New Year’s Resolutions
Seeing that everyone is making a New Year’s resolution, or more than one, I offer my 10 resolutions for 2010 in no particular order.
1) I will not be persuaded to buy a Blackberry, iPod or any other handheld device that combines a phone, computer, camera, apps (whatever the hell they are) text messaging or anything else that allows people to communicate with me when all I want is some privacy.
2) I will continue my policy of never ever watching a reality show whether it be the Housewives from Hell or some idiots who exploit a bunch of kids.
3) I won’t be signing on to Facebook, nor will I Twitter or Tweet. I do a lot of interesting things but I don’t feel I have to tell everyone, nor do I have any desire to post my photo or any info about me so that people who I knew in the past can contact me. If I wanted to stay in touch with anyone, I would have already done so and I would have done it by phone.
4) I will continue to put my shopping cart in the parking lots’ designated drop spots in malls or at supermarkets while glaring or making nasty comments to those people who don’t. When did we start getting so lazy that we can’t walk 20 feet to put a shopping cart out of the way?
5) I will, whenever and wherever possible, help the homeless in any way I can. There might be a bunch of bums amongst them, but the majority are people who really do need our help. There but for the grace of God…….
6) I will not under any circumstance put a television set in my bedroom. A bedroom is for two things only and they both start with S. The choice is yours which is more important.
7) I will continue my quest for the perfect woman, which, I readily admit, is an impossible task but fun pursuing.
8) I will not stop ranting at the greed of big business which is destroying our country nor the bureaucracy of our government that endangers our lives.
9) I will continue to criticize the media who has lost its way and believes they are here to create the news rather than report it.
10) I will pray for peace.
My look back at the good and bad of 2009
Thumbs Up:
1) Pilot Sully Sullenberger for his heroic effort in landing a plane full of passengers and crew on the Hudson River.
2) The inauguration of a black president. A huge step forward for our country whether you voted for him or not.
3) Like it or not, the bailout to the financial industry that kept us from spiraling into a depression that would have devastated our country.
4) An initial bill to overhaul health care and provide it for millions of Americans who are not now insured. Far from perfect, but a start.
5) The continuing efforts of individuals and organizations to rebuild New Orleans and other communities destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. Better late than never.
Thumbs Down:
1) The bailout of General Motors. Like any other business in America, if you can’t compete, you fail and there are no safety nets for the thousands of businesses that go under each year. Does being big make a difference? Shouldn’t. And there are plenty of other car companies who can keep us supplied with vehicles that aren’t getting government handouts.
2) The fiasco surrounding the shooting at Fort Hood and the attempt to blow up a Northwest plane at Christmas as it made its descent to the Detroit airport. Both acts could have been avoided if warning signs had not been dismissed. The passengers on Northwest flight were fortunate that the explosive failed to ignite properly. Not so at Fort Hood where the gunman, an Army major stationed at the base killed 13. Both men charged in the incidents were Muslim terrorists. Time to start racial profiling.
3) The polarization of Congress. We should toss them all out next election or support Independent candidates.
4) The polarization of Americans. We bitch. We gripe. But are we doing anything to change things?
5) The unspent billions of dollars from the stimulus package that were supposed to be used to help get people back to work. Nothing short of criminal.
We Should Learn A Lesson From China
Hats off to China on its execution of a British drug smuggler Tuesday. I applaud them for several reasons. Firstly, because I believe all drug smugglers and dealers who are responsible for the deaths of thousands of people should be put to death. One of the biggest wars we face is that of the drug war and the only way to win it is to go to its source — those people who produce and sell it — and mete out the harshest of penalties.
Secondly, kudos to the Chinese for not giving in to appeals not only by the drug smuggler’s country, Britain, but to other countries who stuck their respective noses in where they didn’t belong. One of the things I admire about China — although there is a lot about that country that I don’t — is the fact that it does what it believes is right and if the world doesn’t like it, too bad.
I only wish our own country would follow China’s example of doing what’s best for America and not be so sensitive about what others might think of any actions we might take. We have become so politically correct that we are putting our country in danger. The greatest threat to us and to the world is terrorism, almost exclusively carried out by Islamic radicals. Yet we refuse to practice racial profiling. When we know that 99 percent of terrorist acts are committed by Arabs why do we bother searching little old ladies, mothers with children and just about anyone else at airports or customs when none of them fit the profile?
The same can be said for torture. If a known terrorist is captured and intel believes he may have knowledge regarding plans for an attack on Americans or anyone else, why shouldn’t we torture them to garner that information? Instead, we treat them with kid gloves rather than steel ones. What kind of people have we turned into if we would rather take the chance of seeing innocent people killed because we didn’t want the world to think we tortured a terrorist who admits to wanting to kill all Americans and infidels?
Not only are we, as Americans, becoming too politically correct, but we are getting too soft. And that combination will prove to be our downfall in the war on terrorism.