Dear Santa - 2012

Santa Claus

c/o North Pole

Dear Santa,

Like always it seems, this missive is being sent rather late this year and I apologize. Apparently you're not the only one out there that gets really busy around this time of year, and it didn't help when you had the Post Office drop all those letters off at my place. By the way, If this was supposed to be some kind of a joke, I have to tell you that everyone around here was laughing their butts off, with the exception of my apartment manager when the sacks were dumped on his desk (somebody must have watched the original “Miracle on 34^th Street). Anyway, I did read through a few of them like your note suggested, and was actually able to use a few of them. Funny Stuff!

I'd like to tell you that I've been good this year, but that would only be adding insult to injury. So if by some mischance I still made the 'Nice List', it's only because I've been bribing a couple of the elves. (You might really want to consider getting some counselors in by the way. Some of those guys have a serious Twinkie addiction; and with all those Hostess bakeries closed, there's got to be some some little Vulcan wannabes with a serious case if the shakes by now.)

Anyway, there's just one thing on my list for you this year:

Could you do something so that the pundits and power brokers let go of the Sandy Hook thing. The people actually involved are already in enough pain with what's happened to them and they don't need a bunch of media vultures asking how they feel during the funerals of their children and those of their friends; nor do they need a bunch of self-serving parasitic politicians trying to make a reputation on their misery. I have a feeling you'll know just how to get an anthracite message across in such a way that they'll remember it.

I'm not going to ask you to do anything for the families themselves, since that's way out of your job description. As someone who lost a family member way too early in their life (and mine for that matter), I know that the only thing that has a chance to help is time.  I had a couple of other thoughts for this year; but in light of recent events, none of them seem worth bothering over.  So don't worry about the small stuff, we can handle it on our own.

Speaking of families …. Before you ask, mine is doing well again this year, and since it appears that we're going to get past this little practical joke on the part of the Mayans, there are some especially good things to look forward to in 2013. I know I haven't asked for anything for myself this year, but I never really seem to ask for anything and you always manage to show up with some pretty great stuff in spite of my annual misdeeds … thanks. I'm especially thankful to you by the way, for whatever you keep giving Michael Miller that convinces him to put my writing efforts up on the Toledo Free Press website.

Besides, I know that there are a lot of people out there whose need is far greater than mine, so you would be doing me a big favor to help them out as much as you can instead. (Come to think of it, you might want to get lots of them copies of the “Holiday Wishes 2” through the TFP, which would help twice over.)

Merry Christmas,

Tim

P.S. I will no doubt be up late again this year (nobody at our age actually sleeps well anyway), and I have plenty of cookies and Egg Nog (yes, the low-fat kind so you can watch your cholesterol), so feel free to stop by as usual. Not that you'll need it, but I'll leave the light on. 

 

Re-Declaration of Independents (Independence) 2012

Perhaps because of the absence of the staff  (and their noisome behavior) some random thoughts and efforts from days past pushed their way forward. With all due respect to Thomas Jefferson, this little tidbit from days past found its way into my attention and I decided to put it forward once more.  It seems terribly appropriate.                                                       

About Congress July 4, 2012  
The Re-Declaration of Independence of the 50 Oppressed, but still United States of America

When in the course of government-controlled events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which connected them to what can no longer be considered a viable form of government, and to decry among the powers of the earth an intellectual position which has nothing to do with either The Laws of Nature or to Nature's God to which they are entitled, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes that have separated them from such Tyranny and reconnected them with their own good Common Sense. 

We hold these truths to be evident to all but apparently a few misguided members of the Mainstream Media; that all men are created equal (in spite of the fact that some in their eyes appear to be more equal than others). That while they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, they are now often encouraged by Government and that same Media to show the lack of courage and good sense which allows them to relinquish those same rights: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness; while simultaneously embracing the ridiculous concepts of the right to a good paying job, full medical care, a home that they can't afford, a smoke-free environment, and full amnesty and free education for illegal immigrants. 

That to secure such relinquishment, Governments are constantly and corruptly expanded in spite of Men, deriving their increasingly overreaching powers from the belief that an elite group of elected officials and non-elected bureaucrats are far smarter than they. That whenever any form of Government becomes aggressive in securing such twisted ends, it is the further Right of the People to be ignored by such Government, and for that Government to create new laws, rules, regulations, and taxes to exert such control over every aspect of a population so as make them into little more than a flock of bleating sheep; laying its foundation on previously committed abuses of power, and altering such rules or forms as may be deemed necessary to most likely protect their petty Government positions, overreaching authority, and lavish salaries and benefits. 

Prudence indeed will dictate that Governments, changing the rules as they go along, shall not be changed back by those in power, nor be challenged in such pursuits for light, transient, or any other causes for that matter. Accordingly, all experience has shown that once such Government has been insidiously instituted, that mankind becomes gradually more disposed to suffer the most insufferable of evils rather than to right a ship of state that has listed so far from its original purpose that the deck may no longer be stood upon. 

But when a long train of abuse and usurpations pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a design to reduce them under all but absolute Despotism, it should be their right and their duty to throw off such Government, excepting that such would require far too many of what has become little more than flock of sheeple to remove their morbidly obese, overstuffed faces from the Government trough. Such is now the patient suffering of the people of these States and is now the necessity which constrains them, as the Federal government seeks to alter the last bit of freedom and liberty left in this nation in order to fully embrace the concept that the lack of need for honest labor, for self-reliance, and for personal responsibility are no longer essential to their continued happiness. 

To prove this, let the Facts of our Government be submitted to a candid world. It has confiscated the legitimately earned money of some to in turn give it to others; outside the rule of law, the concept of a legally binding contracts, and the definition of property rights as understood in law for many centuries. 

It has favored Union workers over legitimate investors when dividing up private corporations that it had no right to divide in any way, let alone as it sees fit. It has fired the chief executives of private companies with neither the vote nor approval of that company's Board of Directors. It has forced private companies to accept government funding, and with it government control of its operation. 

It has forced both sale and merger on private companies at the point of a financial gun and the threat of never-ending government-funded investigation and a full-throated, government-backed, negative media campaign. It has appointed the equivalent of government royalty (more commonly known as Czars) to run aspects of private business without either lawful election or the legislative confirmation required of it under the document which defines it. 

It has sought to make equal not the opportunity of all, but the results of all through wealth re-distribution in the form of ill-disguised, onerous, and oppressive taxation. 

Not blameless by any means, in every stage of these Oppressions we citizens have sat idly by for the most part, ignorant by choice to the assault on liberty and freedom and numb to the abuses of power committed upon us. Those few who have humbly begged for a return to Common Sense and a Redress of such past ills as have been committed have been universally maligned and unmercifully vilified for their efforts by both those in power and by the members of the so-called fourth estate who willingly do their bidding. 

We the few who remain standing in righteous indignation therefore, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for rectitude of our intentions, do in the Name, and by the Authority granted us under the original Declaration of Independence, and by the Constitution which it, and by which our Government was designed (and most especially limited), solemnly publish and declare ourselves in opposition to the destruction of freedoms and liberties being perpetrated on us at an ever increasing pace in this country. 

We further declare that we will Peacefully resist further oppression of its people and perversion of its laws to the best of our abilities, and if need be to our final breath. We undertake this endeavor humbly, but firm in our resolve, firm in the belief of our principles, and firm with the knowledge of the rightness of our cause as God has given us the light to see it.

Father's Day 2012

As like you, I gaze at this picture of my father reading one of these postings shortly before his passing, I realized it might be time to take up the still rather painful subject of Father's Day once again. Sitting down to write a bit on the subject is not easy, though there are certainly a number of things running around in the empty space between my ears (an area that scientists have in fact called as close to a perfect vacuum as they have ever seen).  Since it's a subject that I haven't taken up with original material in a couple of years, it's certainly one long overdue for such treatment. 

Dad's are important after all, in spite of the fact that Father's Day is for most of the nation little more than a second tier holiday.  It's certainly one without the stature and hype of Mother's Day (though it's still enough of a holiday to warrant its own mattress sales).  Ties sales leading up to it are not nearly what flower sales are for that of its female gender comparative (probably because ties have seen similar decrease in primacy ... another sad victim of the practice of 'Casual Friday' that has become 'Casual Every Day'). 

It used to be famous however, as the day on which the Bell Telephone company made fortune from having more collect long distance calls made than on any other day, though like Ma Bell that's mostly disappeared since the advent of cell phone packages. (That's right, go ahead and think about it for a minute and the reason will come to you.)  For me, the subject and the holiday take on three separate aspects that I suppose I need to address if this is to be a proper effort.  

The first has to do with the parents that my children have become.  I could not be any prouder of the father that my step-son Joe Highman has become with the three that he calls his own.  The testament to his (though I should perhaps say their) skills are the results that have produced with his wife Laura where Michael, Madeleine, and Andrew are concerned.  It therefore cannot go without saying that the natural pride of a grandparent in three pretty good looking and outstanding young people is doubled and redoubled in the recognition of the parenting skills of one who I once considered a child.   

My son-in-law Jim Demaria has likewise proved himself an able and loving parent.  With my daughter Laura, they have produced a couple of young ladies attractive enough to no doubt give their parents fits in the years ahead when dating begins.  These two grand-offspring are likewise a tribute (and because Jim is a professional photographer and documentary film maker, a well documented tribute) to the parenting skills of two very busy parents.  Their children are two very young people who will go far in life because of the upbringing that they continue to be provided with.

As for my son Sean ... while the only one of my offspring without any of his own, he is usually the beloved favorite of all his nephews and nieces; and seems to find endless amusement in their entertainment.  The talent therefore seems to be present, whether he chooses some day to use it in his own life or not.

The second aspect naturally enough, has to do with a look back on the parent that I have been in my life.  Now I have often believed that there were a number of skills that I possessed, but I can't recall that parenting was ever one of them. (Dancing was another skill in which I was totally lacking, but that's a tale for another day.)  I'm sure that such feelings are natural enough in any of us, and that there is a genetic component involved in feeling that we have somehow never done enough where our offspring are concerned.  In my case however, I found myself wrapped up in a career which now seems all but meaningless instead of in their lives the way I wish I had been.  I was likewise far too often checking up on them from a hotel room hundreds of miles away instead of tucking them in at night.  

I allow myself no excuses for my own lack of diligence in this critical part of my personal responsibilities; but gladly give due credit to the three good women involved with my children's upbringing. (As well as my two wives, I also acknowledge the influence of my own mother on them, especially on Sean and Laura in their early years.)  Again I point to the results of the efforts of these three women (that being three children that I couldn't be more proud of), who took up the slack from my slacking.  While I still don't see any of my progeny as much as I would like to, that I retain a good relationship with all of them remains a source of both relief and pride for me.  

No discussion of fatherhood would of course be complete unless I spoke of my own, one in which I was truly blessed.  I was raised by man who knew a life of responsibility and self-reliance, and did his best to pass it on to me.  In spite of spending most of my younger days working 3rd shift, he was still able to find the time to show me how to throw and catch a baseball or football (as much as my skills would allow anyway), how to cast a fishing line (without throwing the pole into the lake like some sisters I know), how to tune up a car (at least before they put computers on them), and how to build or fix damn near anything that I would ever need in life.  

Not having settled for providing more than the normal parental responsibilities, he went on to mentor and apprentice me in an industry in which he was a world-recognized expert.  Having presented me with the tools to earn my place in life, he went on later to open even more doors for me; becoming a co-worker, manager, and a unreachable goal of accomplishment to set my sights on.  No one was a more demanding task master, a more discriminating critic, and a more fierce advocate.  Though not perhaps a demonstrably affectionate man where I was concerned, there was never any question in my life as to the fierce love that was always there.   

As I write this morning in fact, I find myself all too keenly and painfully acknowledging the conversations that we can no longer have.

So it seems fitting that should once again end an effort on Father's Day with some of the wisdom that I believe he taught me, that I have shared here before, and that hopefully I too have passed on where it can do the most good: 

*  That honesty is the best policy, even if your only reward is that of self-respect.

*  That your word is your bond and everything else is just society's crap.

*  That your reputation is the only thing that you truly possess in life, so make sure you protect it. 

*  That if you work hard it will be rewarded, even if that reward is nothing more that knowing that you did your best.

*  That you will make mistakes in life, but they are rarely permanent; and that it's usually easier to fix them than to admit to them.

         Happy Father's Day!

New Year's Resolutions - 2011 (Part I)

The end of the year is fast upon us, and for many of us it's once more time to make those time honored 'resolutions' of expectations that we have for ourselves for the coming year.  

I find myself on the eve of the election year of 2012 looking at the process much as I did in 2009 in a New Year's Resolution effort for the Toledo Free Press, and added to here in Just Blowing Smoke. I find that in the intervening years, I have held surprisingly firm to those resolutions; so perhaps it's time now to offer a few more serious ones and let you who have lost far too many hours reading the nonsense of JBS decide whether they have value, and whether I stick to them in the days ahead.

• I resolve to treat the pronouncements of Republicans and Democrats (and even Libertarians) with equal disdain, knowing such pronouncements can often be little more than the empty noise of political expediency at best and despicable political pandering at worst.
• I resolve to speak out whenever the opportunity arises against the unjust practice of forcing taxpayers to pay for primary elections in this country. If D's and R's require such ballots to pick candidates, let them pay for the process themselves.  If however, taxpayers are going to be forced to pick up the tab for these increasingly irresponsible organizations, let suffrage be universal and not restricted to club membership.
• I resolve to ignore most of what the 'pundits' say most of the time.  Most of this group is becoming just as guilty of self-serving bullshit as the politicians that they attempt to mold opinion on as they build them up, take them down, and pronounce them suitable for election (or not).
• I resolve to similarly ignore the polls, as they have become similarly tainted by their constant repetition and ever-changing results.  Polls may be of some use to candidates in determining their relative position in a given field or the sound bite that will get them the most media attention, but they are no basis for voters to use in choosing a candidate.  In fact, their influence on recent election process has probably done more harm than good  (at least according to my recent polling numbers). 
• I resolve to call out any misuse of the term 'spending cut'.  No longer allowing those in power to call a reduction in the increase in spending a cut. If you're spending more this year than you did last, and if you're planning on spending more next year, you haven't "CUT" anything. 
• I further resolve to call out any of the accounting trickery used to raise revenues (taxes) now in exchange for spending cuts later for the deceit that they are.  It has long been apparent that in this form of 'Wimpy Economics', taxes do increase, though no spending cuts inevitably occur.  Only changes that take effect immediately on both sides of the equation have equality.
• I resolve to highlight and attack any increase in the federal bureaucracy in this country.  Not only does it increasingly place the real power of government in the hands of people who are at no time responsible to the electorate, but the increasing restriction of their mandates is currently the greatest threat to freedom in this country.
• I resolve to continue to highlight the hypocrisy of politicians on both sides of the aisle talk about the reforms required in government union pensions and entitlement programs, while doing absolutely nothing to reduce the costs of their own compensation packages and pension programs.

At the very least, this should keep me busy enough to stay out of trouble in an election year that promises to be a truly 'target rich' environment.

Happy New Year!

.