Monday, the 27th day of August, 2012

I know there have always been cuckoos out there, but this one may be a combination of politics and Texas… Take a look:  An elected county judge in Texas is warning that the nation could descend into civil war if President Barack Obama is re-elected, and is calling for a trained, well-equipped force to battle the United Nations troops he says Obama would bring in. He said "...regardless of whether the Republicans take over the Senate, which I hope they do, he is going to make the United States Congress and he's going to make the Constitution irrelevant. He's got his czars in place that don't answer to anybody." Obama, the judge continued, will "try to give the sovereignty of the United States away to the United Nations. What do you think the public's going to do when that happens? We are talking civil unrest, civil disobedience, possibly, possibly civil war ... I'm not talking just talking riots here and there. I'm talking Lexington, Concord, take up arms, get rid of the dictator. OK, what do you think he is going to do when that happens? He is going to call in the U.N. troops, personnel carriers, tanks and whatever." You may ask, is this for real? Sadly, yes! So, please folks, if you have loved ones who are under doctor supervision, ensure that either they take their meds or they stay at home; don’t let them fall to this level of embarrassment!

Now, to something really painful: Lance Armstrong seems to have been just another cheater; I can’t believe it! Another hero, this time a super-hero in the eyes of many including me, has fallen due to being false; he was accused (and decided not to defend himself) of cheating throughout his career; now he’ll be stripped from his seven (7!) Tour de France titles and banned from cycling forever. When I first heard some months ago that the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) was again investigating him, I thought to myself: here they go again; leave him alone; he’s never tested positive for anything; he’s the real deal. Now I find myself asking: were his battles with cancer also faked??  I guess this is another evidence of the sociological mantra that has dominated our culture for the last few decades: results is what counts and it really does not matter how you get there. In times gone by - and still alive somewhere, I hope - talent, efforts, discipline, consistency, hard work and knowledge is what used to matter; results were merely a byproduct of all that… Are we really that rotten? Thank God for the likes of Michael Phelps, Alison Felix and Missy Franklin among others who still seem to be doing it the right way… and God help us.

T.S. Isaac, as of this writing, seems to be another dandy… Hit Haiti (like kicking a downed man), Cuba, the FL Keys, the South end of the FL Mainland and now will threaten LA, AL, and MS. It seems to be an irony that Isaac is scheduled to hit New Orleans and the SE end of Louisiana precisely seven years to the day from when Katrina did it.

Staying with hurricanes, 20 years go this past August 24^th hurricane Andrew hit South Florida (south Dade county to be precise) as a Cat 5! The devastation as shown on papers and TV was unbelievable, but it was nothing compared with what one saw in reality. I had the duty and the privilege to go and verify some people who worked for me and lived down there were OK and the devastation was simply indescribable!

Anybody’s got any good news, please?!?!?!?!?

And now food for thoughts:

“A clear expression of virtuosity is to appear to be ignorant in front of an idiot who’s pretending to be smart.”

 - Dr. Louis Pasteur

So, watch out for pretenders, my friends.