Carmen

Carmen, Steve the dog's mate and our other friend, companion and protector, has now joined him in spirit as of 2/2 at 3am. 

When a human or animal dies, it's easy to get stuck at the point of illness and departure.  We can think of them as they were when we took care of them in sickness.  But we must always remember all of our time together, from when it began.

Carmen came to us in a similar but better way than Steve. 

She was one of a litter of pups that my wife found through an online association.  The pups were being offered for free to good homes.

I stayed home but Mom, the kids and Steve went to check out the litter.

The idea was to find a mate for Steve and have the girl dog be our daughter's pup,  Of course, she was a family friend.

The only female in a large litter, she was blondish and had white paw tips, like Steve.  Her mom was a Lab and her dad a Corgi!

She was scared at first leaving mom and bros behind.  Steve sniffed her and didn't get upset.  She shook all the way home, held by our daughter.

From the nervous lil girl who came home that night, Carmen quickly grew.  Steve's irritation with a pup grew to interest as she came of age.  They bonded as a couple and had incidentally been neutered and spayed.

She was a bright girl, learned quickly yet could be stubborn lol.  Down and sit were my contribution to her discipline.

She was as protective as she was loving.  A quiet girl, Carmen made it quite clear of her presence when people approached.

Like Steve she wandered the house, and would lie down just about anywhere, often keeping us company watching TV or on the computer.  Often she slept at the foot of our daughter's bed.

Of course, she always greeted us joyously, whether we were gone for a few minutes, a day or longer.
When we finally sent the kids to school after years f homeschooling, I'd ask her where my son was.  Wait for him?  She'd go sit at the back door and wait til he got home.  Or, and through the years, she parked herself at the front door, patiently napping til someone came back.  Bounding down the stairs was her other route to saying hello.

Til she got ill, she always trotted and bounced, never walked.  As she aged, her hips started becoming arthritic so she waddled.  even then she would climb the stairs, albeit always more slowly.

Carmen was smaller than Steve, but where he was wiry, she was built like a tank.  Not only that, she was brave and tenacious when it came to threats on her family or herself.  She was steadfast and always held her ground.

Last summer, just before she took a turn for the worse, she backed down a neighbor's Pitbull.  A fence between them, she stood and matched and excelled frenzy, and the Pit backed up!

A week or so later, one of the kids left the front door open next door.  The male Pit charged out, just as we got back from a ride.

He attacked, and Carmen went at it with him, causing him again to back off enough for Ruthie to put the male in a hold.  That was remarkable in itself!  And Carmen stayed right at her side, while I watched, not needing to intervene with my Glock.  Unforgettable!

As summer faded, so did Carmen.  It was slow then faster.  We took her to the vet and treated the arthritis, then diabetes.  But she had a brain tumor and there was no choice.

Her heart stopped and she just quit.  Quietly, literally gone to sleep.

Dog stories in these tumultuous times?

You bet!

Strength comes from all our love.  Carmen had been part of that for 10 and a half years.

Her courage and tenacity and personal strength could well be a lesson for humans.

We need all we can get.

She's free and reunited with Steve.  We believe it.  Love never dies.

Death Penalty

Ooh.  What a piquant topic.  Death is our constant companion. 

And I shouldn't even say the depths and heights this can take.

Capital crime must be punished.  How is the question.

There are sides pro and con re death or life imprisonment.

Why should some monster continue to live at taxpayers expense after murdering others?

Is all life sacred?

There is no quick fix here but I think it's a combination of mismanagement and moral laxity.

The prison system, along with the whole justice system, is corrupt and too often equivocal.  No wonder the process for those on death row takes years and fees and some kind of dance which is played to the music of money and power at the expense of victims' families and friends.  And justice.  it becomes just a word to be batted about like a tether ball.

Just offhand, I'm reminded of a child rapist, a big brute, who mutilated girls round the age of 7 so he could perform his evil.  He's now in prison.  Punished?  No.  He has become an enforcer in stir for certain criminal elements to exact punishment on members incarcerated.  It's an ugly thing, unspeakable.  Except we need to speak.

The above illustrates there are those, though in human form, are not human.  Psychopaths of course and if you will indulge me, the demonic or those who willingly embrace evil.  There is nothing sacrosanct there and they do not embrace all that is Light.

Word games have taken the place of action.  Supposedly that's so we don't all do something rash like, say, defend ourselves in location or even courts.

Justice, for anyone, is supposed to be timely.  It's guaranteed in the Bill of Rights.  But, like the rest of our Freedom, it has been turned into a process where said rights are bargained away.  Yes, I'm saying this is all part of rewriting the Republic into something dead opposite.

The 'system' needs to be overhauled.  It will be part of restoring the Republic.

It won't become some grim reaperesque monstrosity, though liberals would like to paint it that way.  Simple timely justice.  It is what we are all supposed to experience.

The rewiting of our BoR, when done completely, will strip it of efficacy, so the collectivists think.  They want a country which is just a part of a hive.  Punishment and courts will administer swiftly however.  It will be done in the style we have seen in communist/fascist/Islamist territories.  The state will make it so.  There will be no rights of man, so they 'hope'.

We must 'change' that.  We must bring it back bit by bit to effective individual justice.

The death penalty for murderers and rapists, as well as traitors etal, will be fair as it should be.  We cannot deny to one and not to another. 

Death is fair?  Yes, when the crime calls for it.  As cited above, not for changing faith or wishing or acting to establish Freedom.

Oh and traitors re death penalty.  It's perfectly reasonable and just.  They threaten the structure for all and can cause subsequent deaths among the people.

What will happen?  Death of the Republic or death to tyranny?

Facets

Bits and pieces.  I suppose mosaic might fit.  But let's go with facets.

First, on the lofty plain of titles, labels, philosophies, I've mentioned there are many different yet similar types of collectivists.  Marxists, Marxist-Leninists, Maoists, Fascists, Nazis, Mohammadans, etc.  There are many derivatives, subheadings and even groups whose behavior is collectivist, but try to mask it.  Think 'liberal' and 'progressive'.

Some still want to violently overthrow govs, as did the Stalinists.  Others want to gradually subvert and turn the gov, as do Trotskyites.  And gradual socialism to communism is the hopeful MO of Fabians.

As most know, I usually do posts that point the way to more.  There are enough treatises about so many subjects.  I also know this place is often a first stop for people who wish to help reestablish our Republic and others round the world who strive for the same thing.

Go and get to the digging out facts, the research where the rubber hits the road to expose and counter these enemies of humanity who have so many names.  Find like minded folks and raise awareness.  There, one can use many ways to communicate.  Just don't descend to a 'neener neener' mindset aka ad hominems.  Though an occasional jibe is good.  It relieves the tension lol.  Not to mention caricature/cartoon satire.

Like a polished or unpolished stone, there are many curves and cuts that make it up.  Attractive or ugly, there are many facets.

Not to ignore all the subheadings, the organizations that are collectivist fronts.  We're dealing with the tyranny of jihadist efforts to make a pig look good with lipstick.  There are oldie but baddie commie fronts.  And cover for intelops, well we all use those.  Why it's called spying.

Speaking of axis powers, look to Russia, Iran and China.  Just a heads up.

And the occupier of the Oval Office is hand holding under the table with them.

All in all, with such pretty shiny things such as giveaways and safety, we need to look past the facets at the whole.

And then, we need to do whatever has to be done to stop the dark carbuncle of evil.

Ganglions

This might be connection month.  We'll see.

I've mentioned before that I had some lipomas removed and some polyps too.  No cancer thank God.  My ordeal has been small compared, to say, Mike Vanderboegh.  Hope many of you are helping him in his last months.  Kindly check out  http://whatmcauliffesaid.blogspot.com/2016/01/plea-to-all-friends-of-mike-vanderboegh.html.

Point is every effort is made to excise tumors/lipomas.  Sometimes they grow back.  You have to get all the ganglia.  More to it than that but that's the summation.

Cut 'em out, shrink 'em and keep checking.  I'm not due for a while, but I suspect I'll have checkups the rest of my life.

Collectivism is like that too.  It is a social, psychological, spiritual cancer, with many ganglia/branches of subversion and many interconnected conspiracies.  One goal: to make the whole world collectivist.  That's it.  The connection.

There are many treatises old and new concerning this.  Mike Vanderboegh, who is a former communist, has many himself.  I'm just pointing you to him and others who see the interconnections.  They are often independent of one another.  But be sure, their purpose is as stated above.

It is a constant, unending, tedious purpose for those who value Liberty and are working to Restore the Constitutional Republic.

Take a look, research starting with Mike's voluminous work/exposes.

Many hands make lighter work.  Don't shirk.  Do a little here or a lot there and be, to borrow a commie term, fellow travelers, on the road to health and Freedom.