• Frank & Pat's MENU >>
• Weblog
• About
• Archive
• RSS Feed
• Photo Gallery
• Login

 Scary stuff

Re: the largest SPENDING bill in the history of the country.

 

 comments (0)

 Note: this is in Rants and Raves, not birthdays

From VP Cheney:

“When we get people who are more concerned about reading the rights to an Al Qaeda terrorist than they are with protecting the United States against people who are absolutely committed to do anything they can to kill Americans, then I worry,” Cheney said. 

Protecting the country’s security is “a tough, mean, dirty, nasty business,” he said. “These are evil people. And we’re not going to win this fight by turning the other cheek.” 

Citing intelligence reports, Cheney said at least 61 of the inmates who were released from Guantanamo during the Bush administration — “that’s about 11 or 12 percent” — have “gone back into the business of being terrorists.”

He expressed confidence that files will some day be publicly accessible offering specific evidence that waterboarding and other policies he promoted — over sharp internal dissent from colleagues and harsh public criticism — were directly responsible for averting new Sept. 11-style attacks.

I vote for keeping my children safe...I am really sure I don't care if the  guy who planned the 9/11 attacks drown or is beaten...

 comments (0)

 Money Stimulus Where It Belongs

Assuming we can keep the bill down to $800,000,000.00 (that's a lot of zeros to leave our kids with, forget the $700,000,000.00 already spent) let's just write a bunch of checks.

Using some minimal use of brain power, that works out to be right around $27,000.00 per person, including the little ones. Give Jchon something over $100,000.00, more if the baby gets here before the checks, I GUARANTEE you there would be some spending.

Then, let the sales/gas/ etc. taxes we pay on our purchases go to the states to fix the darn roads, bridges, teacher wage parity, additional police and fire personnel and equipment, the real needs of the people. Needless to say, anyone getting billion dollar bonuses don't get any.

If a bank fails, so be it. Let free markets determine which companies survive.  I don't see anyone coming around our place to give us a "bailout".

 comments (0)

 Good writing and serious issues

This was sent to me by a constituent I worked with a year or so ago. It comes on the heels of a early morning show touting a new book giving people hints on how to successfully live together prior to marriage. Huh??? I know people do it..but to promote a book???? Come on...what kind of message are we sending our children...

Anyway, this is somewhat related, sort of....

 

Come together, or Get back to where you once belonged

By Nathaniel Monks

 

 

I had forgotten how much of a nose-dive our country had taken until this weekend while channel flipping in the early morning hours. It only takes about three or maybe four minutes of watching The Donna Reed Show or Leave it to Beaver to realize something has gone wrong. Way wrong.

 

We have been telling ourselves for years that the 50s society was fiction. That age was not as it appeared. People may have appeared good, but underneath that facade they were often racist, sexist and abusive. The media works to reinforce this idea with constant examples of the bad old days. The Stepford Wives help you believe.  We have heard this so many times that it is knee-jerk and more importantly allows us not to think.

 

Well, I have started thinking and I think that we threw the baby out with the bathwater. I see the decline all around me.

 

In my business, I see several job seekers a week covered in tattoos. He is unable to stand up straight or speak clearly. He has been fired or quit eight jobs in the past three years and he has not bothered to memorize the name of the business in which he sits. After I get to know him I learn that he is not married to his “wife.” She is the mother of one of his three children as he is the father to one of her three. Neither has hit age of 30 yet. She does all the driving because his license is suspended for DUI or nonpayment of child-support or something.

 

Salespeople call my office several times a day. They refuse to leave a message. They try tricks of every sort to get past my secretary. The moment that they realize, that she has realized that they are a salesperson, they simply hang up.

 

My company trades with many suppliers and customers. If the relationship is me as the seller, I must become a collection agent to get my money. It is standard policy for thousands of companies to milk their partners for the free use of someone else’s money.

 

If I am the buyer, thousands of other hazards exist such as 14 day warranties at office supply stores and bankruptcies of those who owe us. I may order stock from a supplier at an agreed upon price, and find a huge fuel surcharge on my bill. I am an understanding man. I know what gas costs. I pay it. Then gas prices plummet. The fuel surcharge stays the same.

 

I must schedule more employees than I need to do any job. Maybe they show up, maybe not. The reason they don’t, probably a lie. I quit even making a mental note of the excuse they use. If I don’t seem to be concerned that you are sick, I probably don’t believe that you are. All I needed to know, I learned in the first seven seconds of the phone call. You are a not coming to work today because blah blah blah.

 

If a store runs a sale with really good prices, I don’t expect there to be any in stock when I get there. Especially “door busters” or autos. Maybe the reason the door gets busted is because the jaded customer knows that the store is making no effort at all to provide the item to the customers.

 

Here is my Father Knows Best story of the year. I watched a United States Senator (Claire McCaskill) being interviewed on a news channel. She was chipperly explaining why she had changed her loyalty from one presidential candidate (who she had known and liked and worked for) to a new fresh face with no experience. She explained that her teenage daughter had literally screamed at her (and called her a slug) until she changed her mind. Did I tell you that she is a real and sitting senator?* Does she not have a Magic 8 Ball to guide her?

 

My attorney brother must record and replay commercials (sometimes more than once) to differentiate what advertisers are trying to make you believe and what they are verbally committing to. Their legal departments have carefully examined every word so that the company can prove that they did not actually say what they just spent millions to make you believe you heard them say.

 

Our whole banking crises was the product of thousands of people independently acting in a choir of greed. People lied on their loan applications when they bought homes that they did not intend to live in. (A larger down payment is required for investment property). They planned to resell for a profit. Appraisers often overvalued homes so that the loan officer/broker would be able to put the deal together and would keep giving her work. The Brokers would sometimes urge people to lie about their income to make it easier to sell the loan to the big investment banks. The investment banks securitized millions of these loans and sold them as bonds. The bond rating agencies put an artificially high grade on the portfolios so the brokerages would be able to sell them easier and would in turn keep hiring them to rate the portfolios. Our Congress kept helping the investment banks make more loans and promising more and more government lending to them as those banks (especially Fannie and Freddie) made huge donations to those members of congress. To ice the cake, Congress then implied to foreign governments and American institutions that Uncle Sam would guarantee the value of the GSA bonds. This allowed lenders like Fannie and Freddie to lend trillions (with a T) more dollars.

 

Every small business person that I have ever seen give up and close down, says the same thing. “I can’t find honest people who will work.”

 

There are thousands of ways that dishonesty, selfishness, and bad manners have permeated every corner of our society. Books are written on the causes. I no longer am concerned where it came from. I just want to see it go.

 

I am as happy as anyone to see the advances that we have made in the past half century, but for those three steps forward, we have taken thirteen steps backward and thirteen is an unlucky number.

 

I propose that now is the time for all good people to come to the aid of the soul of their country. We can easily see negative traits in others quite clearly; let’s look at ourselves instead. Find a couple of ways that you personally can revive one of those civilized and honorable traditions from our past. Then do it.

 

Tell the truth. Show up on time. Hold the door open. Dress as though you were not a transient. Smile even when it is not easy. Never tell a kid, “Don’t call me sir.” If someone is older than you, assume that in some way they are senior to you and defer to them. Stop buying magazines that make money off sex appeal and gossip. Brittney is not the problem. Supply meets the demand.

 

A stranded attractive woman does not have to stand on the side of the street very long. Pull over and offer help to the poor ugly person. You can be sure that they live in a different world.

 

 

 

Spend more time with your kids. Don’t buy that excuse about quality time is better than quantity time. Not true. They are learning the thousands of attributes that make up a person. You can’t do this with a few frantic fun hours each week.

 

And by the way, stand up straight and say “Pleased to meet you.” 

 

Nathaniel Monks

 comments (0)

 Something Has To Change

All of you know, or should know, that most of my work day is spent working on immigration casework for the constituents of OK05. It is a job that I have loved from the day I started. It gives me an opportunity to assist and make a difference is many, many differnt families. It really is remarkable and I am deeply appreciative that Ernest Istook had enough faith in me to give me the opportunity to work for him.

My views on Immigration policy, is of course, colored by the tasks I perform everyday on behalf of aliens, legal and illegal, everyday. There are days when I fervantly wish we could just completely shut the borders down and prohibit ANY entry for anyone for at minimun of two years until we can get the whole system revamped so it is not so cumbersome to "do it right". Other days, I know that is not the answer, but surely the system we have is not going to work.

I do NOT believe in amnesty, I do NOT think we should have a blanket 'guest worker' program (code words for amnesty), but clearly there needs to be a better way.

A couple of weeks ago, a very angry 'constituent' called our office complaining that an illegal he had hired 4 years ago and fired after finding out he was using a false social security card..was out there running his own business now. He made multiple threats of media etc.

I dutifully called up ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement)and asked if they had ever investigated this guy. They said they had talked to the angry, irrational guy, but had not had the resources to go out and investigate someone who wss not killing, raping or causing harm to society. Pretty standard answer from them, not unexpected. However, I did ask, since this guy was being such a &^&^(*&%%^&, if they would go a step further.

Long and short..they did, they went out on Friday to talk to him. He indeed was running a landscaping business. He had a wife and children, but indeed, was illegal. He had come here legally many years ago..but had overstayed without adjusting status.

Today..Fathers Day...a family is separated. Friday night he was on a bus down to Texas, waiting to get shipped back to Mexico.

I don't feel especially good about my part in this.

Was he wrong to be here? Yes.

Should he have used a bad SS#? No.

Should there be consequences? Yes.

But, I don't feel good about my part in this.

Something has to change, we can't reward people for doing wrong, we can't tell the people who took years and dollars doing it right that it was a waste, there was an easier 'wrong' way.

I don't feel good about my part in that deport...but what IS the answer.....

 comments (0)

 I'm Tired of People not taking Responsibility

Okay, this is my rage time. Yesterday a teacher from somewhere (female) had a charge of having sex with a minor dropped and she will now go without any punishment. The reason? The judge did not like the plea bargain the prosecutors had made with her even though it had been cleared with the "victim" and his family! So . . . in keeping with prosecutorial discression, the DA took his football and went home. Basicially told the judge, you don't play ball my way, I'll fix you, we just won't prosecute her.

Now, I will be the first to grant you that the MIMINUM prison term she could be given had the case gone to trial was 17 years in prison, a totally rediculous "let the punishment fit the crime" sentence. But the DA had not given up the store either. The deal that was not accepted was: 3 YEARS house arrest (You can't leave the confines of your house or yard without written permission from your probation officer who may or may not get back to you within a month or two) 7 years proabtion, an unhead of length of follow-up punishment for a like offense and permanently surrender her teaching credentials for any state in the Union.

Now, that ticked me off. BUT, that is just the tip of the iceburg. This teacher's defense had she gone to trial? She was Bi-Polar!!!!! Okay, I have heard enough and enough and enough!!! Yes, there is a legitimate disorder known as being bi-polar. It is recognized by every medical school and book in the US and overseas. Yes, it can be devastating. (Ask mom how she handles it sometimes when she just doesn't know how to inter-react with me when I go off the deep end?) BUT . . . it does not give me the right, nor is it a defense should I do it, to commit crimes, harm people or do other things that society deems unacceptable. (Except I reserve the right to hit walls, brick and otherwise. The brick usually wins.)

I am not happy that I have been diagonosed as a person with the bi-polar disorder. It puts me at risk for many things that others usually do not face. If we really want to get technical, I have virtually every aspect of the bi-polar personality there is. (Most bi-polars have two or perhaps three traits, mine leaped over 10 when I stopped counting.) BUT, despite this, I don't go out raping, molesting, robbing or any other of the many legal defenses utilized to defend the actions of someone with a bi-polar personality!

Truth be told, the general characteristics of a person with the disorder are people of high intellect, very creative, strong, responsible personalities . . . the positive side of the list goes on. Famous names throughout history have had the disorder . . . Winston Churchill, Picasso, Einstein . . . mom probably knows the list better than I. I don't really care who the others are that are or were Bi-Polar. I don't see muself in anything near the class of people always refer to. BUT, I care about how to deal with it so other people can deal with me.

There are many, many things I can't do anymore because of the disorder. It is not something that just happened, it has been a part of my life virtually from birth. Until I was a little over 50 I "self-medicated" (No, not drugs, people with Bi-Polar personalities are known to overwork, undersleep, act out in rage, seem to get upset over what others consider trivial matters, make very poor decisions (usually financial) and various other techniques. (Sound like anyone you know.)

Then I reached a point where too many events converged on my life at just the wrong time and I went over-board. I was no longer able to handle my problems on my own. I have been poked, prodded, pinched and xrayed. I have been on every modern medication known to control the depressive side of the disorder. Finally I was given the ultimate diagnosis: drug resistant Bi-Polar disorder with borderline personality tendencies. That's the doctor's way of saying we have no idea what to do next.

Well, you know mom, she doesn't understand the words no or can't and through a lot of hard work and a lot of time she found out about this VNS thingy that has been discussed here before. There are problems we face in getting it done, a lot of roadblocks, but mom is taking them one by one and just keeps digging her heals in and WILL get something done.

As for me, I have good days, I have really good days, and I have poor days. But, in the past several months I have not had any really bad days. Needless to say, the medications provide a cushion for me, but I finally accepted the fact that if I was not going to let this thing take me down. I would let something I do have some control over take away my time to enjoy my life, enjoy my kids, enjoy my grandkids and who knows, maybe even great-grandkids. (Just remenber, no dating until you finish college kids! )

I am my own counselor now, after 6 years I have heard all the words, all the methods of avoidance, all the methods of "reaching the right state of mind." I know all the words. But now I accept that all those words end with ME! I have to do this or I have to do that. And when I need some outside counselling, I turn to the most qualified counselor I know, my wife.

When in Deaconess this last time, and being stuck in a situation where mom and Chrisite and friends were all facing imminent damage from the grass fires and I could do nothing but bother them every 2 minutes about did you remember to get this or did you remember to get that out of the house, I knew something new had to be done.

They say, out of the mouths of babes words of wisdom come. Well, in a group meeting at Deaconess one day a "babe" (not the kind of babe I think the phrase was intending, not to mention she was a weird "babe" at that, certainly not one I would normally assiciate with on the 'outside') made a comment. She was discussing her attempts at suicide. (a topic we would all like to pretend doesn't exist, but that many still have to deal with, and in all too many cases, don't deal with well) She said the thing that stopped her this last time was that she was not going to leave that as her legacy! WOW! In one word years of therapy, years of medication, years of fear and frustration, all came together. I couldn't stay in the room. I had gotten very emotional and I don't like to share those emotions with others who don't know me. (yes, and even most that do) So I went back to my room and came to the simple answer to THE question. WHY? WHAT? HOW? What I needed, as I always have, is a short, (like I ever write anything short, this message being indicative of that) concise reason for hanging on that I could grab when things got too rough and mom was not around to "ground" me. And that was it. I not only do not want to, but more importantly I WILL NOT leave a legacy that ends with "he couldn't stand up to life." That just isn't, and has never been me.

Mom ALWAYS says the reason she loves me so much (she actually says lots of reasons and each has its own time and place) is that she never knows what tomorrow will bring being with me. She knows it will be unpredictable, sometimes fun, and usually pushing the envelope about as far as it can go, but that whatever we do, we will be doing it together.

I don't know how I got to here from the teacher who blamed her bi-polar diagnosis as justifying her molesting a student (okay, the guy probably was as much a part of it as she was, and that I can handle, but SHE did not act out as she did because she was bi-polar, she did it because she wanted to have relationships with this kid)to a novel on what has been and continues to go on with me, but, I think I needed a place to rant and to put into words that I can look back on when I need a little extra strength.

So, when anyone looks back on life my legacy will be "he was one of the craziest, unpredictible people I ever knew, but in the end, his life was dedicated to his family to life and to the unknown."

I know there are kids out there that need to get some things off their chests with me, and I may not be happy about what you say, but I will listen and I will not "blow off" what you say and feel. I will not try and justify what I did or did not do. In a long running discussion with Dottie nearly 20 years ago now, my, how can it be that long ago, I came to what should have always been a very simple understanding. It doesn't matter what I feel or think about a situation or action or inaction on my part, it is what the other person perceived my actions to be. And that is the issue that has to be addressed. There are people in my past I never got the chance to do that with. For that there is no solution. But, I can offer anyone else the opportunity to "get into my face" if it will help smooth out the rifts and help us enjoy the rest of our lives together.

Sorry this has been such an outpouring. (speaking of that, I should be 'out pouring' some ceramics) And Jchon, if you think this is something that belongs on my own webpage, move it, or not on the site at all, just delete it. You won't offend me. But I felt it was time people saw me for whom I feel I am today, not who I was years, weeks or days ago. I am driving Christie, Dawna and Jchon NUTS with all my questions about many things,life itself even, and that is just who I am right now. Each has gone out of their way to help with that and I cannot even begin to express my gratitude, not just for the help in gathering information, but just for putting up with what have been some difficult, uncomfortable situations. I want to learn. I want to use what I learn. I want to learn to accept or reject ideas, not because of some preconceived notions but rather based upon the insight of others and the foundations upon which the information lies. That is a whole 'nuther book. I will end this one now saying how much I love each and every one of you, and each of you in a different way. Many for the same reasons, but each also for many differing reasons.

And with that I leave each of you with my love, pride and affection and my gratitude and never ending love for a wife who has stuck with me through every high and every low, and never once backed away when anyone with any sense would have, and with the first vote in the not so weekly poll.

 comments (10)