not anymore. This is a Florida that needs to be placed
under a Federal quarantine. Impeach
Governor Rick Scott and start all over again.
WRITING UPSIDE DOWN
The Timeshare Tell
by Alex Hutchins
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| Grand Mayan Resort, Los Cabos San Jose, Mexico |
Imagine yourself in a restaurant, sitting at a table for 4, so close to the table behind you that if you pushed your chair back to stand up, you would hit the chair at the next table. As you survey the room you see that all tables are full with 3 people: a couple (of varying ages and descriptions) sitting opposite a male or female with open notebooks. There is a wall of glass all around you, as each table has a view of the ocean. It is very noisy as waiters scurry from table to table with drinks as either males or females (never both) lean against the wall looking from side to side as a rancher might do looking over the herd to be slaughtered.
It is an awesome spectacle . . .
Now, imagine each couple with glazed-over eyes, dressed for a day at the pool, listening to the third person at the table smiling like a possum eating something that smells a lot like “shit,” like 2 deer standing in the middle of the road, with a blank looking, facing a pair of headlights bearing down on them.
It is a frightening experience . . .
And finally, imagine a 4th person approaching the table (the one who was previously leaning against the wall) and once there and seated, immediately starts talking like a “barker” at a circus while looking into the female’s eyes while writing, perfectly, upside down. The words that flow from his mouth are with the same fluid movement as waves crashing onto a rocky shoreline and are pulled back out to sea just as fast in terms of understanding and meaning. This upside down writing, is . . .
“The Timeshare Tell . . .”
It is an experience unlike anything you have ever encountered before and perhaps a little worse, when experienced overseas, especially in Mexico at the typical tourist spots like: Cancun, Puerto Vallarta, Los Cabos, etc.
Timeshares while varying in dimensions are basically apartments or hotel rooms that are either studios or 1 to 2 bedrooms in size and can either be sold for a fixed week or can be sold for points that can be used anytime. Each unit is sold 52 times (one time for each week of the year) with a contract that cannot exceed 25 years but which can be renewed 3 times for a total of 100 years. Maintenance Fees that increase with the size of the unit, are paid either annually or upon use. Exchange Fees are paid when owners want to use their week (or points) at another resort. In order to make the exchange, owners must go through either RCI or II which manages the available inventory from their respective member resorts and it is to them that these Exchange Fees are paid.
The amenities at these resorts are literally beyond one’s imagination and all of one’s needs are, without exception, catered to for a fee which in many cases is substantial. The average, middle class couple can live like the wealthy live for a week or two as long as they are willing the pay the per unit per week selling price of $30,000 to $75,000 along with annual or usage fees of $400 to $1,200 along with the cost of meals which is typically 2-3 times what you would be paying at home for the same or similar meal. Then, there are the cost of taxi service, tips for everything, and excursions that range from petting dolphins to snorkeling to diving, to city tours ranging from $100 to $200 per person.
When buying a timeshare in the US, our salespersons typically leave crucial information out while assuming (quite intentionally) that couples new to the timeshare experience know just as much as they do; whereas, buying timeshares overseas, especially with our closest neighbors, Mexico; well, this sales force with flat-out lie to you. Interestingly, most of the timeshare sales force is managed by an American and typically one with a degrees in finance or with an MBA.
Once timeshares are sold, they depreciate in value worse than buying a used car and driving it off the lot. The typical profile for timeshare owners is married, both spouses working, combined income of $30-50,000, with an interest in taking 2-4 weeks of vacation, not just with each other but with family and friends.
When you purchase a timeshare, you are providing the builder with cash to build the next unit but that little detail is very seldom explained, because knowing it would mean that they resort they are showing you is basically sold out and the odds at vacationing there are against you which is why you must trade out and go somewhere else which basically costs you more money because the territory is unknown.
After a year or two of timeshare
vacationing, 75-80% of all
timeshare owners have their unit(s)
up for sale and builders have
instructed their sales force
to look for “fresh new meat.”
Timeshares are typically sold for 1/3 their purchase value.
5/29/2012
A MOVING SPEECH AT THE WALL. IT TOUCHED MANY VIETNAM VETERANS WHO RETURNED TO AN UNGRATEFUL NATION
“Welcome Home”
By Victor M Adamus
This was a speech that paid tribute to the men and women who
died defending America in the Vietnam War.
Veterans who were under-appreciated, sometimes maligned as war heroes
who remained true to their nation despite an unwelcome homecoming. It was time, on this 50th anniversary of the
Vietnam War, to set the record straight once and for all. And in this moving speech by President Barack
Obama he was blunt in saying, “Even though some Americans turned their backs on
you, you never turned your back on America”.
These are words Vietnam Veterans have been waiting to hear
for some 50 years. “You came home and
were sometimes denigrated when you should have been celebrated. It was a national shame, a disgrace that
should have never happened”.
Yes, to many employers we were known as “hop heads” kids who
“lost their war” and came home to do drugs and sleep with a .45 under our
pillows. Veterans attending College under the GI Bill even had to
sue the Nixon Administration for the cost of tutorial assistance. It was Nader’s Raiders who filed the suit and
broke free the impounded funds, a victory that showed Vietnam Veterans were
still fighting battles to get what normally a grateful nation would have
delivered. But we lost our war.
As the President said, “Like generations before you, you
took off the uniform, but you never stopped serving. You became teachers
and police officers and nurses -- the folks we count on every single day.
You became entrepreneurs, running companies and pioneering industries
that changed the world. You became leaders and public servants, from town
halls to Capitol Hill -- lifting up our communities, our states, our nation”.
As I remember it, we had to fight for everything we
got. This was a war that introduced the
chemical Agent Orange. A war where
returning veterans suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). A war that didn’t have enough volunteers and
so the draft was imposed and thousands answered the call as patriots. It was an unpopular war that caused some
young men to take flight to Canada, serve in missionaries in France, or hide
out in other foreign countries. The war
was fought by the middle class, people of wealth used their influence to send
their sons elsewhere. The true patriot
was the person who answered the call.
The President said, “You have earned your place
among the greatest generation. Welcome
Home. Welcome Home. Welcome Home”.FULL TEXT HERE
Death . . .
Final
Frontier
by
Alex
Hutchins
As a boy, I attended the funeral of my great grandfather; although, I remember very little about the event other than he had thick, uncut and rippled toenails the last time I saw him when the family visited him in the hospital in Winston-Salem. He did not know who I was and made no acknowledgement that I was there visiting with my parents.
A few years later and still a boy, I attended the funeral of my grandmother; although, there too I remember very little other than visiting her at the rest home after she had had a seizure while staying in the guest room of our home. She also did not know who I was and made no acknowledgement that I was there visiting with my mother, her daughter.
Several years later as a married man, I attended the funeral of my grandfather (on my father’s side) and recall quite vividly the graveyard ceremonies as did I recall the same in 2002 when my father died that left me remembering only the good times that we had shared and there were many, like having him read me a bedtime story and hearing his voice change with each character, or vacationing at the Outer Banks and standing on his bent knee as the waves crashed around us, or having him sitting in the audience during my first marriage and at my Graduate School graduation.
But that was 10 years ago and much older am I now or so it seems for any person over 60 and wonder what all these deaths that I recall have actually left behind?
It is not their education nor is it their accomplishments.
It is neither who they married nor the children they raised.
It is not their faith or under what circumstances they died.
It is simply the fact that they lived, albeit briefly, on this earth and the lessons that they may have learned.
How strange it is to hear me write and say these words but for me at least, it is true.
Once each of us has died and after a few brief years, much of who we were will have dissipated into the atmosphere, never again (or seldom) to reappear into the minds of men (or females).
That fact is neither good nor bad nor sad; it is simply true.
Our lives here on earth are not to provide the rest of the world with our accomplishments but to provide us with the courage to move into a new frontier.
Like you, I can speculate but really have no idea as what to expect in this new frontier other than, it will be my responsibility to make the most of what I find.
5/25/2012
WELCOME HOME IRAQI VETERANS
WASHINGTON, DC — The 2012 National Memorial Day Parade
Presented by Boeing will include the very first special public tribute in the
nation’s capital to the Iraq War generation. All Iraq veterans and active duty
military are encouraged to participate in honor the sacrifices of their fallen
comrades. The Parade will take place at 2 p.m. May 28 on Constitution Avenue in
Washington, DC.
“As a Vietnam veteran myself, I saw first-hand the way my
comrades were treated, and my reaction was, ‘never again.’ The veterans of the
Iraq war deserve an expression of gratitude from the American people. I ask
that ALL veterans and active duty troops of the war come to our Nation’s
Capital to join us in honoring their sacrifice, and the sacrifice of the
thousands who have been killed and wounded while in service to our country. ”
An Uneducated Public
I think it is remarkable and ironically funny (or sad) how an educated public and educators in general are blissfully aware that history repeats itself while living their lives and influencing the rest of us that there is nothing about which to be alarmed and that we should continue our lives and pursue our futures as if there should be no doubt in our minds or in our subconscious that our fantasies will, in fact, become reality.
What is intelligence? (another word for educated)
There is emotional intelligence that comes about when one is in-tune or in-sync with one’s emotions and then can exploit that knowledge of self to one’s advantage.
There is book intelligence (or knowledge) that comes about when one is gifted with the ability to learn easily and quickly from the material that is found in books written by experts in a particular field.
There is common sense (or intelligence) that is present when one is gifted with the ability to see, interpret, and manipulate the world as it really is (not as it appears to be) to one’s advantage.
There is experienced intelligence that comes about with age and after one has experienced many good and bad outcomes that one can predict the outcome of an event with a high degree of probability.
If you do not fall into one of these four categories then perhaps your life is exactly the way it needs to be and you have the unique ability to live life day-by-day regardless of whether or not It is enjoyable.
For the most part, we, as charter members of the human race, depend upon our LEADERS to provide us with guidance and direction. Unfortunately, global leaders throughout history, have been self-serving at best with only one universal trait in common: to be the last man standing.
However, in ALL MYTHOLOGIES throughout the world, there is another universal belief that always trumps our self-serving attitudes and that is the fact that we, the human race, has a CREATOR. And, coupled with this Creator concept is another absolute truth and that is that we all must die, leaving the Creator as the only true last man standing.
I have no idea how you want to live your life here on earth and while I do care because it impacts how I live my life, the truth of the matter is that I would prefer to be educated than uneducated.
HOW ABOUT YOU?
5/24/2012
THAT OLD CRAZY FRINGE IS BACK
Just Go Away Please!
By Victor M Adamus
By Victor M Adamus
 |
| Mike Coffman |
Batshit crazy birthers are back only this time we find them
in the U.S. Congress. Clearly, in my
opinion, this goofy guy, Mike Coffman (R-CO), can’t apologize enough having
been caught on camera saying President Obama is not an American. What fringe group is he pitching to? Or if he believes it like the crazy side of
the Republican Party shouldn’t he seek help for a possible mental
disorder? These allegations were a joke
three years ago and now they’ve become part of the conservative movement.
In Arizona, Secretary of State Ken Bennett, refused to put
Obama on the ballot without authentic proof of birth from the State of
Hawaii. We’re talking sitting President
here folks. Well, he got the birth
certificate and was forced to announce that President Obama will be on the
Arizona ballot for President, but his embarrassment was blamed on his tin foil
hat constituents. The crazies are out in
force and showing up everywhere including the U.S. Congress. Voters need to vote them out of office since
they obviously are catering to the wrong crowd.
Or maybe those Districts are overwhelmed with people with mental disorders
and need mental help like Congressman Mike Coffman.
Who knows?
I thought we’d seen the last of this stupidity once it was
put to bed over a remark by Donald Trump, he too a birther, until the facts
were made clear to him. These are the
type of people who are still trying to prove the landing on the moon was staged
in a Hollywood studio.
News reports in yesterdays papers cite Florida’s Cliff
Stearns and Vicki Hartzler of Missouri, both Republicans of course, publicly
raising questions about Obama’s citizenship.
Are they playing to a base that will re-elect them? If so, it’s nice to know the batshit crazy
people are located in only a few Districts.
No doubt this conspiracy-mongering could be a problem for
Mitt Romney on the campaign trail this summer.
I wonder what he’ll say when a citizen claims Obama is an Arab.
Adult Learning Educational Outcomes
Without reinforcement either by testing or by demonstration and use of retained knowledge that knowledge will soon evaporate into the air like steam from a pot of boiling water. And, is this not the fate of all those who hold degrees regardless of the prestige of the school from where these degrees were awarded. Sadly, this holds true for: Lawyers, Physicians, Dentists, Engineers, and Architects just as easily as it would hold true for Business, Nursing, and degrees in History, Sociology or Philosophy.
As a recipient of a Bachelors, Masters, or Doctorate degree, we, the general public as well as the potential employer and client/patient assumes that retention (but, at what level) has taken place; after all, what do you call a medical student who finished last in their class? Doctor . . .
I am sure, if we are truly honest with ourselves, we will admit that at some point-in-time, we have seen individual(s) in power who do not really seem to belong there but are in that position nonetheless.
Why do you suppose this has happened in our enlightened society?
Is the Peter Principle correct that people get promoted to their level of incompetence?
How strange it is that our world must operate this way, when most of us have learned in College that this is not a path to success. But, Adult Learning Educational Outcomes never seem to matter once we have graduated.
5/23/2012
NATURE PLAYS IMPORTANT ROLE FOR KIDS EARLY AGES AND ON
Anthropologist Edith Cobb reviewed the autobiographies of 300 European geniuses and found that many of them described similar kinds of experiences in childhood.
“My position is based upon the fact that the study of the child in nature, culture and society reveals that there is a special period, the little understood, pre pubertal, halcyon, middle age of childhood, approximately from five or six to eleven or twelve, between the strivings of animal infancy and the storms of adolescence—when the natural world is experienced in some highly evocative way, producing in the child a sense of some profound continuity with natural processes. . . .”
It is principally to this middle-age range in their early life that these writers say they return in memory in order to renew the power and impulse to create at its very source, a source which they describe as the experience of emerging not only into the light of consciousness but into a living sense of a dynamic relationship with the outer world. In these memories the child appears to experience a sense of discontinuity, an awareness of his own unique separateness and identity, and also a continuity, a renewal of relationship with nature as process.
American Hypocrisy
noun
1. a person who pretends to have virtues, moral or religious beliefs, principles, etc., that he or she does not actually possess, especially a person whose actions belie stated beliefs.
2. a person who feigns some desirable or publicly approved attitude, especially one whose private life, opinions, or statements belie his or her public statements.
Origin:
1175–1225; Middle English ipocrite < Old French < Late Latin hypocrita < Greek hypokritḗs a stage actor, hence one who pretends to be what he is not, equivalent to hypokrī́ ( nesthai ) ( see hypocrisy) + -tēs agent suffix
Synonyms:
deceiver, dissembler, pretender, pharisee.
Global history, unfortunately, is replete with hypocrisy at all levels of government, business, and among the general population regardless of wealth and/or social status; however, American Hypocrisy is the most insidious because of the Democratic Role Model that we present to the rest of the world; and, when the rest of the world makes an “honest” attempt at really acting like us, we cry “FOUL” and ask the Union Nations to intercede on our behalf.
It is no wonder that the rest of the world has a healthy distaste for Americans, their politics, businesses, and their decadent life in general. Americans, in my opinion, lead the “free world” in deception as we share information on a “need to know” basis. This “need to know” concept is our license to LIE or to soften our exposure to telling a lie by only “withhold information.”
From our early Roman Catholic Popes who maintained apartments for their courtesans to Arab leaders who were purists when fighting the Christian world about the teachings of the Koran, yet took the time in private (it was later discovered) to celebrate Christmas to Presidents of America who secretly smuggled women into the White House while their wives on the second floor played with their children.
But, it is not the elite that have cornered the market of hypocrisy but the middle and working classes as well in American which is easily reflected in our songs, our literature, and our Hollywood movies:
Credence Clearwater Revival – Fortunate Son lyrics
The Scarlet Letter by Nathanial Hawthorne
Schindler's List by Steven Spielberg
But, let’s not stop there . . .
What about the hypocritical relationship you have with:
- Your spouse
- Your children
- Your employer
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