It's Meltdowns, Menopause, and the Man Oh My...Thing

Dear America,

so it's kinda funny

yesterday, about mid-afternoon, my latest recreation --  crochet -- was needling at my heels to sit... and then, realizing the end of the Masters was drawing near, I quickly dropped a stitch to turn on the television!  

It happened to be just before the back nine...or what I like to call, the Spieth spool  unraveling.

But wait, before I skip a stitch or two -- we're not there yet.

There's more -- 

and it comes as a confession.

I didn't see a thing. 

For there's me -- little g -- taking a look at how, by the tenth hole, Spieth was well ahead of everybody and I'm wondering, what's to watch?  ...Just wasn't in the mood for a rerun of last year, so what did I do?  

I changed the channel. Tee      hee     on me.

oh you silly girl

And you have to understand, now with my head down low beneath my Title Nine cap -- I opted for watching re-runs! of Leverage! of all things! over what has become known as the great Masters meltdown (Alec -- played by Aldis Hodge is my favorite...one of the characters who is super smart and funny and just makes me laugh).   

I feel so ashamed.  

Hindsight is such a bitch, isn't she?

 At least I'm not sitting here, the day after, dazed and delusional and knee deep in a bunker in denial or something...at least, I'm keeping it real.

Let's go to a slip knot question posed from Chris Wallace, of Fox News Sunday, coming towards the end of a long and windy interview with the president:

WALLACE:  I -- I have to ask, with all due respect, when you look at yourself in the mirror, and you’ve got a little bit more gray hair than you had, and you look back over these last eight years, has it been a tough job? Has it aged you?

OBAMA: You know, I don't think it has aged me spiritually or mentally. Obviously, I’ve gotten older. But I suspect that in some ways the job may keep you younger just because every day is a new challenge. It is fascinating. It is an extraordinary privilege. I, you know, I -- I have no doubt that when I leave the office, after a day, a week, a month, maybe six months, you'll start realizing that day to day burdens that you are carrying and you'll probably be a little bit lighter. But, on the other hand, the degree to which every part of you is tested and engaged, that keeps you young.

Is that not classic Obama, or what?  Simply ageless and amazing.

Why couldn't he just admit it?

YES!

Yes, Chris!  You got me there...the office has aged me.

Hello!   The presidency ages every president indiscriminately -- and yet you say, Mr. President,"the job may keep you younger...the degree to which every part of you is tested and engaged, that keeps you young."

Really?

Seriously?

Yeah, and this girl would be willing to bet Jordan ended the Masters only to awake this morning with his first grey hair.

Being tested,

engaged,

challenged...

ages everybody!

But must admit -- I do appreciate the president stealing a vernacular from G...in citing the essential element only discovered in the  Day After.  Now even though I haven't turned that phrase in a while, it is, to it's credit, how the old G Thing began....circa July 2009; and from that day forward, responding to the day after every day became the substantive foundation leading the way -- and consistently, rain or shine, well under par,  I  might add.  [If the president can do it, so can I -- keeping my own leader board as we go. tee hee]

So Wallace asked, "worst mistake?"

OBAMA: Probably failing to plan for the day after what I think was the right thing to do in intervening in Libya.

yeah, cuz "the day after that" came with a day after Benghazi, didn't it?  Didn't it, Mr. President?

yeah, but Wallace didn't go there, did he; he simply skipped to my loo to the next pertinent question, as in 'what will you miss most?'  To which Obama smiles, as in "other than Air Force One?" he he he

What can we say -- it was almost the bitter end; the soundbite round came with easy swings one after the other.

In the final moments, standing in Obama's old office in Chicago, the president made his way from the pragmatic law professor, and "author," of yesteryear, walking the greens methodically and systematically and ultimately arriving at making this rather seasoned, ideological push out of thin air:

OBAMA: Well, first of all, that law professors back then would think I was crazy saying that somehow you might end up being president. You know what? What I would tell him is what I was telling some of those law students downstairs, that for all the frustrations of democracy and all the contention, it is not always a straight line, but if you put your shoulder to the wheel and you have faith in our democracy and our system, it works.

WALLACE:  So it's more complicated than people would have understood then?

OBAMA: Absolutely. And, you know, I think that when you're outside of the system, you are properly outraged at this ineptitude of the government or this corruption or this issue that you feel deeply about. When you're in it, what you realize is, is that if you follow this process, if you're respectful of this process, then we can sort it out. And not everybody’s going to be completely happy with it. But it will beat any other system given that we are human and given original sin. You know, this is going to work about as well as it can.

yeah, as in ...if you're respectful of the process of corruption, fraud, and lies, and just continuing to let the daily abuses of this unfettered government grow by way of crony capitalism, redistribution of wealth, and by virtue of being systematically buried under trillions of dollars in debt!

When President Obama took office, the country was at about 10 trillion in National Debt...and now look.  If the rate of doubling our debt with each new administration holds true, imagine the country -- sitting at 40 trillion in debt; we are destined to be bankrupt before the sun goes down January 21, 2025.  Just sayin'.  Hindsight is right now, happening in real time, okay.

The thing is -- looking at the greater good -- this isn't a good time to turn off the television, let alone change the channel, let alone blink!

America needs to pay attention.

You know -- Danny Willett almost wasn't even gonna go to the Master's....  Things were a little up in the air, so to speak, his wife was expecting a baby any day, and all.  Well, 'the little man' came early and guess who got to hop a pond?

yeah, it's like that!

Destiny...it's everywhere and often!  

[And you know the rest; but if not, read all about it here.]

But it's this comment, from Willett, that makes me contemplate things a wee bit deeper...he said:

"People were saying, 'Try to bring the jacket home for little man.' I think it's a little bit big," Willett said. "But I'm sure in a few years' time, he'll grow into it."

And there it is.

shshshsh

Beautiful.

Soaring through the air at the speed of enlightenment...

...sinking into the hole like a two foot putt.

By hook or by crook, America has grown into it!  The "it" -- the straight jacket -- being big government; as the weekend at Bernie followers double down on just how remarkable and dreadful the future utopian dreams lead.

America has grown into a new way of doing life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; she has changed over time -- aged, indeed.  Dare I say, from one girl to another -- in areas that used to be black and white, suddenly we find grey.   And lots of it. What was once up, is down; what was once a clear shot to Divine Providence, is now simply lost -- lost in the crowds, the noise, the propaganda, the hype, the media....the man.  

Who are you anymore? she asks herself ...

Growing government may be rather engaging, testing every faculty known to man, every limit; but if we do it right, just maybe the president is onto something -- one thing, that is.  The gift of being in public service should remind us that every grey hair comes with the privilege of being the care taker of the land, the entire domain.  And if we don't take care of ourselves first, then what is left of us -- how in the world can we be any good for anyone else?

The republic is in meltdown, as the winds of change are everywhere, too.

And lookie there -- suddenly I'm reminded that not only is  little miss hindsight  a bitch -- but she's got a friend,   Lady Liberty [who just so happens to be in the weeds of menopause, kid you not].

Timing is everything, isn't it?

All I can add is that this cup of tea only gets stronger when put in hot water.

Make it a Good Day, G

It's a God Save the Bean Counters Thing

Dear America,

 the thing is -- if you are one of the lucky ones who has a job, you are being paid under the parameters of this year's budget.

The Sequester shaves off future funds -- over a decade -- cutting into the future increases built into the budget, based upon the current trajectory of revenue and expenditures.   And as we have discussed ad infinitum, it's not much at that.  It's like cutting one penny from every dollar.

WE ARE STILL GROWING GOVERNMENT.

Based upon what we know now, government is still set to expand, not contract; government is still set to grow our debt by trillions of dollars over the next ten years even with the implementation of this sequester.

WE ARE STILL GROWING GOVERNMENT.

Based upon what we know now, government is still ignoring the unfunded liabilities totaling over 80 trillion dollars. 

WE ARE STILL GROWING GOVERNMENT.

Based upon what we know now, the brand new health care entitlement program -- generally referred to as Obamacare -- is set to not only turn our stellar health care system on it's ear, it will out-maneuver and bankrupt an entire industry...health insurance (and anything remotely related to it)...and one day in the not too distant future, it will be recognized as the straw that broke the camel's back [and that would be America's].

WE ARE STILL GROWING GOVERNMENT.

Based upon what we know now, the government should cut spending, indeed, and reverting back to the last budget before the stimulus took into effect.  And to do that we would have to go back like, what, four years  or something?   The stimulus funds -- intended for a one-time expenditure -- were counted in and never taken out of the baseline budgets.  

WE ARE STILL GROWING GOVERNMENT.

Based upon what we know now, the government grows every department anywhere from 3 to 10 percent each and every year!    Does your family spending increase every year like that, even without an increase in revenue?  And how long could you really keep that up (presumably, on credit) if you did?

WE ARE STILL GROWING GOVERNMENT.

Based upon what we know now, remember where some of those stimulus funds went to?  Let me remind you -- to crazy stupid grants and studies and crapshoot business propositions...by the billions.

WE ARE STILL GROWING GOVERNMENT.

Based upon what we know now, we are growing -- exponentially -- in dependency upon government; for this is the end result this government wants to create.   Self-reliance is dwindling, exponentially; the fundamentals of independence, free enterprise, duty, responsibility, accountability, hard work, virtue, morality, self-discipline, self-control, checks and balances is evolving into a twisted foreign policy, of sorts.

WE ARE STILL GROWING GOVERNMENT.

Based upon what we know now, we are growing victims, instead of stalwart citizens.

From Benjamin Franklin, plucked from the pages of The 5000 Year Leap:

"There is scarce a king in a hundred who would not, if he could, follow the example of Pharaoh -- get first all the people's money, then all their lands, and then make them and their children servants forever.  It will be said that we do not propose to establish kings.  I know it.  But there is a natural inclination in mankind to kingly government.   It sometimes relieves them from aristocratic domination.  They had rather have one tyrant than 500.  It gives more of the appearance of equality among citizens; and that they like.  I am apprehensive, therefore -- perhaps too apprehensive -- that the government of these states may in future times end in a monarchy.  But this catastrophe, I think, may be long delayed, if in our proposed system we do not sow the seeds of contention, faction, and tumult, by making our posts of honor places of profit.  If we do, I fear that, though we employ at first a number and not a single person, the number will in time be set aside; it will only nourish the fetus of a king (as the honorable gentleman from Virginia very aptly expressed it), and a king will the sooner be set over us."

WE ARE STILL GROWING GOVERNMENT.

We may not have a "king" exactly; what we have is a political power, the power elite -- and this power encompasses the political persuasions and ideologies of both sides of the aisle, seemingly transferable as if through osmosis, or something; overnight, opinions and platforms change, flip, turned totally upside down, opposites somehow attract, as parties meld into one, e pluribus Unum. Hence, the massive government we have today.   It's so big that we, the people, have no idea what's in it (sound familiar?).   It's all part of the control of the people, the money, the property, the pursuit of happiness from one generation to the next.

Oh Benny -- this future unimaginable -- the contention, these factions, tumult, turning our "posts of honor" into "places of profit" -- is here.

God save the bean counters.

Make it a Good Day, G

speaking of the lucky ones with jobs...here's a good story.  This is how America works in real life.  It's about having less reliance on government, and more reliance on ourselves and the kindness of strangers...until they're our boss.  Read all about it here.  Simply beautiful...happy Tuesday.