Gorram crazy drivers!

OK - advanced warning - this is a grumpy rant. But what the heck is wrong with so many drivers in CA? Have most of them taken stupid pills or are they just mental midgets? I don't mean they can't guide their cars down the road more or less in a straight line - but they can't drive in a crowd w/out A) breaking lots of traffic laws they couldn't care less about, and B) nearly causing death or mayhem every 60 seconds or so.

I guess that's what happens when you have millions of self-absorbed people on the road at the same time. When the universe revolves around you and you alone - it's hard to drive in a safe and cooperative manner w/ the other self-absorbed weenies next to you. SO, no one EVER uses their turning signals (that would be helpful after all), they back out of driveways or parking spaces at 20 mph w/out looking in a mirror or looking behind them, they either drive 90 in the slow lane or 55 in the passing lane. And MERGE onto the freeway - FORGET IT! That takes cooperative skills most Californians just don't seem to possess. Thankfully, there are a few paranoid and responsible drivers like me on the road that refrain from plowing into the arrogant idiots. They certainly deserve either lots of tickets or an accident. But I just can't bring myself to plow into someone even though they have done everything they could do to make that happen. I suppose that is still a good thing - though it almost qualifies as "enabling" if you look at it long term. So, what's a decent driver to do? I suppose either get a big Hummer and plow over the jerks when they cut in front of you OR, move to the midwest where people actually have some common sense and feel free to use it when they drive.

SO, though California is a great place to live climate-wise, I sure wish alot of the folk here would "get a horse!"

What a glorious day!

The morning started off so very foggy here in the valley. But by 10:30 had burned off and now it is bright and sunny w/ fair temperatures. It IS easy to see why people love living in California - the weather really is so much better than in most parts of the country where they endure high humidity in summer and frigid temperatures in winter. Living in California brings moderate temperatures (sometimes pretty hot though) but unless you live in the mountains, you rarely see snow. Having grown up in the mid-west I miss snow quite a bit! But you can always drive a couple of hours to find some if you really want to. Still...

Here's to hoping your New Year's Eve is fun, safe and memorable. May the new year be better for our nation than 2008 was.

I get lots of comments on this one...Stages of Democracy Take 2

I have received the most comments about this email. I want to say again, that it appears that the original "source" may be bogus - however, even an amateur student of political science would agree that it's basic premise is pretty sound and is born out by history. Those basic ideas were also on the minds of the framers of our Declaration of Independence and Constitution. So, despite the possibly bogus work cited - I still think the ideas are important and ought to be mulled over. There IS a warning here we need to heed lest we fall like all the rest. We should avoid the egotism that leads so many to repeat the errors of the past. Will we? Recent election results make we wonder...but, of course, I hope I am wrong! Here is the original post...
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The following was in an email that I received several months ago. I was unable to track down the name of the original author (sorry). But I HAVE heard much of what it has to say before in political science lectures while at college. It bears some serious thought....

"About the time our original 13 states adopted their new constitution, in 1787, Alexander Tyler, a Scottish history professor at the University of Edinburgh, had this to say about the fall of the Athenian Republic some 2,000 years prior:
"A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship." (emphasis mine - he continues...)

"The average age of the worlds greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these
nations always progressed through the following sequence
1. From bondage to spiritual faith;
2. From spiritual faith to great courage;
3. From courage to liberty;
4. From liberty to abundance;
5. From abundance to complacency;
6. From complacency to apathy;
7. From apathy to dependence;
8. From dependence back into bondage "
END QUOTE
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My comments...
I feel that the United States is now somewhere between the "complacency and apathy" phases of democracy, with perhaps at least 40 percent of the population already having reached the stage of "governmental dependency."

IF that really is so - then the only stage left is #8 - From dependence back into bondage. What might that look like I wonder? Possibly the welfare state becoming openly socialist and increasingly totalitarian - possibly even a dictatorship? One thing is for sure - our civil liberties will become extinct in the name of "the public good" or "safety."
You know, the Founding Fathers saw this coming and cemented our inalienble human rights in the constitution so that all future laws and govt. actions had to keep these in the center of their thinking and rulings. But social progressives constantly want to redefine these rights and the constitution so that it can be "applied" to modern situations. In the end, all that does is make it easy for some dictator(s) to "redefine" our rights and the constitution so that they can "legally" take them away (so much for inalienable).
What do you say?

Holiday Wrap Up

Well, first I need to say, "Thank you Lord!" for all the blessings of this holiday. It was the first Christmas w/ our new daughter and our new house (it was a full year!). We were able to spend several nights around the fireplace and Christmas tree with the family singing and reading the scriptures to remember the coming of Christ. I mean, at times, it looked and felt like a Currier and Ives/Rockwell Christmas! It was really great!
The shopping wasn't too excruciating and everyone seemed to like their gifts.
And the food was scrumptious (ham and lamb on the 23rd, homemade chowder and biscuits on the 24th, turkey on the 26th and still have a yummy ham left for later in the week).
And spending some time off with the new baby was really something - she is way too cute! She has been charming and wrapping me around her little finger for days now and I gotta tell you, I am liking it! So, all in all, despite catching a chest cold and having a wicked awful cough for the last couple of days, I would have to give this Christmas a 9 on a scale of 1-10. Hope yours went well too!