Obama’s State of the Union 2013

Obama said that he wants to keep the largest military the world has ever seen, but cut Medicare and Social Security, Why? If the world wants a Global Police Force the every nation should pay for it, not just the American Tax payer. The trouble is that is the only part of the speech where he may get Republican votes. There is usually only about 50% of the American people who vote, there are many reasons for this, some are just too lazy and don’t care, some think it is a protest (a protest nobody notices), but many others don’t vote because they are not given anybody to vote for, when both parties take a similar positions of important issues.

There were many good parts of Obama’s speech too, most without detail like Congress passing the American Job Act, which the failed to do during Obama’s first term, Immigration Reform, Gun Control and tying the minimum wage to inflation, raising it now to $9.00 an hour. All these issues should be passed by Congress, but won’t unless the American people pressure their Congressperson and Senators to do so, make your protests heard by writing to your representatives and let them know how you feel about the issues that concern you.      

Making Killing easy

Ever since humans got big heads they started trying to find easier ways to kill either animals or each other. First spears instead of clubs then spear throwers, then bows and arrows, then the crossbows and longbows.

There have been saner voices in the past; In 1139 Pope Innocent III and the second Lateran council outlaw the crossbow as a weapon causing unacceptable devastation, of course nobody listen with the crossbow being used until the invention of the musket around 1500. The musket was the weapon of choice until the mid 19^th century when the rifle was invented just in time for the American Civil War. We invented automatic rifles and machineguns in time the First World War. We invented in the same time frame canons and bombs of all kinds including nuclear bombs that can wipeout whole cities with one bomb dropped from high in the air. We can now sit thousands of miles away eating popcorn while killing people we don’t like. We are even working on machines that will pick out who to kill, so they can’t be hacked into by the people we don’t like.

Today in the year 2013 we are still wrestling with the same question as in 1139, have we made killing too easy. We hope that someday the human race will evolve to the point where we can answer that question.   

Tribalism and protecting the tribe

If there is one common problem in just about every nation it is one tribe trying to keep their country for their tribe. It seems that people love to belong to a tribe like a religion, race or ethnic group what we all want is to belong and protect their tribe against those who we perceive want to harm our tribe, real or a managed. Mao tried to protect China against foreign influences as did Japan until Admiral Perry opened Japan to the world. Europe have had centuries of wars with one group protecting what they believe is theirs against another tribe, Russian want to keep foreigners out of Russia, The German and French see Muslims moving in from North Africa as well as workers from Eastern Europe as a threat to their tribes .   Tribal massacres in Africa in recent year have been the worst if under reported examples like Rwanda, Kenya, the Congo, Darfur, and in the Union of South Africa. North America has brought together many different tribes both in Canada and the United States both have had their troubles first against the native Americans then again any new or just different races or ethnic groups the latest against Spanish speaking people from Mexico and points south and the Muslims all have been the recent targets as we yell “take back America” from that tribe that is different from us.

          My question is given all this is it in the inherit nature of humans or a learned cultural custom that can be transferred to belonging the whole human race and protect it against ourselves?   

Our trip to Orlando Florida to see Fred Day Four

The next day Monday we had our breakfast in our apartment, then took a walk around to lake for our morning exercise. Then about noon Dorothy and John came over and we went to the pool, Dorothy, Adele and I went into the pool for a while and then Adele and I got into a couples game with two other couple guess what the other put down on a tablet. Adele and I came last we only got three answers right, so I guess after forty-one year we still don’t know what the other is thinking, actually I think we both were trying to think up funny answers.

Then we went over to The Sheraton Resort where Dorothy and John were staying we took a long walk around the place with Adele feeding the little Ducklings and saw some Muskogee ducks fighting. Now Hilton is nice, but the Sheraton has more for the kids, plus more wild life. After that we went to a Chinese restaurant for dinner.  We went back to our place and Dorothy and John to theirs, I had a glass of wine and we went to bed.

Our trip to Orlando Florida to see Fred Day Three

The next day we got up had our breakfast and tried out the whirlpool bath we had a bit of trouble and we flooded the bathroom, then we read the instructions on how to operate the whirlpool, then we both took our morning baths. Then I put the Olympus camera photos into the computer dropbox and labeled the file names and started writing this story.

Dorothy and John came and after we walked around the resort looking at all the flowers and birds around the manmade lake, Adele got a call from our son Kenny that Josephine’s Dad had coded, we called Fred that we were coming and we took off to Fred home which was a little over an hour away. While we were on our way on route 4 Adele got a call on the cell phone and it was our son Kenny to tell us that Josephine’s Dad had died, unfortunately we will not be able to go to his funeral at the Medford Fire department. We continued on to Fred’s home in Zephyrhills and took him out to eat at a local dinner called the Village Inn, the dinner was crowded  as it was Sunday and all the old church goers were going out to lunch after church, so we had to wait for about 20 minutes before the seated us. We had a nice lunch, then with Dorothy still diving we drove around Zephyrhills for a while, then when we returned to his home I took a photo of all three Eiermann Children with my Canon Rebel Camera, Fred look thinner than he did last year when we visited him.

While returning we stopped off at Publix Supermarket to get our food for the week. The we went to Applebee’s for Dinner for Adele and I thought they would have Vegetarian meals for Dorothy and John, for we had ordered Salads many time when we went to Applebee’s at home, what we didn’t realize is that all those salads had chicken. So Dorothy ordered a Salad telling them to hold the chicken and they said they would take four dollars off. John ordered a pile of French fries that turned out to be too salty. So Applebee’s is not a good idea for Vegetarians. Then Dorothy drove us back to our resort and after load the photos into the computer’s dropbox and writing this story we went to bed.

Our trip to Orlando Florida to see Fred Day Two

 The railroad station in Orlando looked like an old fashion station with wooden beaches and wooden phone booths, there is where Dorothy and John got the rental car from Hertz with a GPS unit that had a woman telling Dorothy where to go. We were lucky Dorothy was driving for I know I wouldn’t hear half of the GPS woman’s directions, I guess I would need Adele at my side to tell me what she said. After whining through the street of Orlando for a while we got to the Dorothy and John’s resort.  Dorothy and John’s room was not ready and while we were there one of the resorts employee want to give us all free breakfast and fifty dollars, but we figured that he wanted to sell us a Time Share, so we told him we would think about it. 

Then we decided to go to the Hilton Grand Vacation Club where Adele and I were staying and we checked in our rooms were ready, so Dorothy drove us to our apartment, which was on the ground floor, we all went in for a look around. It was very nice with a full kitchen, whirlpool bath, a big full size bed, a screened in porch and a full living and dining rooms. The resort itself had a large lake with a walkway around, a bridge across it, two fountains in the middle of each end of it. There are two pools at either end of the lake one large pool with a waterfall and a bar; they had a game room, a quiet lounge, A Deli/café and a lot more.  I took some photos walking around first with the small Olympus camera, then with the Canon SLR camera.

Adele got the idea that if we could bring Fred to our resort maybe we could rent a wheelchair for him as he has trouble walking. So we went to the concierge if they rented wheelchairs and he said they only had a couple of wheelchairs for emergencies. Adele then I argued that they should have such a service, we argued for a while finally he became sympatric, he was quite progressive a rare breed in Florida, saying that his wife was a teacher making only 21,000 dollars a year because in Florida older people didn’t want to pay school taxes for other peoples children and he set up where we could talk to the resort manager and he said if we call or e-mail him when we wanted to bring Fred he would provide a wheelchair.

Adele and I bought some cereal “All Brands” and milk for breakfast at the resort deli as well as some coffee and returned to our unit and went to bed.

Our trip to Orlando Florida to see Fred day one

After planning for months the day finally arrived, saying our goodbyes to our Grandsons Kenny Jr. and Richie who wanted us to bring them back License plates from Florida,  and are going to take care of our dog Alva and water, turn on and off the growlite to the plants we started from seeds for our vegetable and flower gardens.  Our son Kenny Sr. drove us in our car to the Patchogue Railroad Station the weather was cold, but at least it did not rain like they forecast on TV.

We boarded the 9:29AM to Penn Station in Manhattan, we had to change at Babylon and we were lucky in that the train was not packed, Adele bungcorded her two suitcases together while I carried one on my back and dragged one along. The one thing I that feared was bring the bags on the train to the city, but I noticed a lot of people with bags some going to Jamaica for the train to the plane, others like us to Penn Station for Amtrak.   When we got to Penn Station we went up the escalator from the Long Island Railroad to the Amtrak part of the station. We found the computer terminal they call “Quik-Trak” scanned the barcode on the paper we printed out from the Amtrak web site and got our tickets to the Amtrak 3:15PM train 97 to Orlando Florida, we were very early as it was only 11Am when we got to Penn Station because we wanted to be sure for this was our first time getting an Amtrak Train. When I was young my parent did bring my sister and I to Atlantic City by Pennsylvania Central that ran out of the old Penn Station before they rebuild it to put Madison Square Garden on top of it.

We ate lunch at a pizza concession place in Penn Station, and then waited in the Amtrak waiting room for Dorothy and John, I took my first photo of Dorothy and Adele talking in the waiting room, I took two cameras one small Olympus Camera and one SLR Canon Camera . They arrived about 12:40PM they had taken the Amtrak from upstate New York right into Penn Station. We waited and we waited but finally it was about time for the train so we went out to the main area where the gate to the tracks were and a Red Cap gentleman asked us if we needed help with our bags, we told we didn’t know what gate the train on going to be on for they didn’t announce it yet, he said that he did and for a tip he would bring us to the train early, we told him for-get-about-it. The gate was finally posted they directed us to the last car on the train.

They assigned us seats 21 to 24 two on one side and two on the other side; the seats were nice wider apart than on the plane and with foot rests. After we got settled in the train took off  and when it stopped for a short time in New Jersey I took my second photo out the back of the train it didn’t turn out to good, but what the hell it decided to keep  anyway.  The scenery out the train was as you would expect it to be, but passing through Baltimore Maryland with all it’s boarded up apartment buildings were signs of the ruins of the American Working Class. The train stopped outside of Baltimore to change Engines from electric to Diesel and we waited about a half hour there before going on. We ate some of the snacks dark Chocolate bars (100cal) and read our books (I listen to my audio book “A Distant Mirror”) I took a few photos of us in our seats reading and sleeping with the small camera.  Then when the train stop at Jacksonville we got out for about 20 minutes I took photos of the train and tracks, I would like to have gotten a picture from the front, but it was a long train and I was afraid I would get back to the rear car. The train had a lounge with a few premade foods that were not very good. We looked at the dining car beyond that with its way over priced menu. We did have some wine in the lounge with Dorothy and at other times some coffee, we didn’t sleep very well in our seats, then we finally got to Orlando