Generation Gap

There is nothing wrong with your eyes, it’s called “The Generation Gap

The other day my wife (76 yrs old) and I (85 yrs old)  visited a Doctor (Late 40’s early 50’s) to discuss optionss for a proceedure my wife was diagnosed to require. One of the first things he said was, “I’m just a Doctor, I’m not more or less than anyone you know, I’m just a Doctor/Teacher.” At first I was confused and wanted to say, “Are we going to see the Doctor who will perform the operation?” He went on for awhile explaining the options, my wife told him we wanted the full operation, that she had been living with pain for two years now, and wanted and end to the misery she was experiencing. He remarked that was a good choice, and added some more information, at which time I asked him if he was the Doctor that was performing the operation. He answered “yes, he woulw be the surgeon, that “my wife had made a good choice, and again remarked that he “wanted to explain everything to us before we made the decision, that he was just a Doctor not an advisor like any other professional but that we were the only ones that could make those decisions”, and that “we know what is best for us once we understood everything”. He also said at one point that he shouldn’t be respected any more that any other man.

I thought for awhile and I said, “As 85 and 76 years olds, our generation was taught to respect Doctors, Policemen, Teachers, Elders, and anyone else in authority”. His comment to that was, “Yes, but not revere them, as they were just people like we were and able to make our own choices”.  I began to understand more of where he was coming from, but fully understood that he did not understand where we were coming from.

It is my belief that we are all products of our experience, and that there are common experiences and there are uncommon ecperiences. I could have had parents that said, “Son, never trust Doctors, Policemen, Teachers or Elders, they are all quacks and you need to decide everything for yourself”. I’m sure those parental types existed in my time, but I know that if they did exist they were far in the minority.

So what’s my point here? I was offended when he questioned my need to respect authority. It is in my DNA. I can’t just drop it. I felt that whatever he was saying to me was in his DNA also, and that he felt he had to say those thing. (In retrospect, his statements could have been interpreted as a God Syndrome way of speaking, but I gave him the respect of believing that he was speaking to me from the heart.)

I think a better way for him to have approached us would have been to say “I am a Surgical Doctor, capable of fixing your issue. I would first like to take you through all of the possibilities and ramifications of what you are facing, and then I want you to make your own decision. Only you know what is best for you”.

None the less, he opened both our eyes, and for that we both came away better for the encounter.

Presidents Day……”Now Here’s The Deal Folks”

“Now here’s the deal folks”

Wow, it’s President’s Day, and we want to be the first to tell you Joe, how happy we all are with your Presidency and how thankful we are for all your hard work and all the wonderful things you have done for us and this wonderful country. Where should we begin.

Oh yes………we are so thankful for the wonderful work you have done for the country by cleaning up that mess at the border. Stopping the ugly wall construction was a master-stroke. It is so easy now for everyone to walk across the border. Swimming across is almost a thing of the past and it was so dangerous anyway. The money you have saved, can now be spent on education, housing and subsistance of those newcomers…..to hell with all those homeless folks already clogging our city streets. We love the holding facilities you have provided for our newcomers. What the heck if the odd kid gets lost or sodomised, gives them toughness, teaches them life has its ups and downs and if they survive, it makes them stronger. The citizens living near the border are ecstatic and over the top with all the newcomers roaming across their property. They are good citizens who can put up with the odd home invasion, property destruction, armed robbery and rape. Don’t give those good citizens another thought Joe, they are good law abiding, tax paying folks ready to follow your lead.
Oh yes………stopping the gas line and the gas hike was stroke of genius, although we bet AOC put that bug in your ear. We all are in awe of the deep thought process that came up with the idea to do away with fossil fuel, when we have only a century of supply remaining and no feasable solution for a replacement form of transportation for the rank and file. The Tesla just isn’t for everyone anyway…..right Joe? Maybe all the gas suppliers will pool their billions in profits and buy us all a state-of-the-art Genesis, and make all those rich Koreans richer.
Oh yes……..and Joe the incentive payment thing is profound. Everyone is so thankful that you are giving away your money to give them incentive is so generous. The increased tax idea is a little confusing as is the pilfering of retirement savings accounts, but what the heck Joe, “The Lord giveth and taketh away”, why shouldn’t you.
Oh yes………Joe what a shame that your idea to relieve student loans didn’t take come to fruition. The hell with those students that have already paid theirs off.
Oh yes………We could go on and on,but we don’t want you to get a swelled head……..or is it a fat head.

Joe……“Now here’s the real deal”. On this well deserved President’s Day we are all so happy with your performance, thoughtfulness and hard work, that we would like to give you a two year, all expenses paid vacation, to any place of your choice in the universe. We have a rocketship standing by waiting to wisk you and your entire family away. As you leave earths atmosphere, look back and see all the good folks waving and wishing you………..

“BON VOYAGE MR. PRESIDENT”

Back Again – I Miss You

 

It has been awhile since we last visited. This morning I was doing my usual Social Media stuff, and decided to visit my website http://dickjacobsen.com , and read through the last ten or so posts and had several realizations. One…….man it has been a long time since I posted (November 20, 2021); Two…….man I really enjoyed what I read; and Three……..man I had an epiphany (a usually sudden manifestation or perception of the essential nature or meaning of something;  an intuitive grasp of reality through something (such as an event) usually simple and striking;an illuminating discovery, realization, or disclosure). I really liked what I had written.

OK, so now you are probably thinking ‘What a pompus ass this guy is’. Well maybe so/maybe not, but this is where the epiphany kicks in.

More years ago than I’m willing to admit, I took a couple of night Literature Courses at Ventura JC in Southern California, I was stationed at a nearby Naval Airbase – Point Mugu, where I was an Aviation Guidedmissleman Third Class, testing Sidewinders, Sparrow 111’s and Bullpup’s. I really enjoyed the Lit Courses. The Courses broke the boredom of my military incarceration, and gave me a chance to express myself.

When Final Exam time came, I walked into the classroom, and there was a sentence written on the blackboard;

“Bubbles I blow, Beads I Twist, all the rest is darkness and conjecture.” With the verbal instruction “Write about this, you have one hour.”

Hmmmm, I thought, and then it hit me. I sat down and wrote feverishly for the full hour. The gist of what I wrote was; “as an author, you write and write and write and yet when all is said, written and done, you never know what your reader will read.” In other words how will the reader interpret what you have written and did you get across what you wanted to get across, i.e. Did your reader get it?

Todays epiphany was………when writing, I smirk when I am writing smirk, I smile when I am writing funny, cry when I am writing sad, and mad as hell when I am writing rant. When I re-read my old posts I immediately smirked, smiled, cried, and got mad as hell in all the right places and enjoyed the read immensely………BUT what does the average reader do?…..there is the epiphany.

I’m thinking that I should preface each post with “Smile when you read this, or cry when you read this, smirk, or get mad as hell when you read this. What do you think?

OH, by the way……..I got the only A+ on the exam and the course.

Ulterior Motives – Certainly not Justice

Nadler and Friend

After the Rittenhouse Trial, our esteemed member of the House Judiciary Committee ranted that he would seek a retrial on Federal charges, because he was unhappy with the verdict, or for Second Amendment issues, or some other lame excuse or another. I kept thinking, why would he do this, and how could he do this. Isn’t there something like “Double Jeopardy” in the mix, or “the Decision of his Peers”, or , oh yeah, “Justice” to be consider here? As I considered the situation, it suddenly occurred to me that there can be only one reason for Nadler to say what he said…..and that is “Rock the Boat”, “Raise the Rabble” or just plain “Undermine the Legal System”.

Nadlers Support Group

Nadler has many friends and supporters in the (Mad)House, all of whom are of the highest character (in fact all of them are characters), morality (the strangest form of morality) and love of country (Just not this Country). It is easy to tell when Nadler and his Friends are Rabble Rousing…… their lips are moving.

It is really time we label this person and his buddies for who he and they are and that is “enemies of the Constitution of the United States”. All of them have sworn an oath to protect the Constitution, all of them have failed in their oaths, it is time for them to go. Please vote responsibly. If we don’t, the Biden’s, Nadler’s, AOC’s, Waters’, Schumer’s and Pelosi’s (Newsom’s In-law) will drag this country into the abyss.

Memorial Day – Who, What, When, Where and Why

Colleville-sur-Mer, France

 

Pretend you are a cub reporter for your local newspaper and your editor told you to write a piece that would help all of your readers to understand what was the true meaning of Memorial Day. What do you think you would say to your readers that would make them better understand the need for a holiday to commemorate such a day. Here is my shot at that assignment.

Every event, every different happening has a different meaning to different people. I realize fully that my understandings about things are rooted in my experiences and my experiences only. I was born near the end of July in 1938. One year and one month later a man by the name of Adolph Hitler decided to invade a country I had no idea of, for a reason I had no understanding of, in a place that I had no idea existed. For the next 7 years I experienced WWII, but it wasn’t until some 33 years later that the full impact of WWII really hit home.

I wanted to see the Normandy Beaches first hand so my wife and I traveled to Colleville-sur-Mer, France for the experience. I remember being stunned by the number of headstone crosses that covered that hallowed site in stark, orderly, military fashion. I remember having a inexplicable urge to film the site with my “Super-Eight” camera. As I pushed the record button and began panning my lens across that awesome sight I began to weep, and then to sob, and then finally to fall to my knees in sorrow, grief, and reverence. “My God, My God”, I said to myself over and over again as I viewed that sanctified plot. 9,000 brave, scared and heroic soles were interred in that vast expanse of lush green earth, in memory of that day in June 1944. “My God, My God”.

If the defeat of Fascism, and the saving of our American way of life was important enough to those 9,000 marvelous young men and women to give their lives, “My God, My God”, the memory of that day, that gift, those souls must be preserved forever, I thought, to myself, at that moment.

It is fitting that Memorial Day is a day when we realize our gift of freedom by joining with friends and family, going to the lakes, oceansides, mountains, theme parks, picnics and  bar-b-ques, and celebrating our free, American way of life, not as fully enjoyed by anyother nation in the world. It is also fitting to take a few moments today to remember the 9,000 and the thousands before and since that have given it all for you and me.

 

Voters!!! We Just Aren’t That Supid

When each election is over I say to myself, “How can we as voters be so stupid as to reelect the same idiots, over and over again?” I mean we continue to reelect the likes of Maxine Waters, who ranted on national television “If you see them in a restaurant, confront them and tell them we don’t want them here”, referring to any Republican, but mainly President Trumps appointees, an obviously seditious act. Chuck Schumer, who pounded a podium and screamed, “Dump Trump, Dump Trump,” over and over again, an act that I thought to be very seditious as well, considering he is a United States Senator. Nancy Pelosi, who acts coquettish and bored and then tears up President Trumps State of the Union speech, which, by the way was one of the best ever given. AOC who tried to tell us we could wean our world off of fossil fuels in ten years, teach cows not to fart, and go all Electric even though Tesla says the world is incapable of producing enough electricity to power that many vehicles. Premier-racist Obama who consorted with Farrakhan, The Rev and Al Sharpton more than he did his own cabinet. Turn-coat, Never-Trumper Mitch McConnell, Bible Thumping, Never-Trumper turn-coat Mitt Romney, how do all these wastes of voters ink get reelected over and over again. I could name at least 50 more like; Omar, Warren and Hirono, but I try to keep my stories under 450 words.

I scratch my head and say it can’t possibly be voter stupidity. We just ain’t that dumb. I finally realized that it has to be voting fraud. It is the only possible answer. Somehow, someway the vote is being rigged. It became patently obvious to me when I went to bed with President Trump having the vote in the bag, and woke up to find Sleepy Joe caused a landslide in a bunker. Now everything is coming clear, thanks to the persistence of President Trump and many others that are trying to get to the bottom of the issue.

In the past, minor efforts were required to swing votes in one direction or another. Hence the beginning of the mail-in-ballot. One or two thousand votes here and there would propel a Representative, Senator or President into office unnoticed. But this one was different, way different. The cheaters knew that President Trump was going to win, and win by a large margin, after all he worked his ass off for it. Hence an extra helping of mail-in-ballots was required, 50 million or more.

If this is allowed to go on, we have lost the America we fought and died for. We can’t let this happen.

Pelosi Gets Pigged, We Pay The Price

PELOSI GETS PIGGED, WE PAY THE PRICE

Lets just say, for arguments sake, that my neighbor (one person) buys a bunch of hens and a Rooster. He doesn’t need the Rooster but he gets it anyway just to piss me off. To get back at him, I go over to his house in the dead of night and throw rotten eggs at his garage door. (I have to say that this wouldn’t happen because my driveway is 330 feet long, so at my age he’d nail me halfway home.) Anyway, lets just say I did that and got away with it. I can guarantee that if my neighbor called the police, he would end up cleaning it all up himself, fuming and , cussing, and the cops would toss his complaint in the round file. It’s the way things are if you are one of the little people, which my neighbor and I are.

No compare that to the Elite, someone like Nancy Pelosi, (Goddess of all she surveys). She pisses off 70 or 80 Million people and one of them does a number on her garage door, and she calls the police, guess what happens. They come, investigate and clean up, bow and scrape and probably put the FBI on the case, capture the poor soul and toss him or her in the clink for life. Oh yeah, I forgot, and the Media makes it a “Breaking News”, Mainline, Prime Time Event. There is a glaring difference in the treatment of those two situations isn’t there.

I don’t know about you folks, but this upsets me to the core. What are the old sayings? “Mess with the crab, you get the claw”, “What’s good for the Goose is good for the Gander”, “Do unto others”, “What goes around, comes around”,  “Judge not lest ye be judged”; there’s gotta be a million adages fitting this situation. We little people live by them every day, but for some reason, Pelosi gets to sit up there on her “High Horse” and command the skies to open and make all things right in her world, no matter what she does to screw it up. Oh yeah, I forgot, she gets to do that at our expense. The little folks always pay the price, don’t you know.

It is time to make things right. Enact Term Limits and get rid of career politicians that are only in it for what they alone can get out of it. She’ll get her Millions, We, The People will get jail time.

What Happened to MY Vote?

The first time I ever voted was Tuesday, November 8, 1960. I had just gotten out of the Navy and beginning my new life as a civilian. I remember being very excited at the polls and wanting to get it right. I am a staunch Republican, and I voted for John Fitzgerald Kennedy, who I though was the better candidate at that time. Now, sixty years later, I found myself at the polls, still excited, standing in front of the registrar giving her my name and address. She asked me if I had the ballot that I was sent in the mail and I replied, “No, I neither requested it, nor wanted it, because I vote at the polls, as I always have for the last 60 years. “Did you bring it with you?”, she asked. “No, I threw it in the garbage, full well expecting to vote at the polls like I have for the last 60 years.” I reiterated. “Then you will have to see that man over there and fill out a request for a ‘Provisional Ballot‘ “, she said. “No,” I said, my voice raising a decibel and an octave, “I just want a ballot to vote here at the polls like I have for the last 60 years.” I noticed a stiffening tension in the her and her other cohorts, as I held out my hand for my ballot. “We are sorry sir, but you must see that man over there for a provisional ballot.” I begrudgingly did what I was told and filled out the paper, and 20 minutes later voted ‘Provisionally‘, and walked out, feeling I had been raped.

On December 7, (A date that will live in infamy) 2020  , I received a buff colored voter notification card in the mail, from the Shasta County Clerk, saying that I had been registered to vote as of November 03, 2020, and it was valid for elections on or after 11/18/2020. “Hmmmmm”, I thought, as I picked up the phone to call the registrars office. A nice young gentlemen answered the phone and I explained my story to him and asked him if my provisional vote had counted on November 3, 2020. He put me on hold. When he returned, he told me that there was a note in my voting file (I had no idea it existed), that I had been registered to vote as of 11/18/2020, but that was all. No note that I had voted on 11/3/2020, like I have for the last 60 years at the polls.

That same day I wrote a letter to the esteemed Shasta County Clerk, asking for a written accounting of my vote, and as of today December 31, 2020 I have no answer.

I am going to start the New Year by going to the Clerks Office, to get my explanation. After 60 years of voting and good citizenship (when I was in country) I think I deserve an answer, don’t you?.

Concern, Albeit Cautionary

Today, on Facebook,  there was another article that spoke of a local police drug bust. This particular bust was made based on the need for police to conduct a “parole search”. “Parole is the early release of a prisoner who agrees to abide by certain conditions”, in other words, agrees to behave himself. When the police showed up, the 31 year old couple was seen throwing things out of a window, which were later recovered and found to be drugs and drug paraphernalia. Obviously they were not in parole compliance, it was a good bust, all is well. The article ended, however, with “Do you suspect there is a drug house in your neighborhood? Click here to report it.” This is where my concern begins.

I lived through WWII and as an 5 to 10 year old, lived through the infamous Gestapo and all its dastardly dirty dealings. As an impressionable young boy it affected me deeply, still does to this day. I was appalled by their brutal actions so much that once on a vacation train ride from Munich to Lucerne two German Police burst into my closed compartment shouting “Achtung”, which scared me half to death, requiring minutes to recover, (True Story).

I believe that we have the right and obligation to call police if we suspect drug dealings or other nefarious activities are going on in our neighborhood. I also strongly believe that the police then have the responsibility to prove that there is a legal reason to enter and search the neighbors home and not just act on the suspicions of the reporting neighbor. I’m relatively sure this is the case, but more and more of these posts are showing up on Facebook, and I sure would hate to have them become common place and abused and have Heinrich Himmler bounce through my front door unannounced based on a vindictive complaint from a neighbor I might have pissed-off somehow.

As Americans we take all this for granted, because we fought for it and defend it every day.

EEEeeeeK A Mouse, In This Case A Yorkie

I have planted fruit trees on my rural property hoping for the occasional pear or an apple. This year 10 apples appeared on my new apple tree. I went on a weeks vacation and when I returned they were gone, and four other fruits that I planted were broken and stripped of their leaves. Those pesky deer were at it again. I decided I would try and run them off every time I saw them, I had to do something to make them feel unwelcome.

One morning I walked by my front bay window, and there were two brazen deer, a mother and her yearling, standing on my front lawn, as if they owned the place. I burst out my front door, along with my seven pound Yorkshire Terrier, and began shouting. My Yorkie Ike, (named after Dwight David Eisenhower) took off like a shot yapping after my two, now frightened out of their skins, cervine intruders. It was a site to watch, two hundred plus pounds of forest denizens scurrying away from a seven pound deerstalker. When it was over the deer, in fast retreat, had hopped the fence and Ike strolled triumphantly home from his latest enemy encounter.

It started me thinking. Two, one hundred pound plus wild beasts fear-stricken by an admittedly aggressive seven-pounder. How does that happen? The large animal afraid of everything, the midget afraid of nothing. Ike’s eyes are on the front of his head, the sure sign of a predator. Deer’s eyes are on the sides of their heads which is typical of prey. Is it a predator/prey thing? Is that it? Yorkies were bred to keep the mines of England rat free. They never came out of the mines. Is it a survival thing? When Ike sees something he instinctively runs at it with the intent to kill, my Border Collie, on the other hand, runs from danger until he has had enough time to stop and assess his situation and plan his next course of action. Is it a fight or flight thing?

This two hundred and forty pound human is scared to death of a two gram arachnid. Maybe I should try and figure that out first.