11 November 2016

Methinks they doth #protest too much... (or at least too senselessly): The #Trump #Election


News is, by nature, new information. I can't recall who it was, but some newspaper or website had an advertising slogan: "If you haven't seen it, it's still news."

Unfortunately, there's another common saying: "Old news." And these past few days, that's what we've seen over and over again. Old news. Shocking not a few, even among his supporters, Donald Trump managed to get himself elected President. The reaction among many went something like: Disbelief...shock... sadness... anger... and then a minority took it a step further... protest. Fewer still, but not nearly few enough, went further still: Disruption... destruction... violence. Many of the things they feared Trump would bring, they now bring themselves.

I've been of voting age for nine Presidential elections. I've voted for the winner exactly twice. Seven times in my life I've gone to bed knowing that the person I opposed would be my President for at least the next four years.

After each one of those elections, I did the same exact thing the following morning: I got up, showered, shaved, got dressed, and went to work. I did this because I realized that my well being and that of my family have far more to do with me getting off my ass than what person holds any political office.

I didn't vote for Trump. I find great uncertainty looking into the future, just as I would have in a Clinton Presidency, just for different reasons. My hope for his Presidency is what it always is: That his good decisions would be supported and his bad decisions would be hindered. Yet I cannot help but notice the irony of the clamoring masses in Portland (and other places) smashing windows on new car lots and overturning police cars (while a sympathetic Governor-elect does little to rein in the senseless rabble). The same people who are screaming "WE WILL NOT ACCEPT PRESIDENT TRUMP," just a few weeks ago were mocking Trump for suggesting he might not immediately accept the results of the election. "YOU HAVE TO ACCEPT THE RESULTS, THAT'S HOW ELECTIONS WORK!" they cried. That line served them well when the outcome was a seemingly foregone conclusion. It worked well four years ago, and eight, when the cry was "Obama won, GET OVER IT!"

I find the same irony here that I find in Colin Kaepernick (and a few copycats) kneeling during the National Anthem. "So... you're protesting a country that gives you the freedom to protest?"

Even a cursory study of American history, and I've made much more than a cursory study, will reveal that we've survived some pretty awful Presidents. We'll survive this one, too.

But, if you think our just and proper response to opposing viewpoints is for us to shit in our own nest, well, let me know how that works out for you. I'll be at work.

“From whence shall we expect the approach of danger? Shall some trans-Atlantic military giant step the earth and crush us at a blow? Never. All the armies of Europe and Asia...could not by force take a drink from the Ohio River or make a track on the Blue Ridge in the trial of a thousand years. No, if destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of free men we will live forever or die by suicide.” ― Abraham Lincoln

04 February 2016

#QuoteoftheDay #CondiRice #Entitlement #politics



"If you are taught bitterness and anger, then you will believe you are a victim. You will feel aggrieved, and the twin brother of aggrievement is entitlement. So now you think you are owed something and you don't have to work for it and now you're on a really bad road to nowhere because there are people who will play to that sense of victimhood, aggrievement, and entitlement and you still won't have a job." - Dr. Condoleezza Rice

03 February 2016

#QuoteoftheDay #TheDayTheMusicDied



"That'll be the day — when you say goodbye.
That'll be the day — when you make me cry.
You say you're gonna leave — you know it's a lie, 'cause
That'll be the day when I die." - Buddy Holly

01 February 2016

#QuoteoftheDay #BlackHistoryMonth



"We should welcome to our ample continent all the nations, kindreds, tongues and peoples, and as fast as they learn our language and comprehend the duties of citizenship, we should incorporate them into the American body politic. The outspread wings of the American eagle are broad enough to shelter all who are likely to come." - Frederick Douglas

30 January 2016

28 January 2016

#QuoteoftheDay #Challenger



"Uh-oh." - Capt. Michael J. Smith, Pilot, Space Shuttle "Challenger", 28 January 1986

27 January 2016

#QuoteoftheDay #NeverForget #HolocaustMemorialDay



"The things I saw beggar description… The visual evidence and the verbal testimony of starvation, cruelty and bestiality were so overpowering… I made the visit deliberately, in order to be in a position to give first-hand evidence of these things if ever, in the future, their develops a tendency to charge these allegations to propaganda." - Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower

26 January 2016

#QuoteoftheDay #AbeVigoda #RIPAbeVigoda

"I've always been content just to be working and making a modest living for my wife and child." - Abe Vigoda

20 January 2016

#QuoteoftheDay #GlennFrey #RIPGlennFrey



"Except for a few guitar chords, everything I've learned in my life that is of any value I've learned from women." - Glenn Frey (1948-2016)

16 January 2016

#Quoteoftheday #politics #Election2016

"Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job." ~Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

14 January 2016

#QuoteoftheDay #Churchill #Virtue #Vice

"He has all of the virtues I dislike, and none of the vices I admire." - Winston Churchill

13 January 2016

#QuoteoftheDay #JuryDuty

"A jury is composed of twelve men of average ignorance." - Herbert Spencer

04 January 2016

#Quote of the Day #WinstonChurchill



"Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm." - Winston Churchill

03 January 2016

#Quote of the Day #BandofBrothers



“I treasure my remark to a grandson who asked, "Grandpa, were you a hero in the war?" "No", I answered, "But I served in a company of heroes".”
Richard D. "Dick" Winters (21 January 1918 – 2 January 2011)

02 January 2016

New Year, New Theme #Quotes

"Sometimes it is not enough to to our best. We must do what is required." Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill