The (Obama) Magical Mystery Tour

Roll up, roll up for the mystery tour.
Roll up, roll up for the mystery tour.
Roll up GOT EVERYTHING YOU NEED, roll up for the mystery tour.
Roll up SATISFACTION GUARANTEED, roll up for the mystery tour.
The magical mystery tour is hoping to take you away,
Hoping to take you away.


Some of you have asked my to comment on President Obama's State of the Union Address.  I was busy working on some projects and not able to get to it until today.  My wife was kind enough to record it for me as I was in a meeting in New Jersey during most of the speech. 


So when I returned home I watched the speech and took notes on those things that caught my attention.  What I observed was Cirque du Absurde.  The first thing that struck me visually was our illustrious Vice President Joseph bobble head Biden.  Could the man shake his head anymore?  I don't think so.  He kind of reminded me of a dog with an inner ear infection shaking and scratching.  Oh, and could he of fiddled with his suit jacket and tie anymore. Just so you know I pray every night for the Presidents personal safety because I never want to have bobble head Biden as our President.


Our shrew of a Speaker of the House Nancy Peolsi did her level best to look nice but you know the saying you can put lipstick on a ....oops better not go there.  She does remind me a lot of Carol Channing.


Now to the meat of the matter What the Fudge was that?  I believe what I was watching was a very boring version of the One Who Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest. 


I have listened to a lot of political pundits over the past few days and I haven't heard the honest truth.  This President has an illness.  It is evident to me that he suffers from a Napoleonic schizophrenia.  In one part of his speech he sounded like a true centrist and somewhere, independents were cheering saying "he gets it".  When he started preaching nuclear power and off shore drilling I got excited.  When he talked about taxing companies that are outsourcing US jobs to foreign countries my heart skipped a beat.  When he talked about how everyone in that room regardless of their side needs to come together and do the peoples business I was saying right on. 


Of course to counter that his schizophrenic side kicked in.  After talking about employing tried and true energy production he spoke about windmills and green energy.  He had to get the global warming shot across the bow.  After speaking about coming together to do the peoples business he attacked the republican side of the house.  He even had the arrogance to take a shot at the Supreme Court who's member were sitting spitting distance away.  What was amazing was the ruling he attacked which was the reversal of the McCain Feingold political financing law.  He was misinformed and misspoke when he said that the court's ruling would allow for foreign governments and entities to influence elections.  That's just not the case.  There are other laws that prohibit foreign governments and corporations from giving monies to candidates for US offices.


So what I witnessed was an internal tennis match being played out.  The President jumped from side to side.  What I saw was a man who has put his reputation behind two governors races and one senate race and loose.  In fact, if I were running for an elected office as a democrat I would not want President Obama showing up to support me.


So this is the change we can believe in....President Obama will change to keep his popularity just like any other politician republican or democrat.  He displays the same haughty arrogance as almost everyone of the people that were in the Capitol Building for his speech.  The only solution I see to save us from these popinjay's is to throw the bums out. 


Last but not least I wanted to comment on the gays in the military issue.  Who cares!  As long as there have been people in the military there have been gays in the military.  Instead of wasting time and money to chase them out update the Uniform Code of Military Justice UCMJ (the laws that military members live by) to codify Public Displays of Affection PDA.  I knew of gay members of the military when I was in the Navy and assigned to ships and Marine Corps bases.  They did their jobs and for the most part they performed them well.  They were fairly subdued and I never witnessed them acting "out".  As a police officer I have worked with gay officers and they performed their duties to the best of their abilities as well.

So if you don't like the idea of homosexuals in the military then don't join! 

We Don't Need No Education

As the Pink Floyd Lyrics say:

We don’t need no education
We don’t need no thought control
No dark sarcasm in the class room
Teachers leave those kids alone
Hey, teachers! Leave those kids alone!

I was disturbed last night when our youngest daughter Francesca told me she was having difficulties in one of her 6th grade classes. I asked her what was wrong and she told me her teacher refuses to answer questions.

Of course my first thought was that she was either exaggerating or felt she was being picked on. I used my keen investigative skills and began to ask her questions.

Q. What do you mean she won't answer your questions?
A. She says no questions, I am not taking any questions.

Q. Is it just you she does this to?
A. No she does it to the whole class.

Q. Is there an allowed question and answer time during the class?
A. No.

So I asked Francesca if she wanted me to talk to her teacher and she said yes.  Now as many of you parents know most children become absolutely apoplectic when you even hint that you may discuss something with their teachers.  Not Francesca, not this time.  She is so frustrated with not being able to get clarifications on assignments that she insisted I contact her teacher.

So today I decided to take action and I went to the school districts web page to get the phone number which should have been easy to find, but no it wasn't.  I had to dig through the cryptic site to find the main information number listed on the very bottom of the page in a very tiny font.

So I called the number and the phone was immediately answered by a very friendly and helpful automated answering system....NOT!  After several useless options were given that didn't seem to make any sense I settled on the Superintendents extension and dutifully dialed the number 8.  I was immediately transferred to Robin.  Who in turn gave me the number to Tracy.  I thanked Robin then called the number for Tracy.  The phone rang twice and a woman answered the phone "Smith, Jones and Brown Law Offices".  I explained I had the wrong number and I apologized then called the main number again.  I retraced my steps through the automated system back to Robin.  Imagine Robin's surprise when she found out she gave me the wrong number.  Of course I had to repeat it back to her to prove I had written down correctly the first time she gave it to me (because we all know parents are morons).  Robin then put me on hold for a brief time while she filed her nails and finished her solitaire game.  She then returned and gave me a new number to try.

Being up for the challenge I tried the new number and spoke directly to Tracy, you remember Tracy?  She is the woman I had to call in order to talk to Francesca's teacher.  Stay with me people.

Anywho I speak to Tracey who informs me that Francesca's teacher is out sick today and could I call back tomorrow.  So I think....hey I have a computer right...maybe I could send the teacher one of those emaily thingies.....  So I ask for the address and Tracy explains the whole email schema employed by the highly technical IT staff that my tax dollars pay salaries for.  First initial then a period then last name.  Hmmmm seems pretty straight forward so I composed the following email:

Ms. N,

I called for you today and was informed that you were not feeling well.  I hope you are feeling better.  The reason for this email is quite simple, I am disturbed by something that my daughter Francesca has reported to me.

Francesca has told me that you are not answering questions in class.  Not just her questions but any questions.  I thought maybe you had a specific format when you teach that would allow for some question and answer period but Francesca tells me that is not the case.  Furthermore, Francesca tells me that you make a blanket statement that you are not taking questions not just some of the time but all the time and that you raise your hand palm out in a stop sign fashion.  Thereby sending the visual signal that you will not entertaining any questions.

Obviously a quality learning environment dictates that the student may ask the teacher or instructor questions.  Questioning and answering provides an opportunity for you as an educator to gain valuable insight into how effectively you are reaching your classes and their understanding of the concepts and information you are imparting.  Therefore, the question and answer process is absolutely necessary to ensure that the student is getting a firm grasp of the material or concepts being taught. 

The children in your classes have a right to communicate with you.  One of the main avenues of that communication is questioning and I find your failure to allow it to be dictatorial in nature.  I also find that your insistence on not allowing them the opportunity to communicate by asking questions absolutely unacceptable.  I would hope that Francesca is exaggerating but I can tell you that is not given to exaggerations. 

I would like an explanation as to why this is occurring.  If you would like I can certainly meet with you in person or we can discuss this over the phone.  In either case you will note that I have copied Francesca's mother, as well as the Principal. 


Thank you,

Timothy L. Boukouris

I believe the aforementioned email will generate some activity tomorrow in the Marple Newtown (Snooty) School District and I will bet you dollars to donuts (cop slang) she will answer my questions now and her classes later.

I will update this post once the real Q and A sessions begin.

Tell Me Lies, Tell Me Sweet Little Lies

A Lie, a whopper, a white-lie, a walloper, a prevarication, a falsehood, a falsity, an untruth, a fib, a story, a tale, a misunderstanding

Ah, a lie by any other name is still the truth?  Let’s start with the standard definition of the word.  A lie is a statement that deviates from or perverts the truth.  Ok, good we are all on the same page now or are we?  It seems that if you are a member of the current White House administration a lie really is the truth.


For example how many jobs have been saved thanks to the stimulus plan?  Valerie Jarrett says thousands.  Presidential advisor David Axelrod and White House Secretary Robert Gibbs claim millions of jobs have been created or saved.  Yet the official US unemployment rate has climbed to 10% and isn’t falling.  The US Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics reported:

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm

THE EMPLOYMENT SITUATION -- DECEMBER 2009   Non-farm payroll employment edged down (-85,000) in December, and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 10.0 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Employment fell in construction, manufacturing, and wholesale trade, while temporary help services and health care added jobs.  Household Survey Data In December, both the number of unemployed persons, at 15.3 million, and the unemployment rate, at 10.0 percent, were unchanged. At the start of the re- cession in December 2007, the number of unemployed persons was 7.7 million, and the unemployment rate was 5.0 percent.

So what is the truth?  This is the truth.  People are hurting because they are unemployed and/or under employed.  Families have to work multiple jobs to make enough money to have a decent quality of life.  God forbid you should have more than two children!  Talk about expensive.  Who’s at fault the Democrats or the Republicans?

Both are at fault!  They have forgotten why they were elected.  Their only goal in life is to keep their butts in those cushy offices that you and I pay for.  They are the noble class and we are surfs the peons. They get treated with great deference and people bow and scrape in front of them.  We were born to serve. 

They exploit us.  They play the middle class against the lower class.  They maintain their power and wealth.  Have you ever wondered why anyone would literally spend millions of dollars to win an election to an office that pays $174,000.00 a year?

Here’s a shocker too, out of 535 congress members 237 are certified millionaires!  So why do millionaires take on the low paying salary and long hard demanding hours?  POWER, I know what your thinking.  That can’t be true.  They all profess to take on the tough job to help the people and is that a lie?  Absolutely not!  It is true the only problem is the people that they help is their people.  Not WE the people, and that my friend is the truth. 

I think the only answer is a moratorium on who can be a member of the congress or senate.  That’s right.  No more lawyers, or doctors.  Lets have bricklayers and mothers.  Lets have nurses, firefighters, and police officers.  Lets have butchers and bakers and candle stick makers.  I know you might be thinking, don’t we need lawyers?  Yes we can hire them to be the scribes and help ensure that the peoples voice and will is written into law correctly.

Wouldn’t we all be better off if our leadership was made up of working people?  People who have had to make ends meet?  People who know what its like to make a payroll on a budget without just ordering the raising of debt limits or the printing of money? 

I know it will never happen but wouldn’t it be nice.

Sirens and stretchers and bills, oh my!

In November of 2008 I suffered the worst physical pain in my life.  Now to put this in context I am the ripe old age of 45 and I was 44 when this incident occurred.  In those 44 years I suffered many different injuries.  I have been in car accidents, and physical altercations.  I have had broken bones from being run over by cars (someone tried to kill me another story for another day) to playing superman as a child jumping from bed to bed with a towel tied around my neck. 

The worst part of my superman incident aside from realizing I wasn’t the man of steel was the beating I got for breaking my leg!  Needless to say my mother wasn’t amused.  

Anyway I digress, back to November 2008. 

It was about ten o’clock in the morning and I was on a mission.  A humanitarian mission but a mission nonetheless.  You see we had a serious squirrel problem.  The cute little rats had found their way into the walls of our house thorough openings in our porch roof.

Despite reports to the contrary I am not a cruel man, so I borrowed a have-a-heart animal safe trap.  I had been placing it on the porch and caught a few squirrels and took them miles away to release them.  I still had a few persistent squirrels though that would hang out in the roof of the porch so I had a brilliant idea.

I decided to climb a ladder remove some ceiling panels and place the trap close to the squirrels in the roof.  I know what your thinking, what a thoughtful guy.  Anyway, I set up the ladder on my cluttered porch.  Of course there was no need to clean the area around the ladder because it still fit.  So I climbed the ladder with my cordless drill and began to remove the panels without incident.  I took two panels down and there they were in the far corner of the porch smiling at me, two cute rats.   They quickly ran away and they were gone or so I thought.

As I surveyed the area I was looking for a good area to place the trap.  I found the perfect spot.  It was little further back away from my current location.  So I had to step up one more step.  Well the only step that was left was at the top of the ladder and was clearly marked DANGER DO NOT STAND HERE.  Of course that was not a message for me so, yes I did stand there. 

Initially, there was no problem until I shifted my weight or what I really think is when those two smiling rats shook the bottom of the ladder.   Needless to say what goes up must come down and yes I did.  Not before grabbing onto a roof beam and dangling. 

I called out to my pregnant wife and she came running.  She saw me hanging and I asked her to step back because I didn’t want to fall on her and kill her.  So I thought as I hung there I would do a hanging drop and did.  It was perfect except for me landing on the side of my right foot and twisting my ankle under me.

The pain was extremely intense.  I have never felt so much pain.  I knew my ankle was broken but I didn’t realize how bad it really was.  It felt like someone was pushing a hot poker into my ankle.
Now my wife is freaking out scared to death because I am lying on the porch writhing in pain but laughing. 

I know it sounds crazy but my reaction to pain is laughter and tears.  I told my wife to call 911 because my ankle was broken and as I stated she was pregnant and I didn’t want her to have to help me into the car and drive to the hospital.  Being the big brave cop that I am I called my mom.  I know I was risking a beating but I wanted her there to support my wife so I took the risk. 

Soon enough the ambulance and my mom arrived.  The crew was very nice and they helped me hop to the ambulance.  There were no splints, no soft air casts, no IV’s and no medical devices of any kind
were employed.  I then suffered the grueling 2.7 mile 6 minute ride to the hospital. 

I spent the next several hours in the emergency room the diagnosis was a broken ankle, torn ligaments and ruptured tendons.  Flash forward a year later and I still have pain and problems with the ankle.

And now the insult to injury…the bill for the ambulance arrived.  It was an astronomical $850.00.  Yes I know crazy right.  They drove me 2.7 miles for 6 minutes and provided nothing more than a ride.  That works out to almost $315.00 per mile or $141.66 per minute.  Man would I like to paid at that rate!  I know your thinking it is a good thing you have insurance, right.  Wrong, I have insurance and I filed a claim.  It was denied.  I called my friendly insurance company and asked why and was told…..drum roll….. The ambulance company was not in my provider network!  LOL

It is no wonder that people hate insurance companies and are, out of desperation asking for government health care?  I think not.

SIgns

Sign Sign everywhere a sign

Blocking out the scenery breaking my mind
Do this, don't do that, can't you read the sign

So can’t you read the signs?  I believe that we as a society have reached the point of sign-overload on so many levels it is scary.  For example as a police officer I see the results of sign-overload every time I work.  I see people coast through intersections with a slight tap of the brake.  I stop the cars and ask the standard cop question, “do you know why I stopped you?”  The answer almost always is “no officer, why?”  I tell them because you went through the intersection without coming to a complete stop.  The response is almost always the same “I stopped”.  They are not lying.  They are telling the truth as far as they know.  For the most part they truly believed they stopped.  Now this is the moment of truth, ticket? Or no ticket?  If the offender is or acts contrite and admits they may have actually cruised through the intersection without coming to a complete stop then no ticket.  If they want to argue and be obtuse then ticket. 

The aforementioned scenario is analogous to our lives today.  We “drive” around with our eyes glazed over and we subconsciously see the signs but we coast right by them.  Why, because we are in survival mode.  We have to work to pay our bills.  We is the key.  We is plural.  We are no longer in a one bread winner family situation.  We have to work. Both parents are holding down multiple jobs trying to get a little bit of an edge on life. 

What happens then is we buy stuff to put in our houses.  Ironically, we buy cool TV’s, stereos and gadgets to occupy our time and our children’s time and we don’t have time, to spend time watching our TV’s or enjoying our gadgets.  We miss the signs.  Our children are raised by MTV, HBO, Xbox 360 and Personal Computers.  Not because we don’t care for them or love them.  To the contrary, we only want the best for them so we spend our time away from them and we miss the signs. 

Our children are stressed.  They are inundated on a daily basis with more and more input, good bad or indifferent.  We have strangers peering into our homes talking to our children via of the internet through Myspace and Facebook and other social networks.   So then why are we so amazed when a stranger reaches with their sick, twisted thoughts and fingers through cyberspace into our homes.  These are people we wouldn’t let walk near our children let alone speak to them yet they become our children’s confidants, friends and in the worse case our children’s abusers. 

Why because we don’t see the signs.  Wake up my friends and watch for the signs.

What's Going On

The past week has been a horrible mess in Haiti.  A 7.0 earthquake struck one of the poorest countries in the world.  For the curious here is a link to the US Geological Survey http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/us2010rja6.php which lists interesting technical facts about the quake. 

Here are the real life facts:

One of the most corrupt and poorest countries in the world has suffered a devastating blow.  America, as usual has jumped into the breech with both feet and our check book.  We have thousands of troops on the ground and more on the way.  Our country is digging out survivors.  Protecting the poor young innocent children and providing medical care, food and water.

Governor Edward Rendell, himself and his wife Federal Court Judge Midge Rendell went on a successful mission to Haiti to rescue suffering children and brought them back to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  What an awesome way to show you care.  He could have just sent money or offered PA National Guard troops but he placed himself and his wife at risk to save those children.  You may ask why am I being so kind to "Fast Eddie"?  The answer is simple regardless of his politics he is a humanitarian and credit should be given when its due.  Kudos to the State of Pennsylvania!  We it's tax payers will foot the bill.

Back to the real world.  The latest news about how much the ugly American's have donated in one week is in excess of 200 million dollars that does not include the 100 million dollars that President Barack Hussein Obama offered up. 

The rest of the world has sent help too but all of the usual suspects are at work trying to belittle the hard work of the United States.

France accused the US of "occupying" Haiti on Monday as thousands of American troops flooded into the country to take charge of aid efforts and security. 

France??? Really, France???  Please save me.  The French God bless them have some great food.  They were here to help us gain our freedom from the British (General Lafayette).  Of course they always hated the British and it was a chance to piss on them!  How many young American's died and are buried in France and yet here we go again.  Now we are occupiers.  I posted this on my Facebook Status on Sunday, January 17th:

The Great Satan is at it again!!! The United States is usurping another nation. Showing up in Haiti telling them how to survive by making them drink our water and eat our food. We are only there to rape their country of it's vast natural resources by stealing their oil and forcing their people to work for minimum wages to support our ever-growing natural resource dependent economy and life style.  There is even a secret plan to de-forest their country, erect large windmills and miles and miles of solar power collecting farms. If you don’t believe me just ask Mahmoud Ahmadinejad or Hugo Chavez!

How right I was.  I just picked the wrong country.  I thought there was a major shift in the French government when Sarcozy was elected but I was obviously wrong.

Quickly, back to the Haitian babies and children that have been brought back to Pennsylvania and other states.  There is a ground swell of people offering  to open up their homes and hearts to give them a great life and that is fantastic, but lets not forget about the children that are already here in this country waiting for a loving home to live in.  Lets not make these children the fad of 2010.   These are PEOPLE not tea cup chihuahuas.

If you feel moved to open your home to a child then please do so but there are children here today that have been languishing in our foster care and orphanages.  Shouldn't charity start at home?

 

 

 

 

In The Begining

How does one start a blog? I am not too certain. Why does one blog? I guess the need to express oneself. That's why I am starting this blog, I need to express myself. No one may ever read these words but the act of expressing them is enough for me and it is cathartic. So if you read this I hope you find it enlightening in some way. You may be entertained, saddened, infuriated or have some other feelings. It will always be real.