Monday, June 30, 2014

Mothers

I'm not a single parent.  If I misled anyone in my previous post, Fathers, it was not my intention.

I have nothing against single parenting,  It has increased but there is a 'trick' to it.  Most single parents I know make sure the child/children  has/have good role models of the opposite sex.

My best female role model was my Great Grandma Rose Belle St.Clair Hiland. 

She was loving and insightful, always having some common sense (in the true meaning of the term) stories/examples about living day to day.

Honesty and straightforwardness were her way of life  She had been a suffragette and was active with the Democratic Party most of her life. 

That being said, she'd vote Republican if the candidate had something to help with the people.

I shouldn't speak for those gone, but I guarantee she would be angry and ashamed of how politics have been suborned by collectivists.  Maybe she'd be libertarian or independent.  She sure had her own mind and spoke out in her day.

I owe a great deal to her and some of the other women in my life.

Enough said.  It reminds me that Grandma didn't blather on.  She spoke her mind and that's that!


Sunday, June 29, 2014

Fathers

Single parenting can work.  But it takes balance.  Kids need positive male and female role models.

I owe my love of Freedom greatly to my Dad, William Clair Hiland, my Brother William Connolly Hiland and my Grandpa, Roscoe Earl Nolan.  That and my skills acquisition re firearms, hunting, fishing and how to treat myself and women with respect.

These men were my initial and forever role models.

I hope I'm carrying on the tradition with my son and daughter.

Saturday, June 28, 2014

Loyalty

It must be dictionary month.  Merriam Webster says this of loyalty.:  'a feeling of strong support for someone or something'.  Like any word, loyalty can have nuances of meaning, is able to be used for weal or woe.  I'd say it has a decidedly negative connotation, accumulated over time.

Loyalty adheres to the time of kings and queens, when vassals were loyal followers and the rabble sought protection and even sustenance fro their lords.  Those times are over and the Constitutional Republic of these united States was the harbinger of the end. 

It reminds me of allegiance a related word.  Pledging allegiance is taken with a grain of salt by me.  Remember the Pledge was written by a socialist and the original salute was the right arm extended up and out instead of hand on the heart.  The latter became preferred after that German socialist movement in mid-twentieth century appropriated it.  If memory serves, it came from ancient Rome as a salute of fealty to the Emperor.

We may not need to be reminded (but it doesn't hurt -s-) that those who take the Oath in our Republic take that Oath to support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic.  There are slight variations but that is the gist.

It is to be noted there is NO loyalty oath to a leader, just bearing faith and allegiance (the positive sense) to the principles enumerated in our chief document. 

These principles are being challenged, to put it mildly these days.  It's been a gradual process.  Tyranny is greedy but is also patient.  People, if you want to call them that, in 'high office' have usurped and turned round limited gov to unlimited power.  They think they are our bosses, that they know best.  And correspondingly there are attempts to dumb us down to accept their line of c##p.

We are slowly working to turn this around.  Bit by bit, shedding light, truth and the things which make these States great.

I know, this is the same theme I talk so often about.  Many others contribute so much more.  But each of us have something to give.  E Pluribus Unum-From Many One.  One accord coming from each.  It is the antithesis of collectivism.  And loyalty?

In its negative context, I remember two movies.  One is Dracula with the great Bela Lugosi and a fine cast.  The other is Licence to Kill, Timothy Dalton's second and regrettably last Bond, also with a fine cast headed by Robert Davi.

In Dracula, Renfield (Dwight Frye) is the Count's slave, turned to evil servitude.  He entreats the vampire that he is loyal and gets killed anyway.  Renfield's conscience had continued to occasionally prick his slavishness.  Dracula is destroyed by determined people who thus free the world of his darkness.

In Licence to Kill, Bond goes after druglord Franz Sanchez (Davi) after Sanchez has Felix Leiter maimed and his bride raped and murdered.  Posing as a rogue agent (partly true), Bond appeals to Sanchez' prizing 'loyalty' above all things.  Of course, it's the drug lord's downfall.  His loyalty is nothing but bribery and fear predicated by plomo o plata-lead or silver.  With such an unstable foundation, Sanchez' psychopathy quickly turns to paranoia, when he perceives those around him in betrayal.

There just might be some lessons learned, even in fiction/fantasy, concerning the world around us.  There is a 'message in the ravioli', as it were.  As an aside I give credit to Robert Davi for that expression, garnered from an interview at the time of the movie's release.

Loyalty versus fidelity.  Fear or love.

Which do you think ultimately wins?


Friday, June 27, 2014

Politics

Let me start with good ol' Merriam Webster:
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/politics

Basically it's communications -the art of- within government.  Negotiating power and influence in said gov as well.  One of the definitions is 'the total complex of relations between people living in society'.  Frankly, I'll leave it to you for wending your way through the maze.  That's what it is to me.  It makes simple things complex.  Below is an example.

On Facebook, a particular gal longtime in showbiz has a grand daughter who is diabetic.  She praised ACA (I refuse to call it anything else though there are plenty of slang terms I could apply), saying it allowed this girl treatment and some kind of light at the end of her tunnel.  Someone responded, saying that there were plenty who didn't like/opposed it.  The grandma first complimented the guy thanking him for his service as he was a vet.  But she said her page and thread were no place for politics.  That's the crux of it to me.

Now first, perhaps it was fruitless to mention ACA is opposed or detrimental to the Republic, which it certainly is.  But Grandma used a favorite cop out for liberals, and actually all the socalled 'right wingers' aka neocons.  Something distasteful is brought up.  Often it's truthful or explains dangers. Then it's crumpled up and thrown away with the broad brush 'politics'.

Naturally, when relating to politicians, a much rightfully despicable term, getting them to see reality is a challenge, to put it mildly.  Working through 'legalese' and mounds of words, these myopic folks hide behind such things.  All I ask is the ability and opportunity to cut through the red tape, the jargon and talk like real people.  It's a tall order, but the more we take back the Republic, the easier it will become

And I'm not opposing vocabulary.  We need words and their meaning.  We must teach kids to be literate, even erudite.

As for the word politics, it almost invariably polarizes.  The picket lines of Republican and Democrat form fast.  It's all just bs, the art of legerdemain. 

I didn't comment on that thread re the girl and ACA.  It would have been pointless.  Pick and choose your battles or discussions.  Be ready.

While some will seemingly benefit, it is at the cost of millions who are bereft.  The middle class will continue to be weakened and socialized medicine will further 'transform' America indeed.  Enough said without delving where so many have gone before.  Start with Thomas Sowell and Walter Williams and find others for proof.

As for the game of politics, well we must change the rules.  And meanwhile find a message in the ravioli.