Relationships Today: Just a Little Advice

I think I’m going to do something a little different this weekend. Instead of something really controversial like politics or religion I’m going to delve into the realm of relationships. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, who am I to give out advice on something that I can’t even keep together? In answer to that question I will reply that I am very experienced in what NOT to do. After being married three times, three times divorced, having children with all three, I would like to think that I have a pretty good idea of what is going on. I may be wrong on that but I’m going to go with it anyway.

I got married the first time when I was twenty and she was eighteen. She wanted away from home and I wanted someone there. Trust me when I say that when a relationship is built like that it will never work out. Two years later, after she and I were separated, along came a beautiful baby girl. Was I ready to be a parent in any way, shape or form? Not on your life. Thank the gods that my ex-wife was a hell of a lot more mature than I was. My daughter grew to be a fantastic woman with children of her own that have grown into pretty great young people. When my daughter was around three I surrendered parental rights and let her step-dad adopt her. I thought I was doing the right thing.

Relationship number two, that ended in marriage and divorce, came along a few years later when I was 27. I met this girl while I was servicing a truck where I worked. I was covered in grease and oil and this cute little thing came wandering into the shop and started complaining about being stood up by some sop that had made a movie date with her. As it ended up my buddy and I got cleaned up and we both took her to the drive in movie. It was a triple feature that I have no idea what was playing. We talked through the whole damn thing. My buddy? He sat along the wall of the drive in bored out of his mind.

This girl had a three year old boy that was adorable. He came to me one day and asked if I minded if he called me ‘Dad.’ My heart melted. After we got married I adopted him. He was a great kid and I love him as much as if he was my own blood. But, once again, the fates decided that this wasn’t the one, either. We fought constantly about everything. I was a jealous SOB and she was an eighth Crow Indian and had an evil streak that made her want to stir me up.

I was working for Schwan’s at the time and came home one night to a note on the pillow. Yeah! Can you believe that old cliché? I wasn’t sober for about three or four months. I quit working for Schwan’s and went back to real trucking.

Number three was a few months later. I picked her up in a truck stop where she was hitch hiking. It was in Columbia, MO and she was trying to get to Minneapolis. You just don’t get from the middle of Missouri to southern Minnesota very easily. I gave her ride from there to Indiana and then back to Des Moines and put her on a truck headed to Minneapolis. A couple of months later she was back and in the truck with me.

To make this story shorter, in the ten years we were together we moved from Des Moines to Portland, my beautiful baby daughter was born four months after her mother turned eighteen and my son was born two and half years later. My boy was born in New York while I was still in Portland, OR. Yeah, I’m a dick and she thought I wasn’t paying enough attention to her so she took my daughter across the country for a year. She came back to Portland and then we moved around the country while I was trucking again. We ended up in Fremont, NE where it finally came to an end.

Now, don’t get me wrong. Every time I got married it was forever but, there is that little problem of me being a dick. When I got together with the last one I told her that I didn’t own her and she didn’t own me; as long as my children were taken care of she did what she wanted and I was not going to change my lifestyle of trucking. I didn’t cheat on her. I am NOT that kind of driver. I am loyal to a fault and once committed that is all she wrote. No.3 and I never fought until that last night when she walked out on me and the kids.

Throughout all three of these relationships there is one common denominator: my attitude that I was not owned by anyone and I was going to do what I wanted regardless. Don’t get me wrong, I did my best to take care of my family and my children are my world. That was probably the biggest thing, I paid more attention to my kids than the other half. Not the best way to keep a relationship together.

In any relationship it has to be a two way street. It cannot just go one way. Give and take and if you give a little more than you take then it will, more than likely, stay together; if there is any chance that one is taking more than the other it will end in disaster. Communication is just as important. If you can’t talk things through, you get angry and go to bed that way, you will end up as bitter enemies. You have to be able to compromise in all things. And, this one is very important, if you try to change someone that you are with, you’ve lost. You didn’t fall in love with what you want to change them into. You fell in love with what they are.

In today’s world I’ve watched these kids from 14 to 20 do their utmost to get into a serious relationship and have kids. Stupidest thing they could do. These kids are just as immature as we were back in the 70’s but they think they are much more grown up. I throw down the BS card on that. These girls today think they can be moms at 14, 16, 18 years old. They can’t. And these boys won’t be ready to be dads until they reach about 30.

I’ve seen girls destroy boy’s lives because they didn’t get what they wanted, which was to have a baby, and then if they do get what they want, they destroy that poor boy’s life and her own. Well, maybe not destroy but definitely make it exponentially harder. Life is NOT easier with a baby on your hip. When I was young and you had a child, that child was yours to take care of. Today, I constantly see posts on Facebook or hear girls cry because they need time off from their children. These girls seem to think that having a living child is like taking care of that stupid doll they have in high school independent living class. It isn’t.

Who is to blame for this social problem? I blame us. By ‘us’ I mean the parents of these children that think they are grown up at 14. We have become so complacent and relaxed in parenting that these kids are basically raising themselves. That doesn’t bring about morally adept children. They start sleeping with the opposite sex at 14 just to have someone to sleep next to. Next thing you know they’re doing the dirty with whoever it is next to them without protection and then, BAM, they’re pregnant and think they’re gonna get a Sony TV. Oh, sorry. That baby that is growing in there suddenly becomes one of two things: an income from a poor, unemployed teenaged boy and the government or, it’s an inconvenience and needs to be aborted.

My best advice to anyone from 14 to 25 – stay single, enjoy life, get set financially then start thinking about getting into a serious relationship. The world isn’t going to end if you don’t get serious with someone before you’re 30. Kids are wonderful gifts that require a LOT of work and a lot of money. Stay children for as long as you can. Being grown up is not as great as what it’s advertised to be. Life is hard enough by yourself and it isn’t any easier when you have others that you are responsible for. Relationships don’t last. I’ve known people that were married for decades that broke apart. Children aren’t mature enough to even know what love is much less what commitment and loyalty are. Most girls are out to get into a boy’s wallet and get a baby for an income. Boys are out to get their wedding tackle wet, period.

Those last two statements are generalities; there are those rare boys and girls that are actually loyal and true. If you can find one, keep them. The biggest problem is that those with good hearts, the loyal, are taken advantage of more often than not by those that are so immature that they can’t see beyond their own noses. Hedonism runs rampant in today’s world and that is the saddest thing that could ever happen. Dorian Grey is king; the only problem there is that these modern Dorian’s aren’t immortal.

Kennedy, Trump and Hitler

“Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country”; a statement made so many years ago by one of America’s most beloved Presidents, John F. Kennedy. JKF was not a President without conflict, trials and tribulations, or even scandal; still, he was loved by the majority of the country.

Dwight Eisenhower didn’t like him because of his youth. The Republicans didn’t like him because he was socialistic democrat, and a Catholic. Yet, this young man narrowly won the election from Richard Nixon in 1960 becoming the youngest man to be elected. Sadly, barely a thousand days into his presidency, JFK was shot and killed in Dallas, Texas, thus becoming the youngest President to die.

From the very beginning of his administration, JFK was tested. In April of 1961 he initiated the failed Bay of Pigs operation to try and overthrow Fidel Castro. Later that year, in June, he met with Nikita Khrushchev to deal with the division of Berlin and then in October of 1962 he met with Khrushchev, again, to deal with the Cuban Missile crisis. In 1963, Kennedy escalated the US’s involvement in Vietnam to try and curb the spread of communism.

Because of America’s moved beloved President, the Civil Rights movement made great leaps, the Peace Corp was established and the United States geared up its space program. Both good and bad came out of the Kennedy Presidency, as does almost every administration.

Where am I going with this article besides a history lesson? I just wanted to show that even though a man is both loved and hated, has an administration that doesn’t get everything done that was promised, presents a Presidency filled with trials and tribulations, that administration, that man, can do great things and become a great President.

Donald Trump is such a President. He is hated by the left, his policies are obstructed by the left, he is fighting a battle that he may not win on a lot of issues but he is fighting for America. He is fighting to make America great again, to keep the socialistic/communistic policies that a far left wing party would like to see instituted into our country. Does this mean that he will be the next John Fitzgerald Kennedy? Highly doubtful. What he very well could become is one of the most prolific policy changers that ever sat in the Oval Office if the left would just stop obstructing everything just because it comes from someone who they didn’t believe would ever become President of the United States.

The far left has often times compared Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler. There is absolutely no comparison there. There is a much closer comparison between John Kennedy and Donald Trump. Hitler was a monster out to control the world and eliminate anyone that he did not believe was of the perfect race. Hitler was not a blond haired, blue eyed German. He was a dark haired, dark eyed Austrian. Hitler killed over 6 million Jews because he believed them to be the scourge of the Earth. He also ruled with an iron fist.

Donald Trump has made some pretty off-the-cuff remarks against several nationalities including our southern neighbors, the Mexicans. One thing that people need to understand is that he is not out to kill off any nationality. The only ones that Donald Trump wants to eliminate is the Radical Islamic Terrorist organization known as ISIS. If he was the same as Hitler, he would be killing off Muslims just as Hitler killed off Jews.

As for ruling with an iron fist, the Donald really isn’t. Yes, he gets extremely pissed off at the media and all the leaks of classified information from our own Intelligence agencies but he isn’t controlling what is going on and censoring said media. As for the leaks, that is a national security issue and needs to be dealt with.

So, in conclusion, please, let the President do what he needs to get our country back to the greatness it once was. The paid protests, the obstruction in Congress, the constant berating really needs to stop so that the rest of the world can see that we are a UNITED country that is strong and committed to keeping our borders secure, the defeat of ISIS and helping our allies protect themselves.

I Have No Respect for the Far Left Anymore

Over the last few months, well, actually since the election in November, I’ve gotten to the point where I don’t even have the smallest amount of respect for the liberal left. Now, to be forthright, it isn’t all liberals. There are some on the left that aren’t totally insane but, for the most part, a person cannot have a decent debate with a liberal from the far left.

It isn’t that I can’t speak my mind or give facts to disprove a liberal’s opinion. I do that on an everyday basis. Where the problem lies is in the fact that the far left have it in their mind that no matter what our President does, it is wrong. The far left is on a mission to destroy Donald Trump at all cost. It doesn’t matter that everyone in the Intelligence Community has stated over and over that there is no evidence that there was collusion between the Russians and the Trump Team to swing the vote toward Trump. It doesn’t matter that there is evidence that the Obama Administration was surveilling the Trump Team at Trump Tower for over a year before the election. It doesn’t matter that Trump is doing everything he can to keep the Radical Islamic Terrorists out of the country and to take down their strongholds. All that matters to the far left is that Trump must be destroyed.

I have inquired many times to my left leaning friends as to what, exactly, they want out of the government. I have yet to get an answer that makes any sense. All they tell me is they want Trump out of office because he is destroying the country. How is he destroying the country? They really don’t have any concrete answer to that other than he is trying to take insurance away from the poor, putting gays back in the closet, starting WWIII and that he is a misogynist, fascist, bigot and racist. None of these things is even close to the truth yet that is what they believe.

What is Trump trying to do? Let’s go through the list:

·         Secure the nation’s borders against illegal crossing

·         Bring businesses and jobs back into the country and keep them from leaving the country

·         Replacing the failing Affordable Care Act that is definitely NOT affordable to anyone other than the poor who don’t pay for health insurance anyway

·         Destroying the Radical Islamic Terrorist Threat

·         Building back our military to the strength it was before Obama castrated it

·         Building back the respect of the world for our country that it had before Obama destroyed it

·         Standing up for our allies, including Israel, instead of embracing our enemies as Obama did

·         Making the NATO allies pay their share of the cost of defending the member nations

·         Becoming more of a nationalist country where America comes before other nations

·         Strengthening the American economy

These things are not destroying the country; they are making America great again. The President doesn’t want to undo the liberal ideology of equal rights for every so-called minority (i.e. gay rights, women’s rights, etc.). He does want to rein in the idiocy of some of those Obama policies such as men in the women’s restroom. If making this country great again, bringing it back to the respected, feared nation it was before the Obama Administration, is destroying it, then I am all for it. The Socialist/Communist ideology of the far left is not what built this nation. It was the conservative values of self-reliance, morals and values of the Christian faith, small government and states regulating themselves instead of the Federal Government regulating the citizens.

The Bernie Sanders/Hillary Clinton/Barack Obama far left liberals are what are destroying this country with their Socialist/Communist ideology of more government control and dependence, fewer rights (such as doing away with the Second Amendment), open borders, allowing illegals to have the same rights and privileges as natural or naturalized citizens and the immoral values of gender neutral society without any form of religious morals or values at all, except those of the Sharia Law as long as they don’t offend anyone on the left.

Have I tried to have intellectual debates with liberals? Of course I have. They only degrade me and call me a racist, fascist and bigot that has been brainwashed by the conservative right. If only they could understand that I do my best to see things from all sides and make decisions based on what I feel is right or wrong. I grew up in a free America without all the far left socialism that they want to bring on these days. We had a Democratic Republic that worked well. Now, I don’t know what we have. All I do know is that the far left needs to get their heads out of their asses and quit dressing up as vaginas to protest things that aren’t even happening.

I have zero respect for the liberal left anymore because of their idiocy. They think that the Trump Train is making America a laughingstock. It was Obama’s effeminate lack of leadership and the left’s own idiotic actions that are making a laughingstock of this nation. It is their constant war against the Trump Administration and their constant undermining of the authority of the office of President that makes the world wonder if we are trustworthy. Until the far left can get their act together they will get no respect from me nor will I even attempt to see their side of any issue. It just isn’t worth the drama.

A Very Sad State of Affairs

First of all let me get this out of the way: I stated at the very beginning that if Donald Trump wavered I would be one of the first to call him out. As you all know, very well, I call out the liberals constantly because I have a very conservative political view. That being said, I will get into the reason for this article.

The past week has been pretty… exciting? Bashar al Assad allegedly gassed his own people with Siran gas, one of the worst, because he’s just an asshole like that. Trump, not having drawn the line but not letting some Russian backed dictator cross it, used fifty nine Tomahawk missiles to level one airfield that the Syrian dictator (and the Russians) were using within hours afterward; this being done while our President was having a state dinner with the President of China. Rex Tillerson was in Russia speaking with his counterpart, Sergei Lavrov and then actually got to talk with good old Vlad Putin, himself.

Now, to top that off, our friend in North Korea decided to test more nukes and the Donald sent a few Navy ships toward the Korean peninsula as a show of force. Having LittleMan Sydrome, Kim Jung Un, the North Korean midget in charge decided to threaten the United States with nuclear war if we so much as fired one shot into his country.

Wow! Just….wow! Nothing like making history or watching it happen before your very eyes; I now know how the colonists felt as the Founding Fathers decided to declare our independence and then war against England.

Is it the end of times? I doubt it. Even though the North Korean midget in charge is a crazy bastard that would actually fire nuclear warheads at one of the two most powerful nations on the planet, I don’t think China would allow it. Although, it doesn’t seem as though China has a whole lot of sway over what Kim does anymore.

So, with all that out of the way, as a side note, if you want to get the shit kicked out of you just fly United Airlines on an overbooked flight. It isn’t enough that you get groped and prodded and interrogated and treated like you’re an Islamic Terrorist by the TSA in the airports, now you get to be treated like that on one of the biggest air carriers. Gotta love America.

Now to get to the heart and soul of what I want to say. This isn’t gonna make any liberal happy. President Trump did exactly what he should have done by tossing some explosives at Syria. I think he may have overdone it a little but, the thought was right. He did what King Obama should have done when the midget crossed HIS red line. Instead, the King decided to hang back and let the little bastard do what he wanted.

Did the Donald do anything to start WWIII? Nope. Hate to tell you this, folks, that war started on September 11, 2001. Even with the controversy (conspiracy?) of exactly what happened that fateful day as the World Trade Center fell, that was when this bloody war started. I know that I have a hard time believing the good ol’ government that it was Islamic Terrorists given HOW the buildings fell and that in the beginning there was actually no airplane in the wall of the Pentagon. That notwithstanding, the war started with George W. Bush against Saddam Hussein.

Now, with the downfall of the almighty Clinton Empire, the liberals are waging a war of their own against fellow Americans because they didn’t get their way; even the Congress is involved within their own hallowed halls, liberals against conservatives. Damn that Donald Trump! How dare he win a rigged election against him. Hillary was supposed to win so that she could finish off turning this country into a Socialist State.

First was the Russian hacking that, by the way, COULD have been our own Intelligence Community pretending to be Russian hackers. Then it turned into Russian collusion with the Trump Team. Then, lo and behold, came attacks on Team Trump associates. Liberal attacks at every level. Attorney General Jeff Sessions reclusing himself from overseeing investigations against the Trump Team then Devon Nunez reclusing himself from the same for the same reason – liberal allegations of biased investigating. Yeah, the war is in full swing and the liberals are flinging everything they can at the conservatives. Unfortunately, it seems as though the libs are in the lead by a league and the conservatives keep holding back.

It kinda makes a person wonder about what is going on in Washington. Is the Donald really ‘draining the swamp’ or is the swamp swallowing his administration one position at a time without any defense against it?

Why is the surveilling of Trump Tower a year before the election by the Obama Administration not being thoroughly investigated with hard evidence that it did happen while the Russian collusion is being beaten into the ground with all the Intelligence Community saying there is absolutely no evidence of it? Why is the Clinton Foundation not being investigated? Why is the Hillary email scandal a thing of the past, forgotten amongst the liberal outcry against the conservatives? Are the conservatives in DC really wanting to lose in 2018, 2020 and beyond?

There are more questions than answers in the world today. Why is Vlad so intent on supporting Assad when he knows that the Syrian dictator broke international law by using chemical weapons against his own people? Why is Kim Jung Un playing big man against an adversary that could wipe him off the face of the Earth? Why does Mexico get all pissed because Trump wants to build a wall to stop illegal immigration when they won’t allow Americans to illegally enter their country? Why do Americans want illegals to stay, no matter if they commit violent crimes against Americans?

The biggest question is this: why do we have to ask these questions? Isn’t the government supposed to be doing a thorough investigation into all things illegal that I’ve asked about? Why isn’t the Congressional committees demanding the ‘evidence’ that Susan Rice left with her unmasking scandal? Why won’t the FBI cooperate with Congress on this? Is the swamp so dense and thick that they don’t care about the law when that law is broken against the conservative party?

Yes, my friends, the war has already started. The evidence is there for anyone to see if they look with open eyes instead of a closed mind. World War III and a Civil War are going on at this very minute, this day, this month, this year and will continue as long as we, the People, allow it to. The question about this is what can we do about it? We are only a country of pampered children that want given to us what our parents and forefathers had to work hard for, fight and die for. So, what can we do? QUIT PLAYING BY THEIR RULES. I’m not advocating a violent rebellion such as the Founding Fathers had to resort to. I’m talking about not doing what the elitists want. Quit fighting about policy. Quit fighting about platform. Quit fighting about civil rights that aren’t being ignored. All these things are just distractions that have been bought and paid for by the richest of the rich.

You really think that Black Lives Matter started out as a terrorist organization bent against law enforcement and the establishment? I doubt it. Do you really think that all these gay rights activists really think that the LBGT community doesn’t have equal rights? There will always be discrimination by some but the majority of the people don’t adhere to such practices. Do you really think that keeping illegal immigrants in this country is really helping us out? Do you really think that we should bring those refugees into the country when there are places in their own region that could house and protect them better while staying with their own culture? The only refugees that WANT to come here are the terrorists and you are inviting them in.

All these things are orchestrated acts to keep us distracted from the real world and what is going on. There will always be war, discrimination, bullying, differences of opinion and viewpoint. Nothing can be done about that. What can be done is forgetting about all the shit that is being shoved down our throats and look behind the scenes to see what is actually going on. They don’t want us to get along. They love us to fight each other. That keeps them in power. OUR TIME IS NOW! Join the passive rebellion and quit doing what they want.  Liberal, conservative, socialist, communist, dictator or freely elected leader, it doesn’t matter, we are all being blindsided by an evil terrorist organization more secret than any other before. We are all just pawns on their chessboard and we are willingly entertaining them.

Open your eyes. Open your mind. Choose what you want. Fight on your feet for real freedom or die on your knees subjugated by the elitists. It’s your choice. 

Life is Like a Bowl of Cherries Just like Erma Said

Life is like a bowl of cherries. Erma Bombeck titled one of her books by that name. I have never read it, at least in its entirety. In fact, I really can’t recall one story in that book as it was many, many years ago that I actually read parts of it but, I know, that Erma Bombeck was a very intelligent author. She wrote her humorous stories around actual events in her life and experiences in a way that was entertaining, humorous and, if read in the right frame of mind, educational.

Why did I choose this as the main topic of this article? I chose ‘life is like a bowl of cherries’ because, through the past week, I have lived that bowl of cherries. Along with that wondrous juicy red fruit that is so delicious, there are always those damnable pits.

I have a friend that has told me for years that I am the only person he knows that can think himself into a bad mood. With my choice of career I have plenty of time to think about things. Amazingly enough, this past week there have been many, many things to think about from the Senate’s agonizing debates about Judge Neil Gorsuch to the bombing of a Syrian airstrip along with enough every day, non-political, work related subjects to choke the life out of anything.

The point I want to make, here at the start of this article is this: Life is actually pretty good for most people here in the good ol’ USA. Most, but not all; I have it decent. I have a pretty good paying job that I really enjoy, a roof over my head and food in the fridge. My bills are paid and nothing is getting shut off so why would I say anything about the ‘pits?’ Without the dark, we wouldn’t know anything about the light. For example, today started pretty good as I got to my receiver at a good time with only a few trucks ahead of me; I waited only a short time before being put into a dock door and it seemed I would get home early. That is as far as the good went. I waited over seven hours to get unloaded and almost an hour after that to get my paperwork. After leaving the receiver I was driving along at the speed limit, got behind a slow pickup truck, moved over to the fast lane to go around and the damn pickup truck decided to match my speed thus making me back traffic up behind me.

No big deal you would think, just slow down, get back behind him and travel on. Let me let you in on a little secret there: personal vehicle drivers do not like trucks. On any given day I will get slowed down by people that speed up when I try to get around them only to slow back down when I can’t and get behind them again numerous times. As a professional driver in a vehicle governed at 64 miles an hour I am at the mercy of a lot of things. I’ve been cut off by people that had to get in front of me, just to slow down or make that exit ramp that I just passed. I’ve had people pull out in front of me with less than a truck length between us. It gets more than a little annoying.

Today, being aggravated by the slow unload, this driver just pissed me off. As traffic is backing up behind me and this idiot not letting me by I blew my horn at him. Now, he could have sped up or slowed down, either way, no big deal; what did he do? He hit the brakes, looked up at me through the window and pulled off the highway. I’m expecting a call from the company about this as I am sure he took down the company name and trailer number because I was being an ass. I could have done more, like start to pull over into his lane to get him to move the hell out of my way for one thing.

As you see, with the day starting as that sweet, juicy, delicious fruit of me going home, getting to the receiver and getting into a door early, there came the pit of taking most of the day to get unloaded and then an idiot driver. Life was definitely a bowl of cherries today.

Another great author that I have come to admire is Sherrilyn Kenyon. For those that have been living under a rock or don’t read anything but Forbes and the Wall Street Journal, Ms. Kenyon writes fantasy/adventure/romance novels (the only reason they are romance is that she does put some pretty graphic sex scenes in there and the main character ALWAYS gets what they want). Maybe you have heard of her Dark Hunter, Dream Hunter, League or Chronicles of Nick books that are international best sellers. My personal favorites are the Chronicles of Nick, the adventures of a teenaged Cajun from New Orleans that has an attitude.

Why do I put her up there with such a writer as Erma Bombeck? Sherrilyn Kenyon was an abused child and she persevered and won the day. She survived and thrived through things that would permanently scar most people. She puts the wisdom of those years and her survival into her writing. Her characters, for the most part, are hundreds, if not thousands, of years old (the oldest that I recall is an Atlantean god that is slightly over eleven thousand years old. When a character has lived as many lifetimes as hers have, they gain a lot of life wisdom.

Ms. Kenyon’s characters have been betrayed by loved ones, been tortured by enemies, lived through hell and, in the end, won the day by perseverance and sheer determination not to let life run them over. Some, the Dark Hunters, have even by murdered in some of the most heinous ways only to be brought back by the Greek goddess Artemis as warriors against evil. Even then, these people have stories to tell and wisdom to share.

The point I am getting at is this: there are a lot of times that the gods make humans their punching bags and don’t give a rat’s ass what happens to us. It is up to us, the human race, to decide whether we will let life kill us or we go over, under, around or through the hardships and keep fighting. There is always something to keep fighting for: a loved one, an important cause, honor.

With all that is going on in the world today, especially since the election in November, there have been a lot of times when people have asked me how my day is, I’ve replied, ‘If it got any better I may as well take off my own head.” After years of fighting depression, it’s getting kind of hard to keep fighting the good fight for me but I do. I fight on because I have things worth fighting for, even if some of those things don’t care about me. As Dom Torreto said in Fast & Furious, “Never give up on family, even if they do.” I happen to have a lot of family, most of which are not blood.

To sum it all up, it doesn’t matter if you are liberal or conservative, Democrat or Republican, wealthy or poor, mentally balanced or have mental illness, physically healthy or ill, there is always something or someone that needs you, would miss you, would die without you. It doesn’t matter who is in the White House, Congress, Supreme Court, who controls what country, who has done this or that, we all have our roles to play. What we do today, what we say tomorrow, what has happened in the past or will happen in the future, does not matter one iota to the Universe. It will all fade into nothingness through the mists of time. What will remain is whether we kept going, kept fighting for life or whether we gave in and ended it all without a fight.

Over, under, around or through, there is always a way. The gods are childish, narcissistic asses that look at the human race as entertainment. We only get what we earn by working for it and there will be no one there to help us. Friends come and go. We can’t take anything with us and no one gets out of life alive. It is our decisions whether our lives are a beach or a bitch. If you want some good life lessons, some good outlooks on life, read some Erma Bombeck and Sherrilyn Kenyon. There are other great authors out there that, through telling their stories, have wisdom to give but these two are my favorites. Give it try, read instead of staring at your phone or computer screen or game console. Chronicles of Nick, Life is Like a Bowl of Cherries, House of Darke (by Colin R Parsons), Wizard’s Quest (by yours truly) are a few titles for life lessons through stories. Fahrenheit 451, Animal Farm, Dangerous Minds, Divergent, a few other titles for what life could be, even the Harry Potter and Percy Jackson series’ can be more than entertainment if you really sit down and read them.

Don’t let politics, religion, nationality, or ideology cloud your mind. Life IS a bowl of cherries; all you have to do is spit the pits out and keep eating the sweet stuff….  

A Better Health Care System

Congress, that hallowed hall of officials duly elected by the citizens (and in some cases illegal aliens depending on which state you want to talk about), is supposed to represent the wishes of the people from whichever state they came from, has become an institution that represents itself. The House of Representatives and the Senate have become so engrossed in their own power that they seem to do what they want regardless of what the people of the nation want. They write and pass laws on a regular basis based on their own ideals; a lot of times only to increase their own wealth and power within the confines of the political arena.

As of the writing of this article, national healthcare is one of the biggest issues facing the nation, and the Congress. What was passed into law in 2010 was forced through without being read by any of the representatives being able to read it, being told they had to vote it through to find out what was in it. What was in it was a lot of mandates that have shown to be so unaffordable that insurance companies are dropping out of it faster than flies on Raid. The only people that have benefitted from the Affordable Care Act are those that are too poor to afford insurance but too rich to be on Medicaid; in other words, a small minority.

Now, with a Republican Congress that has promised to repeal and replace the ACA for eight years and a Republican in the White House, it seems that changing the government controlled healthcare system should be quite easy. Not so. It has come about that even within the Party there are disagreements as to just how to make a government controlled healthcare system work for everyone. All the while, the people of the nation are becoming increasingly anxious as to just what is going to happen with their healthcare.

For those that are buying individual, private policies, the premiums keep rising; for those on company policies, the premiums keep rising; for those on Medicaid, no worries and those on the ACA, well, they wonder if they will have health insurance. The American taxpayers, the citizens of this nation, are the ones that are worried. Congress, on the other hand, has no worries as they have the best health coverage in the nation totally paid for by the taxpayer.

With liberals and conservatives at each other’s throats arguing for and against the ACA and its failing, complex system, Representatives and Senators sit back and try to find some form of government controlled system that will reap the most money for them and still have people insured for health care. What I don’t understand is what the big deal is about this. I really think that, even though health care needed some restructuring before Mr. Obama decided to get government into the medical field, it wasn’t that bad. Premiums were affordable and the people could go where they wanted. Now, there are people that have no coverage because there are no insurance companies where they are that are willing to stay in the ‘exchanges’ set up by the ACA because they were losing too much money. After all, it is hard to make money when healthy, young people don’t buy into it and sick people are taking away from it. I, for one, would rather pay the ‘penalty’ for not having insurance that is about one quarter the cost of paying high premiums with high deductibles that I would never reach. In other words, I was paying for any health care I received out of pocket anyway.

One way to clear this problem up would be to force our elected officials to use whatever system they come up with just like everyone else. Either that, or get government out of the medical field altogether. Another way would be to regulate the big pharmaceutical companies, hospitals, doctors and insurance companies so that they don’t overcharge for medical services and medicines. Maybe if our elected officials would stop receiving big payoffs from the pharmaceutical companies it would help.

The United States of America is not a socialist country. This nation was not built on any form of socialistic ideology; therefore, it is the people’s responsibility to take care of themselves, not the government’s. Capitalism is what built this country with all its pros and cons. Self-reliance made this country great. Innovation cannot be controlled by government and a socialist government cannot be innovative.

It is time to rein in the abuse of power of a corrupt Congress. Term limits without the ‘retirement’ plan that pays them full salary for the rest of their lives, even after only one term. Time to take back our government and get rid of the corruption and abuse of power; OUR TIME IS NOW! 

Religions of the World, Ancient and Modern

I have studied many religions over the decades. In recent years, due to my writing stories about the beginning of the world, ancient religions have been a research topic. I realize that modern day religions are nothing like the ‘mythologies’ of the ancient world but, what makes modern religion any more right than that of the Mesopotamians, Egyptians, Greeks or Romans? Let’s take a walk down the religion path from ancient Mesopotamia to modern day America.

Religion (from the Latin Religio, meaning 'restraint,' or Relegere, according to Cicero, meaning 'to repeat, to read again,' or, most likely, Religionem, 'to show respect for what is sacred') is an organized system of beliefs and practices revolving around, or leading to, a transcendent spiritual experience. There is no culture recorded in human history which has not practiced some form of religion.

The Greek philosopher Xenophanes of Colophon (c. 570-478 BCE) once wrote:

“Mortals suppose that the gods are born and have clothes and voices and shapes like their own. But if oxen, horses and lions had hands or could paint with their hands and fashion works as men do, horses would paint horse-like images of gods and oxen oxen-like ones, and each would fashion bodies like their own. The Ethiopians consider the gods flat-nosed and black; the Thracians blue-eyed and red-haired.”

Xenophanes idea of one god was not widely accepted. Ancient people believed that there was a different god for different things much like there were different people for different things much like doctor’s specialties. A monotheistic religion really didn’t start until Judaism came around and that wasn’t widely accepted at first. But, that is getting ahead of the timeline.

Ancient Mesopotamia has the earliest known record of religion, dating from somewhere around 3500 BC (I will continue to use the old standard of BC and AD, I do not subscribe to the new BCE and CE that is now used) from Sumer. These people believed that the gods were co-workers alongside humanity, not some distant, invisible deity that just oversaw what went on down on the Earth.

Marduk defeated Tiamat and the forces of chaos to create the world. Unfortunately, those forces of chaos weren’t completely helpless and could possibly regain their strength and take over again so humanity had to work alongside the gods to keep them at bay. That is why humans were created, to work with, and for, the gods toward a mutually beneficial end.

Inanna, the goddess of love, sex, and war later was taken over as Ishtar of the Akkadians (and later the Assyrians), Astarte of the Phoenicians, Sauska of the Hurrians-Hittites, and was associated with Aphrodite of the Greeks, Isis of the Egyptians, and Venus of the Romans.

Egyptian ‘mythology’ was first recorded around 4000 BC and their gods were already well established. The Egyptian creation was much similar to that of the Mesopotamians, starting out as chaos and being formed into the different aspects of the earth and sky. And, as with most mythologies, each god was charged with taking care of a different aspect. Osiris was the ultimate judge of who entered into eternal life by weighing the heart of the soul of the individual in the Hall of Truth, much like the Christian God writes the names of those destined for Heaven in the Book of Life.

Egyptian religion was similar to Mesopotamian belief, however, in that human beings were co-workers with the gods to maintain order. The principle of harmony (known to the Egyptians as ma'at) was of the highest importance in Egyptian life (and in the afterlife), and their religion was fully integrated into every aspect of existence. Egyptian religion was a combination of magic, mythology, science, medicine, psychiatry, spiritualism, herbology, as well as the modern understanding of 'religion' as belief in a higher power and a life after death. The gods were the friends of human beings and sought only the best for them by providing them with the most perfect of all lands to live in and an eternal home to enjoy when their lives on earth were done.

Religion is thought to have developed around 4500 BC in China having been a mix of animism and mythology as designs of animals and dragons have been found on ceramics of the time period; by the time of the Xia Dynasty (2070-1600 BC), the Chinese had many anthropomorphic gods that were worshiped with a chief god, Shangti, presiding over all. This belief continued, with modifications, during the period of the Shang Dynasty (1600-1046 BC) which developed the practice of ancestor worship.

This ancestor worship influenced the two greatest Chinese religions of Confucianism and Taoism in which ancestor worship was the most important tenet. In time, Tian (heaven) replaced Shangti. To get into heaven, one had to cross the Bridge of Forgetfulness and drink from a cup to purge all memories of life. If judged worthy, you crossed the bridge, which spanned an abyss, if not, you fell into the abyss (hell). Another ideology to this is that a soul as reincarnated after drinking from the cup. Either way, the living were expected to remember the dead and honor them.

Hinduism, the oldest religion still practiced today, was first recorded around 700 BC. Hinduism is usually thought of as a polytheistic religion but is actually henotheistic. The one supreme god, Brahma is too immense a concept to comprehend so he presents himself in many different aspects that a human mind can comprehend; Hindu scripture counts these deities at 330 million.

In Hinduism there is an order to the universe and every individual has a specific place in that order. Each person on the planet has a duty (dharma) which only they can perform. If one acts rightly (karma) in the performance of that duty, they are rewarded by moving closer to the supreme being and eventually becoming one with god; if they do not, then they are reincarnated as many times as it takes to finally understand how to live and draw closer to the supreme being. This belief was carried over by Siddhartha Gautama when he became the Buddha and founded Buddhism. In Buddhism, however, one is not seeking union with god but with one's higher nature as one leaves behind the illusions of the world which generate suffering and cloud the mind with the fear of loss and death.

(Hinduism, according to hinduismfacts.org, originated sometime during the Neolithic period between 10000 and 4000 BC. It is difficult to pinpoint a date as Hinduism did not start out as a religion but rather a way of life.)

The above information was gleaned from Ancient History Encyclopedia, Religion in the Ancient World, John J Mark published 02 September, 2009 (www.ancient.eu/religion)

At this juncture, I should probably give definitions to the different forms of religion. The definitions are from Merriam-Webster Dictionary online.

Polytheism: the belief there is more than one god.

Henotheism:  the worship of one god without denying the existence of other gods.

Monotheism: the belief there is only one god.

Let’s go on to a couple of better known religions (mythologies), the Greek and Roman. Greek mythology is believed to first appear about 2000 BC and the Roman around 1000 BC. As with most polytheistic religions, the Greeks and Romans had different gods for different areas of life and the elements. Each of the 21 gods of the Greeks were taken over by the Romans, renamed and given slightly different attributes such as Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades for the heavens, the sea and the underworld in the Greek with Jupiter, Neptune and Pluto being the Roman counterparts were the top three gods each. The creation of the earth, as with most mythologies, begins with a supreme being creating the world and first people out of chaos.

According to Reference.com/world-view, Judaism originated around 4000 years ago in the area between the Jordan and the Mediterranean known as Canaan, which today would be Israel, Gaza and the West Bank.  Primaryhomeworkhelp.co.uk/religion/jewish says Jewish history begins with the covenant established between God and Abraham around 1812 and the Torah, the primary document of Judaism, was given to the Jews by the Prophet Moses about 3,300 years ago.

What do the Jewish people believe? Jewfaq.org, on their Judaism 101 page has this to say:

Judaism has no dogma, no formal set of beliefs that one must hold to be a Jew. In Judaism, actions are far more important than beliefs, although there is certainly a place for belief within Judaism.

The closest that anyone has ever come to creating a widely-accepted list of Jewish beliefs is Rambam's thirteen principles of faith. These principles, which Rambam thought were the minimum requirements of Jewish belief, are:

    God exists

    God is one and unique

    God is incorporeal

    God is eternal

    Prayer is to be directed to God alone and to no other

    The words of the prophets are true

    Moses' prophecies are true, and Moses was the greatest of the prophets

    The Written Torah (first 5 books of the Bible) and Oral Torah (teachings now contained in the Talmud and other writings) were given to Moses

    There will be no other Torah

    God knows the thoughts and deeds of men

    God will reward the good and punish the wicked

    The Messiah will come

    The dead will be resurrected

As you can see, these are very basic and general principles. Yet as basic as these principles are, the necessity of believing each one of these has been disputed at one time or another, and the liberal movements of Judaism dispute many of these principles.

Unlike many other religions, Judaism does not focus much on abstract cosmological concepts. Although Jews have certainly considered the nature of God, man, the universe, life and the afterlife at great length, there is no mandated, official, definitive belief on these subjects, outside of the very general concepts discussed above. There is substantial room for personal opinion on all of these matters.

Judaism focuses on relationships: the relationship between God and mankind, between God and the Jewish people, between the Jewish people and the land of Israel, and between human beings. Our scriptures tell the story of the development of these relationships, from the time of creation, through the creation of the relationship between God and Abraham, to the creation of the relationship between God and the Jewish people, and forward. The scriptures also specify the mutual obligations created by these relationships, although various movements of Judaism disagree about the nature of these obligations. Some say they are absolute, unchanging laws from God (Orthodox); some say they are laws from God that change and evolve over time (Conservative); some say that they are guidelines that you can choose whether or not to follow (Reform, Reconstructionist).

So, what are these actions that Judaism is so concerned about? According to Orthodox Judaism, these actions include 613 commandments given by God in the Torah as well as laws instituted by the rabbis and long-standing customs.

Christianity, of course, started a little over 2000 years ago when Jesus was preaching to the Hebrews about God, was crucified and then resurrected to live with the Holy Father in Heaven. The Holy Bible is the history, belief, laws and story of the Christian world.

What are the core beliefs of Christianity? This is what gotquestions.org/Christianity-beliefs has to say:

The term Christianity seems to imply a religious system in the same way that Islam and Buddhism are religious systems. Within religious systems are core beliefs, along with codes, rules, and standards that must be mastered in order to achieve a desired end. Christianity does not fit that definition and therefore the term can be slightly misleading.

Jesus did not come into the world to start another religion. There were already plenty of religions, including Judaism, which had begun as a relationship with Almighty God but had deteriorated into another religious system on par with idol worship. Jesus came to bear witness to the truth, to seek and to save the lost—those separated from God by their sin—and to “give his life as a ransom for many”. With that said, those who follow Christ do share some core beliefs.

Biblically speaking, Christians are those who are forgiven of their sins and who have entered a personal relationship with Almighty God through faith in Jesus Christ. In order to become a Christian, a person must fully accept as part of his or her own personal worldview the following core beliefs:

• Jesus is the Son of God and is equal with God

• Jesus was born of a virgin

• Jesus lived a perfect, sinless life

• Jesus was crucified to pay the penalty for our sins

• Jesus rose from the dead

• We are saved by the grace of God; that is, we cannot add to or take away from Christ’s finished work on the cross as full payment for our sin

It could be argued that belief in the inerrancy of God’s Word is also a core belief of Christianity because, if the Bible’s veracity is suspect, then all we know about God is in doubt. Saving faith is inextricably linked to the Word of God: “Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ” (Romans 10:17).

But the mental acceptance of the above points of doctrine is only the framework around which salvation occurs. Faith is more than intellectual assent, and mentally agreeing with the core beliefs of Christianity does not equal entrance into God’s kingdom. Even Satan and the demons know certain things about God. We can mentally agree with facts without making those facts the centerpiece of our lives.

Can a person be saved without holding to the core beliefs of Christianity? No. But along with accepting as true those core beliefs must be a spiritual transformation. Jesus said that in order to inherit eternal life one must be “born again”. To be born again is a work of the Holy Spirit in the heart of a repentant sinner. Just as a mother in labor does all the work in bringing forth a new life, so the Holy Spirit does the work in transforming a sinner into a new creature. This process begins when God draws a heart through conviction of sin and hope of forgiveness. When we surrender to God and repent of our sin, God applies the blood of His own Son to our account and cancels the debt we owe Him. By this act of transference, God pronounces us “not guilty”; that is, He justifies us. Salvation is a divine exchange: Jesus becomes our sin so that we can become His perfection. This is the gospel at the very core of Christianity.

Lastly, Islam, inarguably the youngest of the world’s religions, can be traced back to 7th century Saudi Arabia. Islam is thus the youngest of the great world religions. Allaboutreligion.org tells us the prophet Muhammad (circa 570-632 A.D.) introduced Islam in 610 A.D. after experiencing what he claimed to be an angelic visitation. Muhammad dictated the Qur'an, the holy book of Islam, which Muslims believe to be the preexistent, perfect words of Allah.

The origin of Islam is generally accredited to the prophet Muhammad but to the devout Muslim, Islam began long before Muhammad ever walked the earth. The Qur'an was dictated by Muhammad but, according to the Qur'an, it did not originate with Muhammad. The Qur'an testifies of itself that it was given by God through the angel Gabriel to the prophet Muhammad. "This is a revelation from the Lord of the universe. The Honest Spirit (Gabriel) came down with it, to reveal it into your heart that you may be one of the warners, in a perfect Arabic tongue" (Sura 26:192-195). "Say, 'Anyone who opposes Gabriel should know that he has brought down this (the Qur'an) into your heart, in accordance with God's will, confirming previous scriptures, and providing guidance and good news for the believers'" (Sura 2:97).

The Origin of Islam: The "Previous Scriptures"

The origin of Islam is controversial. The "previous scriptures" mentioned above are the Hebrew Torah, the Psalms of David, and the Gospels of Jesus Christ. The Qur'an accepts these books as divinely inspired and even encourages us to test its claims by these "previous scriptures." "If you have any doubt regarding what is revealed to you from your Lord, then ask those who read the previous scripture" (Sura 10:94). But this is where we run into a problem. The problem is that the Qur'an thoroughly contradicts the Torah, the Psalms, and the Gospels. For example, the Qur'an explicitly denies Jesus Christ's crucifixion while all four Gospel accounts clearly portray Jesus Christ as crucified and resurrected.

One contradiction in particular has caused a great deal of conflict between Muslims and ethnic Jews and is thought to have been and continues to be the cause of much bloodshed in the Middle East. According to the Hebrew Torah, God made a covenant with a man named Abraham. God promised Abraham a child through whom He would fulfill this covenant ("the child of promise," Genesis 15). Abraham was at that time childless. His wife, Sarah, was barren. This of course made the promise very special to Abraham. But it would require nothing less than a miracle. Sarah, conscious of her condition, decided to help God out. She offered her maidservant Hagar to Abraham with the hope that Hagar might conceive and bear the child of promise. Abraham agreed to take Hagar as his concubine. She conceived and bore Ishmael. God allowed Ishmael to be born but Ishmael was not the child of promise God had in mind. God promised a child through Sarah, not Hagar, and in due time God fulfilled His promise. "And the Lord visited Sarah as He had said, and the Lord did for Sarah as He had spoken. For Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him. And Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him-whom Sarah bore to him-Isaac." Isaac was the child of promise. Isaac later begot Jacob, the father of the twelve tribes of Israel, and the Messiah, Jesus Christ, eventually came into the world through the nation of Israel, fulfilling the covenant which God had made with Abraham. God also promised to give the land of Canaan (Palestine) to Isaac's descendants, the land which Israel possesses today.

The problem is that the Qur'an teaches that Ishmael was the child of promise and so Muslims believe that God's covenant promises were meant for Ishmael's descendants, not Isaac's. Muhammad descended from Ishmael and so Muslims seek to lay claim to these covenant promises, namely the land of Palestine.

So, there you have the major and ancient religions. My question to you is this: what makes one religion any better, or worse, than any other? Why is one the ‘right’ one and all the others wrong? Are those ‘mythologies’ just that, mythology, or are they true religions as much as modern day religions that one day may be described as ancient mythology? It is up to the individual. The way a person believes is a personal thing. Some believe in God, some in Mohammad, some in the ancient Celtic, Norse, Greek or Roman gods, and some even believe in witchcraft. All I have done here is give some very basic information on several of the world’s religions, both modern and ancient. I hope you have gleaned some interesting facts from it.