What's up with Gov. Chris Christie

Let's consider the circumstances. We have a Governor of New Jersey who just won re-election by record proportions. He is reputed to be a rather brusque but very savvy politician that runs a tight ship. He is reputed to know how to engage in the rough and tumble politics of New Jersey, the birth place of "The Sopranos", a fictional Mafia family based on fact. He has an approval rating that is very high especially because of the way he handled the disaster inflicted upon his state by the super-storm named Sandy.  He may be the strongest Republican contender for the Presidential run in the year 2016 in fact one poll has him ahead of the Democratic front runner. Everything seems to be going very well for this Governor.

Then all of a sudden there is a major blip at the busiest bridge in the United States in the terms of traffic that passes over it daily. Something to do with a traffic study ordered by this Governor's closest advisers which caused all sorts of problems for the town of Fort Lee. The media led by members of the press investigated this situation and was either lambasted or made fun of by this Governor and his administration. They charged that investigation politically motivated to bring down this guy's reputation as he was becoming too popular.

However the investigation turned up proof that the Governor's inner sanctum actually ordered the traffic mess by using the excuse of a traffic study which never really existed. They did it all for some political reason which isn't clear to this date but they did a very wrong thing perhaps criminally.

The Governor protested loudly and long that all this was done by his closest advisers without his actually knowing and he certainly would not have ordered such a dastardly deed.  So some were thrown under the bus and investigations by authorities started. Then out of the blue the Mayor of Hoboken makes some charges that were even worse, perhaps criminal. The Mayor claimed that one person in the administration and the Lieutenant Governor both suggested that funds connected with the "Sandy" disaster were being held up because the Mayor wasn't supporting a project which the Governor held dear. The fact that a person connected with the Governor's administration was connected with this project had nothing to do with this situation but if the Mayor wanted the "Sandy" funds which was really for the people of Hoboken she had to support this company which would profit from this project. The Lt. Governor loudly protests that this conversation never took place and the Governor by extension is not involved.

Other charges are floating about and investigations are started. It makes one wonder however, just how smart this Governor is if his staff is running around doing horrendous and perhaps criminal things and he has no idea what-so-ever of these doings. Considering the fact that Chicago's Ex-Governor is in jail after a trail, and Virginia's Ex-Governor has been indicted recently for accepting gifts in violation of the public's trust it doesn't seem so far fetched that the present Governor of New Jersey might be involved in many of the charges being currently alleged. I'm not saying he is but I'm not saying he isn't. I don't know.

But what I do know is one way or another he certainly isn't smart enough or that distant from acts that might seem political rough-housing to be considered for any further public office. But don't weep for him because I am sure he will hook on to some Law Firm who needs political connections, or at lest end up with a program on Fox after he completes his term of Governor.

   




      

Too Old? What The Heck Does That Mean?

The feeling among them all was he was just too old to be of any value or consideration. It was true He accomplished much in his day, in his way, but nothing that would make the world sit up and take notice. He was aware of the general feeling about him but he pretended to not notice. But he did notice and he didn't like it. The problem was he couldn't figure out what he could do about it.

As a young man he never wanted to do anything for money alone, that is money was never the goal of his actions. Opportunities weren't many but there were a few opportunities which presented themselves that if he availed himself of them would have led to chances of big money. But there were always compromises that had to be made that would have needed a big change in his values.

Those who knew him thought he wasn't involved with his family as he always seemed distant from them. However every choice he made in his life had them at the forefront of his decisions. He knew that along with advancement in his business there would be many temptations to cheat, his company, his values his wife. He couldn't do that to them, to himself.

But now there were none left who he could rely on in the business world. Those who were still alive and active moved on and didn't remember him or want to remember him. Those he knew could be relied on were unfortunately, dead, gone on to greater pastures or so he hoped that was the case.

He came upon this fact, every day held opportunities for those who recognized them and took advantage of these opportunities. Not all of these opportunities fit every person but the idea was to recognize where his talents lied and when opportunities came up that were a fit, those were the ones he would act on.

He came to the conclusion that as a person who could be considered "senior" he was putting too much value on what others thought. He didn't care what others thought when he was younger so why the hell should he care now? The only way to have value, be of value, is to respect yourself, know your limitations, then act when the opportunities present themselves. Nothing big had to happen and it didn't matter what others thought as long as he knew he was doing something of value. Most of all he had to love himself all over again because to do anything of value it should be done with love especially if it involved others. If one doesn't love himself how can he love others?

Some thought he was egocentric and maybe he was but if he didn't value the intrinsic goodness that he possessed  how could he value all that was before him in nature and humanity. He laughed at his thoughts and said "Screw all those who may think differently but I have a place in this world which is to do do things of value until I am no longer in this world!". With that thought in mind he turned on the TV to watch the Yankees play and win another game (he hoped).

Hanging On A Thread Between Time & Eternity

It was still fairly early in the evening. He was returning from a very good day with the person he loved. They shared a movie and dinner. The warm feeling of the evening"s company and conversation was still with him. He had on the oldies station which played the music from the 1960's up through the 1990's. This was his favorite station even though it never played Sinatra or the big bands but The Fifth Dimension, Chicago, Elton John and that group of music providers were no slouches, better than rap and hip-hop by a mile.

He was making good time on the Northern State Parkway approaching that spot where he could take the Long Island Expressway or stay on the NSP.  The roads were still a little slick from the ice and snow of the day before. He slid over to the what was to be the right hand lane of NSP figuring he would stay under the speed limit to be on the safe side and continue on NSP which was a safer thoroughfare than the LIE. There seemed to be a nagging prodding from inside his brain that perhaps he should move to the middle lane but he shrugged that off. He often heard little thoughts about where he should be or what he should do but most of the time he shrugged them off as something belonging to his conservative nature. Right at the spot where the NSP curved to the right and separated from that part of the road that led to the LIE he laughed because everything was going OK and he was safe and sound. Right at that moment his car began to swerve with the rear end swinging to the right as he apparently hit some black ice and he was going into a skid.

At times of great danger the mind works quickly and in a very short time all sorts of thoughts and images float though one's consciousness. This could be a massive and life ending pile up not only for him but for others that might be on this heavily traffic parkway.

I have to ask you now to come along with me along what happens in the world outside of the one we live in. This world is in Eternity where there is no passage of time and space. This world can let the spirit have a foot (so to speak) in both time and eternity. And this is what was happening as his life hung between time and eternity. The Spirit in charge of watching us humans sent an alert to the spirit in charge of reception alerting him that this driver was about to enter eternity fully. The receptionist immediately let him know that the person in question was not scheduled and he didn't know what to do. So they contacted the spirit that was the guardian and asked her what was happening. The guardian said she was trying to get him into the proper lane but as usual this guy wasn't listening. The guardian said she had her hands full trying to keep him out of trouble but he never listened to anybody but himself. He was liked but a real pain, hard to keep on track. The receptionist checked again and said he couldn't find the necessary approval for early admittance because it hadn't been determined where he would be sent. So he had to go to the boss for direction. The Boss was really aggravated because this guy had been a spur in his butt ever since he was created, he had some good points but those were offset by other problems. But the Boss wasn't one to shy away from decisions. He instructed the spirits who arrange matters like these to get his car off the road with only one other car slightly damaged so this guy would have another go at life while it was decided which way he was to go when his appointed time came.

Now keep in mind the accident which took place in seconds when considered in eternity there was no passage of time. So the swerve pushed out his rear end and it was jammed by the front of a car in the middle lane which straightened out his car. The two cars went to the shoulder of NSP. The drivers shook hands and he called 911. Shortly after a cop came who was just like a guardian angel. He was soft spoken. The cop even dug out the skidder's car from the snow bank he drove into. Nobody was hurt. The Cop gave a proforma report to the two drivers and they went off with both cars operating well.

Interesting how the spiritual and the flesh work together. He is going on with his life hopefully satisfying whatever doubts the Boss might have had regarding his eternal destination. Everyone is pretty happy. However the guardian was a little disappointed since she thought she was due for a long vacation after spending this man's life keeping him from getting into trouble even though she was never listened to. But, what the hell, she thought, even though he is a lot of work he certainly keeps it interesting.

                                                               Looks Like This

The Mind of God

There are many people and institutions who claim to have an insight into the mind of God. The established religions like The Roman Catholic Church and varying Christian denominations all the way to the individuals like the TV Evangelists and the nut preaching on the street corner. Of course we have the non-christian religions like Judaism, Islam and the far east religions. They have their theologians past and present who describe who God is and what he thinks. From all this mish mash comes the philosophy of sin, redemption, heaven and hell. They all have their sacred books which can be taken literally or not. They all have their tradition, orally passed on truths, which when all put together can tell the faithful what to believe and what not to believe.

If one believes in God as a supreme being who put this whole world together and retains an intense interest in its inhabitants and survival of all what He has created how can that person believe he can have even a small inkling as to what the heck goes on in the mind of God? The pat answer is that God reveals to mankind, bit by bit what he has in his mind and eventually we will get to know what His Plan is even if it occurs in the after-life. Of course He reveals it through the holy scriptures, and tradition and revelation. BUT these three things are subject to interpretation and one has to believe in the interpreter in order to believe in his interpretations. This all begets the question; "Are we following the will of God or the will of whomever is the flavor of the month, or year or millennium?". This can get very confusing.

Many religions want to tell you what sin is and what it isn't. Then these very same religions go ahead and commit the very things they are telling you not to do. Sin is evil. Evil is lack of good. Lack of good is when God is not present. Many will say that evil is the presence of the Devil which is another concept of a supreme person, not as supreme as God, who can influence the actions of people and the world in general. All of these esoteric arguments to me muddle the waters rather than clearing them up.

Evil is in the world. Even those of us who do not believe in a supreme presence can agree with that statement. Whole populations are starving. Children are sex slaves in places like Thailand. Wars are fought resulting in rape, plunder and murder. Certain illnesses are left to continue because there is not enough profit in research and development of medicines to cure them. We all share in this evil as a collective society. There is enough of this type of thing going on in the world so that we all share in the sin. This is the overall evil. Then there is the personal evil, sin. This is where those in charge, be it the priests, imam or Rabbis, whomever, tell the individuals what he is going to hell for doing, or not doing. They have determined that excessive sexual activity is a way to hell. The Judaic-Christian concept of self exploration is based on a brief passage in the Jewish scriptures, Gen 38:9, Onan spills his seed and is going to hell for that. Whereas some radical Muslims think self sacrifice in a Jihad leads to heaven and a bevy of virgins. Isn't there something wrong with both lines of reasoning? As a society we find murder a terrible sin but many of us justify executions as just. It is OK for the state to murder but not individuals. The State is not always right in their decisions. Killing a baby just born is horrendous but late term abortions which suck pieces of a viable human out of the womb is justified. Meanwhile God just looks down, observes and continues with his plan.

If there is a Supreme Being who created all this, set it in motion and loves all his creation there is no way I am going to try and figure out what ever is going on in his mind. There is no way I can figure it out. The mind of God is far too big and wonderful for me. I do fear him, the way I used to fear my father while I loved him and sought him out for protection and safety. For me "fear" translates to respect, a very healthy respect. I will practice my faith without fear and try to atone for the collective sins of society while I stay away from fearing I am going to hell. I figure, if there is a God and he will stay with me there will be no vacuum for evil to creep in. But I am through trying to figure out the mind of God nor believe there is anyone here on earth that has come to grips with the universal truth of eternity.

     

Laughter is a great way to start any year!!!!

To all my Blogger friends here in the good old USA, and to those all over the world who take the time to read some of my thoughts I wish a happy New Year for this year and the years to come. I hope you appreciate the humor and philosophy. 

A nice story - the elderly are beautiful.

When we get older we think differently, don't we?

This letter was sent to the Principal's office after the school had sponsored a luncheon for the elderly.

An elderly lady received a new radio at the lunch as a door prize and was writing to say thank you.

This story is a credit to all humankind.

Forward to anyone you know who might need a lift today.



Dear Kean Elementary:

God bless you for the beautiful radio I won at your recent senior citizens luncheon.

I am 84 years old and live at the Sprenger Home for the Aged.

All of my family has passed away.

I am all alone now and it's nice to know that someone is thinking of me.

God bless you for your kindness to an old forgotten lady.

My roommate is 95 and has always had her own radio, but before I received one, she would never let me listen to hers, even when she was napping.

The other day her radio fell off the night stand and broke into a lot of pieces.

It was awful and she was in tears.

Her distress over the broken radio touched me and I knew this was God's way of answering my prayers.

She asked if she could listen to mine, and I told her to kiss my ass.

Thank you for that opportunity.

Sincerely, Agnes

Okay..here it is.
A test to see if your brain is still working.
Which one do you think is the blonde?

 Scroll down....
Amazing, I did not see it before

                                                                              

Newspapers

There was a time when New York City had a bunch of newspapers, in the morning, afternoon, early evening and late editions. In the morning we had The Daily News, The Daily Mirror, The Post. Of course there was the New York Times and The Herald Tribune. On Long Island we had the Star Journal and the Long Island Press which was an afternoon paper. Other afternoon papers were The Journal American, The World telegram and Sun. There were ethnic newspapers in Italian, Spanish and Jewish (Yiddish?).

The News had an edition call Night Owl which came out in the early evening a later edition and of course the morning issue. The Daily Mirror came out in the morning and was great for the horse players among us. They had a single frame comic called Joe and Asbestos which were two touts one white and the other black. It had the racing results and the races for the day as did the news. The News and the Mirror had great sport sections with Dan Parker the dean of the Mirror and Jimmy Powers the top News sports columnist. The cost of these papers were a couple of pennies in the 1940's up to a nickel then 15 cents in the 1950's. They carried gossip as well as editorials which were generally conservative. The Post back then was a leftist leaning newspaper and considered by some to favor communism despite the fact that Alexander Hamilton started the paper in 1801. Today it is more conservative that the Conservative party ever thought it would be.

The Times and The Herald Tribune were the serious papers then as they are now. The Trib. is published in France I believe and everyone know The Times as a beacon of Progressive thought which to this day stays away from the gossip and reports and analyzes. The Times and The Tribune didn't have comics but the other papers did and great ones like Dick Tracey, Smiling' Jack, Terry and The Pirates. Price Valiant which appears in The Sunday News today was a feature of the Journal American. I believe the great sports columnist, Jimmy Cannon wrote for The Journal American.

Many of these papers were formed by mergers The Journal American were two papers, The Journal and The American. The World Telegram and Sun were three papers, The World, The Telegram and the Sun. Even though we had radio the Newspapers were the main source of news. all news. With the advent of TV, Cable News Today and instant communication by the time the news gets published it is old news. There is nothing as dead as "old news". Newspapers today are trying to find their place in the world of the Internet and Digital copies so that the digital issues of the papers actually have the news way before it can be published and put out on the street. There may come a time in the not so far future that hard copies of Newspapers will be a thing of the past. We will still have the great reporters, columnists and analyzers of the events as they unfold but not in the form we have become accustomed to.

I sort of miss the days when one would go to the candy store and wait for the Night Owl edition of the Daily News to be delivered so we could see the news in print that we had missed during our workday. The quick look at the track results to see if we won, the report of the day's games and if Brooklyn Dodgers lost again. Then Jimmy Powers column to see what manager was being fired, eventually turn to the front for the hard news and then the Editorial section. Of course The Inquiring Photographer was always looked at. This was a column where six or so were asked a question and they would give a short answer which would appear next to their picture. Hey it was a big deal to get you picture in The Daily News in those days.

 

    

Helping The Least Is What A Great Nation Does

I love to solve puzzles. I don't do well with jumbles but I do fairly well with easy crossword puzzles. But the one I do best with is puzzles that come out of the human condition. I guess that is because I am a people watcher. People generally react in certain situations in predictable ways. Yet there is one puzzle I never can solve and that is the one where people in the middle class seem to want to blame the the poor for the maladies of our society while they want to give the ones on the upper echelon of the pecking order a free pass. You have heard it all before and perhaps you have even mouthed these words, "The people on welfare are milking the system. Food stamps is a credit card for those who are not responsible to buy anything they want.".  It seems that those who are saying this seem to think the poor are living high off the hog while we who have three squares and many noshes during the day and are well clothed are being ripped off by our brothers who are the working poor, or single mothers who are homeless, or all the others who are at the bottom rung of our economic pecking order.

There will always be those few who can rip off any system. But they are the few, the masses who are in the welfare system live at levels we wouldn't want to consider livable under any circumstances. I have worked in soup kitchens. I taught at Westchester Community College  in a special program that was geared to those on the dole with the express goal to try and lift them out of the vicious spiral life had taken them. While I must admit my experience is with a very small pool of people it was large enough to let me know that many of the poor had no chance because of the circumstances life had place them in.

First of all there were some who were affected by a medical calamity that had severe financial affects. There were others who found themselves unemployed for a long time because their company went belly up or decided to cut expenses by firing the older employees while they hired younger ones at less cost. There were others who were born in poverty which meant less schooling, and a neighborhood full of temptations to go down the wrong path. These people could have been you or me the only difference is they were beaten down by our society and were finding it very difficult to rise above their circumstances. I ask the question, "Who wouldn't be beaten Down when from birth the rules seemed to be working for the other guy and not me?". Here in New York, we have many thousands of homeless who are forced to live in unsafe shelters that are filthy and dangerous to women and children and the general populace as well. Food stamps, welfare payments, any help whatsoever is necessary and needed. They are our brothers and sisters. Why then is the middle class and the Conservative so ready to cut benefits with the unfounded conclusion that these people are ripping us off by taking advantage of the system? Why aren't we as a nation trying to alleviate the conditions that keep people down? Maybe it is because we fear that someday we may find ourselves in dire need and there will be no-one to take care of us!

On the other side of the coin we have the situation where the middle class and Conservative see nothing wrong in business making as much profit as they can despite the fact that much of the profits are on the backs of their workers who are getting wages that are at the poverty level. Bernie Madoff while spending the rest of his life in prison lived high, very high off the hog because the very rich wanted to get richer by investing with him. The greed shown by the majority of his investors drove them to invest without questioning as long as they made a lot of money. This is what a lot of the very rich do. They have more money than they could ever need and they want more. Many accumulate greater wealth by doing things that can be likened to Madoff except they make sure that the laws protect them. For example, business like fracking which can pollute our environment, or drilling for oil without the proper safeguards, are pursued for big profits by spending money influencing and supporting politicians that are either too ignorant of the scientific evidence, or are just too selfish and greedy, continue to prosper despite the fact that these pursuits injure our environment greatly. Many of us see these injustices and wink at them with the thought that if the elite are doing this it must be alright. Perhaps this attitude is the result of our selfish, greedy thoughts of acquiring great wealth ourselves.

So the puzzle remains unsolvable in my mind especially when I hear that we are supposed to be a Christian nation. If we were truly a Christian nation then we would make sure the very weakest of our brothers and sisters would be taken care of, always. If we were truly a Christian nation the spreading of the wealth wouldn't seem to be so foreign. Read the "Acts of The Apostles" where it describes the very first Christian community. The description is of a Socialist form of economics where every one shared and no-one was left  needing. I am not suggesting our nation turn to Socialism. I am saying if we are truly Christian then we should have the real desire to help the least fortunate and stop bashing them.