Soliciting Santa Claus's where you live

            Soliciting Santa Claus's where you live

            Here's a charity idea that may appeal to you.

            After Thanksgiving, go to the local Dollar General Store or one like it, and buy three thrifty Christmas presents for middle school kids. Also get some wrapping paper and tape, and wrap it yourself.

            Before Christmas, take these presents to the local school(s) of your choice, and have the teachers distribute they as best they can. Just drop them off with the senior school leadership, like the principal's office. And provide them enough time, too.

            Teachers often know which kids are from Families than may enjoy the help.

            Ignore any charity level higher than your level of charity.

            Modify these ideas as you see fit.

The Emperor's New Clothes

The Emperor's New Clothes

       A wiki link on this story by Hans Christian Andersen can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Emperor's_New_Clothes

            Consider adding it to your list of stories to tell or read, either during the day or at bedtime.

An Episcopal Prayer often used by George Washington

An Episcopal Prayer often used by George Washington

       Almighty God, who hast given us this good land for our
heritage: We humbly beseech thee that we may always prove
ourselves a people mindful of thy favor and glad to do thy will.
Bless our land with honorable industry, sound learning, and
pure manners. Save us from violence, discord, and confusion;
from pride and arrogance, and from every evil way. Defend
our liberties, and fashion into one united people the multitudes
brought hither out of many kindreds and tongues. Endue
with the spirit of wisdom those to whom in thy Name we entrust
the authority of government, that there may be justice and
peace at home, and that, through obedience to thy law, we
may show forth thy praise among the nations of the earth.
In the time of prosperity, fill our hearts with thankfulness,
and in the day of trouble, suffer not our trust in thee to fail;
all which we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

 

Card game

Card game

       Entertainment that is simple, fun, and thrifty

A wiki link on the subject can be found at:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Card_game

Now some rules and card games can get complicated, but that is what teachers and practice are for.

Crazy eights anyone?

A personal wood stove story

A personal wood stove story

       And on Thanksgiving Day in rural east Tennessee on the Cumberland Plateau

            Mostly I like being "warm enough". That often means wearing extra clothes during cold times, like so many know how to do already. My goal is to make my main room like at 68 F. In the rest of the cottage, it is more like in the 50's and even 40's. The dogs really like it, also.

            It also means trying to be thrifty.  I used to call my father cheap, now I call him thrifty. He's been dead over a decade, but I still think about him and my mother, who died earlier in 1997.

            I also believe the lower temperatures do help my health during the cold season.

            So I added some split and seasoned oak wood to the wood stove, mostly just to keep it burning, but also to enjoy the warmth. Sitting by  a warm wood stove is just good for my morale.

            Plus I hope and expect it will help keep my water pipes from freezing.  It got down to like 18 F last night.

            So this is not like just turning up the thermostat, or even adding on more house insulation, but more about just being happy enough with what I have. And I am happy right now.

            And the wood stove is doing OK, from my east Tennessee on the Cumberland Plateau  point of view.

A classical debate

A classical debate

       Cold is cold for about anybody

This is a homeland defense story and thoughts.

It is not about security during flying, or any other kind of present public transportation, too.

It is just about your own home, like where you live.

If times get hard, bad people will come for you, like it or not. That's a premise. Mostly it is based on what I would do, especially if I am cold, wet, and hungry; and especially if my Family is suffering a similar fate.

Now will they come for you during good times and bad times, especially throwing in weather situations?

Being a Marine, I would come at them during bad times. That provides me an advantage.

Now this discussion is for you to decide, especially about where you live today. The assumption is there is no 911 to call, and you and your neighbors are on your own.

Stay Home, America

Stay Home, America

 

A day of thanks shouldn't be a day of nonessential commerce.

 

By Peggy Noonan in the Wall Street Journal

·  @Peggynoonannyc·  Peggy.Noonan@wsj.com·  Biography

I had a lot of jobs in a somewhat knockabout youth—waitress, clerk, temporary secretary, counter girl in a bakery (nice—no one's ever sad in a bakery) and in a flower shop (hard—for hours I removed the thorns from the tough, gnarly roses we sold, which left my hands nicked and bloodied). All the jobs of my teens and early 20s were wonderful in the sense that I was lucky to have a job. Unskilled baby boomers were crowding into an ailing economy; they took what they could and did their best from there. I could earn a salary to buy what I needed—clothes, food, money to go to college at night, then during the day. But the jobs were most wonderful in that they contributed to the experience hoard we all keep in our heads.

The best was waitressing. That's hard work too, eight or 10 hours on your feet, but you get to know the customers. People will tell you their life stories over coffee. There's something personal, even intimate in serving people food, and regulars would come in at 6 or 7 a.m. and in time you'd find you were appointments in each other's lives. At the Holiday Inn on Route 3 in New Jersey, long-haul truckers on their way to New York would stop for breakfast. They hadn't talked to anyone in hours. I'd pour coffee and they would start to talk about anything—the boss, the family, politics.

I learned from them what a TSA agent told me many years later: "Everyone's carrying the same things." I had asked the agent what she'd learned about people from years of opening people's bags and seeing what was inside. She meant her answer literally: Everybody's carrying the same change of clothes, the same toiletries. But at the moment she said it we both understood that she was speaking metaphorically too: Everyone's carrying the same burdens, the same woes one way or another. We have more in common than we know.

Once when I was 18 my friends and I ran away. We pooled our cash, bought a broken-down car for $200 and aimlessly drove south. We wound up in Miami Beach, in what was then a fallen-down, beat-up area and is now probably a millionaire's row. I worked at a restaurant whose name I remember as the Lincoln Lanes. Jackie Gleason did his TV show nearby, and the June Taylor dancers used to come in for lunch. They were so great—young and beautiful and full of tales about the show and about Jackie, who once drove by in his car. I thought of him when I first saw Chris Christie, years later. Mr. Christie on YouTube confronting an aggrieved constituent was sheer Gleason: "To the moon, Alice!"

The hardest job I had was working the floor at a women's clothing store on Park Avenue in Rutherford, N.J. It was part of a chain. It was boring when traffic was light—clocks go slow in retail when no one's there. There's no stool to sit on during your shift: You're working the floor so that's where they want you, walking around, folding sweaters, rearranging hangers. You don't have the same conversations with a harried woman trying on a skirt that you do with a tired trucker on his way to the city who decides to give you his philosophy of life.

One thing all these jobs had in common was something so common, so expected, that it was unremarked upon. You got holidays off. You were nonessential personnel. You worked at a place that didn't have to be open, so it wasn't. You got this gift, a day off, sometimes paid and sometimes not, but a break, an easement of responsibility.

I suppose the shops I worked at were unthinkingly following tradition. Thanksgiving, Christmas—these are days to be with friends and family and have a feast. Maybe if you pressed them they'd say something like: "This is what we do. We're Americans. Thanksgiving is a holiday. We're supposed to give thanks, together." They'd never trespass on a national day of commonality, solidarity and respect.

You know where we're going, because you've seen the news stories about the big retailers that have decided to open on Thanksgiving evening, to cram a few extra hours in before the so-called Black Friday sales. About a million Wal-Mart workers will have to be in by 5 p.m. for a 6 p.m. opening, so I guess they'll have to eat quickly with family, then bolt. Kmart will open on Thanksgiving too, along with Target, Sears, Best Buy and Macy's, among others.

The conversation has tended to revolve around the question of whether it's good for Americans to leave their gatherings to go buy things on Thanksgiving. In a societal sense, no—honor the day best you can and shop tomorrow. But that's not even the question. At least shoppers have a choice. They can decide whether or not they want to leave and go somewhere else. But the workers who are going to have to haul in to work the floor don't have a choice. They've been scheduled. They've got jobs they want to keep.

It's not right. The idea that Thanksgiving doesn't demand special honor marks another erosion of tradition, of ceremony, of a national sense. And this country doesn't really need more erosion in those areas, does it?

The rationale for the opening is that this year there are fewer shopping days between Thanksgiving and Christmas, and since big retailers make a lot of their profits during that time something must be done. I suppose something should. But blowing up Thanksgiving isn't it.

There has been a nice backlash on the Internet, with petitions and Facebook posts. Some great retailers have refused to be part of what this newspaper called Thanksgiving Madness. Nordstrom won't open on Thanksgiving, nor will T.J. Maxx, Costco or Dillard's. P.C. Richard & Son took out full-page ads protesting. The CEO was quoted last week saying Thanksgiving is "a truly American holiday" and "asking people to be running out to shop, we feel is disrespectful." Ace Hardware said, simply: "Some things are more important than money."

That is the sound of excellent Americans.

People deserve a day off if what they do is nonessential. Selling a toy, a jacket, even a rose is nonessential.

Black Friday—that creepy sales bacchanal in which the lost, the lonely, the stupid and the compulsive line up before midnight Friday to crash through the doors, trampling children and frightening clerks along the way—is bad enough, enough of a blight on the holiday.

But Thanksgiving itself? It is the day the Pilgrims invented to thank God to live in such a place as this, the day Abe Lincoln formally put aside as a national time of gratitude for the sheer fact of our continuance. It's more important than anyone's bottom line. That's a hopelessly corny thing to say, isn't it? Too bad. It's true.

Oh, I hope people don't go. I hope it's a big flop.

Stay home, America.

And happy Thanksgiving to our beloved country, the great and fabled nation that is still, this day, the hope of the world.

 

A Proclamation by George Washington on Thanksgiving

General Thanksgiving
By the President of the United States of America
A PROCLAMATION

WHEREAS it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favour; and Whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me “to recommend to the people of the United States a DAY OF PUBLIC THANSGIVING and PRAYER, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness:”

NOW THEREFORE, I do recommend and assign THURSDAY, the TWENTY-SIXTH DAY of NOVEMBER next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty which we have since enjoyed;– for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enable to establish Constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted;– for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge;– and, in general, for all the great and various favours which He has been pleased to confer upon us.

And also, that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions;– to enable us all, whether in publick or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually; to render our National Government a blessing to all the people by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all sovereigns and nations (especially such as have shewn kindness unto us); and to bless them with good governments, peace, and concord; to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us; and, generally to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as he alone knows to be best.

GIVEN under my hand, at the city of New-York, the third day of October, in the year of our Lord, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-nine.

(signed) G. Washington

 

Gratitude and Grace

Gratitude and Grace

By Glenn Fairman

 As another Thanksgiving has come full circle and we again come face to face with a bounty of foods set before us that in most ages would have been relegated to princes and rajahs, let us not forget that this day flows naturally from the wellspring of Gratitude and Grace -- of humility and realization that we as a race are not sufficient -- that we have never been islands unto ourselves. And we should further acknowledge that although a great remnant of Americans have not bowed their heads to the false Spirit of the Collective, there still exists a legion of invisible shoulders that we now stand upon for which we are compelled, by what is best within us, to give humble thanks.

Indeed, we are the blessed heirs of hard-won liberties and material blessings that our fathers vaguely but dutifully dreamed over while toiling and praying in yeomanly fashion that their children might be better people, living equally better lives. Yet nevertheless, as we now stand astride our precious but dwindling legacies of plenty, a vague dissatisfaction lurking in the well of our souls whispers to us that this is not enough. And for the Children of God, who were fashioned for the purpose of basking in the starlike glory of his countenance, any blessing divorced from an obligation to its vital source could never have been enough.

While the relentless forces of America's secular vanguard have done their best to distil Thanksgiving into a voluptuary's bacchanal, just as Easter and Christmas have been repackaged into mere pagan seasonal rites of Spring and Winter Solstice, Thanksgiving has most successfully resisted its desacrilization. But since Thanksgiving implies the giving of thanks, we are faced with the quandary of who should be the object of our esteem. Should it be: the Deity, the family, Leviathan, or should we draw worship to ourselves or to the mammon proceeding from our labors? It is perhaps due to the powerful emotive force of idealized families banded together -- their heads bowed in pious supplication, that Thanksgiving plucks at our heartstrings. And in the waves of nostalgia that accompany the primal theme of "coming home," and being accepted into the fold, evoking at least the ritualistic trappings of unity, Thanksgiving's undercurrents inform us, in a visceral sense, that at least for this one day -- we are not alone.

It seems that amongst the catalogue of moral virtues, Gratitude is a most noble and satisfying one to possess. And though its roots are not strictly American, its spirit flows abundantly from the epic of our founding -- starting with Plymouth Rock. In fact, so many of our holidays and holy days involve a venerable appreciation and indebtedness that are rooted in civic and moral obligation. Furthermore, even if we are not deeply moved by the sacrifices borne by others on our behalf, there still remains within us that nagging sting of conscience informing us that a sterile ingratitude speaks harshly to the quality of our humanity. Indeed, gratitude should be the default condition of the soul and its cultivation the very beginning of wisdom. Grateful people are by definition joyous people while grumblers and murmurers occupy the bottom rung of those we would join in friendship. Who can forget Shakespeare's Lear when he concedes: "How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is to have a thankless child"?

The thankful heart shifts the gravity of its thoughts from me to thee. In ceasing to behold oneself as the prime mover of deed and destiny, the outstretched heart can encompass both the blessings and travails of everyman. When I began to understand this, so late in life, it was as if someone had switched on a light. Ceasing to grouse and covet for that which, in my miserable state, I believed that I was entitled to, brought forth in me a newfound peace and allowed me to participate, however feebly at first, in lightening the loads of others. But in order to commence this change of heart, it was first necessary to pry myself off the throne. And I have been prying myself off, with varying degrees of success, ever since.

And so friends, I am afraid that however loudly some might howl, we cannot dispense with that nasty bit about religion on a day that veritably cries out to the rooftops that we should offer our gratitude for His graciousness -- as well as to the sacrificial benevolence of our brethren offered in His name. After all, the secret is that it is not God that is transformed by our accolades, but ourselves. Moreover, we should not be content with just a tight-lipped admission that somewhere along the road to today we were offered a celestial leg up by an equally begrudging and distant Watchmaker God. Instead, we should offer the affirmation of an emphatic "Yes" to the Common Grace that Providence generously bestows on both believer and agnostic for the manifold bounties that are ours for the taking. How true it is that the genuine prayer of Thanksgiving causes the scales to fall away from our eyes -- allowing us the honor of emerging as new creatures with renewed vision.

Without a substantial ardor of thankfulness to an Entity higher than ourselves, Thanksgiving becomes just another species of Postmodern idolatry -- dooming us to focus on the adulation of that which has been wrought from our own hands. A full draught of drink and meat cannot but grow sour in men that anxiously long for the relationships they were made for, but whose eyes have instead remained affixed to their lower chambers of pleasure and appetite. Until we motion our eyes and lips heavenward in sincere supplication for the longing that approximates our true estate, we shall forever remain mired in that dull ache of flesh and unrequited desire -- forever filling ourselves, yet forever empty.

The paradox of Thanksgiving, and of human life in general, is that the more we are fixated on the goal of filling that abyss of appetite in all its forms, the more we discount or overlook the riches that truly satisfy -- the treasures of family, faith, and the quiet hearth. Similarly, how odd that the more we are beset with the pains and tribulations that vex us and have the capacity to wilt our faith and resolve, the greater our understanding is of the value of that which we stand to lose. The inevitability of suffering that mars every life has the capacity to refine in poverty what plenty could not. Clearly, God has thus designed us; and though this mystery seems counter to the narrative of this world, its wisdom rings louder and clearer than any church bell -- once we have attended to, in earnest, this profound meditation. In the end we shall offer Thanksgiving even for the ignobility of our sufferings, having seen through a glass clearly from the summit of our perfection.

For those of you who are beset with this unsure angst of ingratitude, so inconsistent with the august spirit of this holiday, perhaps things are not as they should be. Whether you believe in Him or not, know that there is room at that Thanksgiving table that proceeds on seemingly forever: and the admission therein is only the sacrifice of your pain and pride -- trading beauty for ashes is the unspoken promise that permeates Thanksgiving Day. Understanding this, in an American age that is growing increasingly hollow in its tentative abundance, will go far in bringing us full circle to the default state of unwavering joy prepared for us since before the beginning of days -- gifted to man in a Life that bridged the span between a wooden manger and rough hewn cross. Happy Thanksgiving friends -- We have so much to give thanks for.

 

Glenn Fairman writes from Highland, Ca.

Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/11/gratitude_and_grace.html#ixzz2lvM9JTt7

Miracle on 34th Street

Miracle on 34th Street

       A wiki link on this movie can be found at:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miracle_on_34th_Street

            Here's one customer review from Amazon.com:

                        Delightful Christmas fantasy of a charming old man who believes he is Santa Claus, and the wonderful change he brings to the people around him. This perennial holiday classic is on many short-lists of the all time great Christmas movies. The film just oozes with warm-hearted humor. Very young Natalie Wood sparkles as Susan, who learns to stop being so grown up, and enjoy childhood, with all its wide-eyed wonder. Edmund Gwenn plays Kris Kringle, and lives the role. He totally connects with the kiddies who visit "Santa" at Macy's department store. The brief scene with the little Dutch refugee girl is a definite emotional high point in this movie. The combined reaction of relief and wonder in the child's face as she visits Santa and finds he speaks her language is memorable. Gene Lockhart as the harried judge, and William Frawley as his street-wise political advisor provide the needed comic relief to keep the court-room segments from becoming too overwhelmed by lawyers and their tactics. Even Jack Albertson shows up as an ingenious postal clerk who helps Kringle solve his legal problem. The on-location scenes filmed on the streets of New York assist the viewer in suspending disbelief. An enthusiastic cast, crisp direction by George Seaton, a sentimental holiday message, and great humor make this movie a solid holiday treat for the entire family. Multiple viewing only enriches the rewards.

Mount Etna and Decade Volcanoes

Mount Etna and Decade Volcanoes

       A wiki link on this volcano can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Etna

            A wiki link on Decade Volcanoes can be found at:              http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decade_Volcano

How Do You Measure a Good Doctor Vs a Bad One?

How Do You Measure a Good Doctor Vs a Bad One?

 

Quantifying a physician's performance is like trying to catch a cloud with a butterfly net.

 by Theodore Dalrymple

 

Some of the residents of Hyde, the town in Cheshire, England, where the late Dr. Harold Shipman practiced family medicine, used to say, “He’s a good doctor, but you don’t live long.” Indeed not: it is now believed that Dr. Shipman, over a period lasting a quarter of a century, murdered 200 or more of his elderly patients with injections of morphine or heroin.

If the preservation of life be not the definition of a good doctor, what is? Here is the definition published in a recent edition of the New England Journal of Medicine:

The habitual and judicious use of communication, knowledge, technical skills, clinical reasoning, emotions, values, and reflection in daily practice for the benefit of the individual and, the community being served.

Whatever one thinks of this definition, it is clear that it would not make the goodness of doctors altogether easy to measure.

It does not follow from the unmeasurability of something, however, that it does not exist or is unimportant: nor, unfortunately, that what is measurable truly exists or is at all important. Nothing is easier to measure in an activity as complex as medical practice as the trivial, and nothing is easier to miss than the important.

The above definition of a good doctor appeared in an article on the need for Obamacare to ensure that doctors provide value for money so that they can be paid by result. This is a potential problem whenever there is a financial intermediary between the doctor and the patient. Thenceforth it is not the patient who decides what he wants from a doctor but an insurance company or, increasingly under Obamacare, the government.

But as the article points out, measuring a doctor’s performance is very difficult. Most doctors perform a large number of tasks, only a tiny proportion of which can be measured at the same time. Moreover, what is measured may not, and often does not, measure his performance as a whole. For example, radiologists have been graded according to the exposure time of patients during fluoroscopy, the taking of moving pictures under x-ray exposure. This is not unimportant, of course, because x-rays cause burns and exposure to x-rays increases the risks of developing cancer later; but fluoroscopy is only a small part of a radiologist’s work. As the article points out, a radiologist’s “primary role is to provide accurate and complete interpretations of imaging studies.” Time of exposure of patients to x-rays under fluoroscopy – which may vary with the patient as well as the radiologist – is not an adequate measure of the radiologist’s overall competence.

Like must always be compared with like for any valid comparison to be drawn, and this is difficult, time-consuming and expensive to do. Even if it were not the case that measuring a doctor’s performance is like trying to catch a cloud with a butterfly net, the gathering of information is not without cost, both financial and psychological (a point the authors do not make). It is not difficult to take up half or more of a doctor’s time by gathering from him the information necessary to prove that they are efficient in whatever the time is left to them. It reminds of what Karl Popper once accused Wittgenstein of doing: perpetually polishing spectacles but never actually looking through them.

He who pays the piper calls the tune (there is a very good reason why this should be a cliché). Moreover, there is a tendency for measurement in all modern systems to escape its ostensible purpose, to become an end in itself as well as an employment opportunity for bureaucratic mediocrities. The process seems as inevitable as ageing.

*****

Theodore Dalrymple, a physician, is a contributing editor of City Journal and the Dietrich Weismann Fellow at the Manhattan Institute. His new book is Second Opinion: A Doctor's Notes from the Inner City.

 

Queen of Sheba

Queen of Sheba

       A wiki link on this person can be found at:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_of_Sheba

Stephens: Worse Than Munich

Stephens: Worse Than Munich

 

In 1938, Chamberlain bought time to rearm. In 2013, Obama gives Iran time to go nuclear.

 

By Bret Stephens in the Wall Street Journal

·  @StephensWSJ·  Bret.Stephens@wsj.com·  Biography

To adapt Churchill : Never in the field of global diplomacy has so much been given away by so many for so little.

Britain and France's capitulation to Nazi Germany at Munich has long been a byword for ignominy, moral and diplomatic. Yet neither Neville Chamberlain nor Édouard Daladier had the public support or military wherewithal to stand up to Hitler in September 1938. Britain had just 384,000 men in its regular army; the first Spitfire aircraft only entered RAF service that summer. "Peace for our time" it was not, but at least appeasement bought the West a year to rearm.

The signing of the Paris Peace Accords in January 1973 was a betrayal of an embattled U.S. ally and the abandonment of an effort for which 58,000 American troops gave their lives. Yet it did end America's participation in a peripheral war, which neither Congress nor the public could indefinitely support. "Peace with honor" it was not, as the victims of Cambodia's Killing Fields or Vietnam's re-education camps can attest. But, for American purposes at least, it was peace.

By contrast, the interim nuclear agreement signed in Geneva on Sunday by Iran and the six big powers has many of the flaws of Munich and Paris. But it has none of their redeeming or exculpating aspects.

Consider: Britain and France came to Munich as military weaklings. The U.S. and its allies face Iran from a position of overwhelming strength. Britain and France won time to rearm. The U.S. and its allies have given Iran more time to stockpile uranium and develop its nuclear infrastructure. Britain and France had overwhelming domestic constituencies in favor of any deal that would avoid war. The Obama administration is defying broad bipartisan majorities in both houses of Congress for the sake of a deal.

As for the Vietnam parallels, the U.S. showed military resolve in the run-up to the Paris Accords with a massive bombing and mining campaign of the North that demonstrated presidential resolve and forced Hanoi to sign the deal. The administration comes to Geneva fresh from worming its way out of its own threat to use force to punish Syria's Bashar Assad for his use of chemical weapons against his own people.

The Nixon administration also exited Vietnam in the context of a durable opening to Beijing that helped tilt the global balance of power against Moscow. Now the U.S. is attempting a fleeting opening with Tehran at the expense of a durable alliance of values with Israel and interests with Saudi Arabia. "How to Lose Friends and Alienate People" is the title of a hilarious memoir by British author Toby Young —but it could equally be the history of Barack Obama's foreign policy.

That's where the differences end between Geneva and the previous accords. What they have in common is that each deal was a betrayal of small countries—Czechoslovakia, South Vietnam, Israel—that had relied on Western security guarantees. Each was a victory for the dictatorships: "No matter the world wants it or not," Iranian President Hasan Rouhani said Sunday, "this path will, God willingly, continue to the peak that has been considered by the martyred nuclear scientists." Each deal increased the contempt of the dictatorships for the democracies: "If ever that silly old man comes interfering here again with his umbrella," Hitler is reported to have said of Chamberlain after Munich, "I'll kick him downstairs and jump on his stomach."

And each deal was a prelude to worse. After Munich came the conquest of Czechoslovakia, the Nazi-Soviet pact and World War II. After Paris came the fall of Saigon and Phnom Penh and the humiliating exit from the embassy rooftop. After Geneva there will come a new, chaotic Mideast reality in which the United States will lose leverage over enemies and friends alike.

What will that look like? Iran will gradually shake free of sanctions and glide into a zone of nuclear ambiguity that will keep its adversaries guessing until it opts to make its capabilities known. Saudi Arabia will move swiftly to acquire a nuclear deterrent from its clients in Islamabad; Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal made that clear to the Journal last week when he indiscreetly discussed "the arrangement with Pakistan." Egypt is beginning to ponder a nuclear option of its own while drawing closer to a security alliance with Russia.

As for Israel, it cannot afford to live in a neighborhood where Iran becomes nuclear, Assad remains in power, and Hezbollah—Israel's most immediate military threat—gains strength, clout and battlefield experience. The chances that Israel will hazard a strike on Iran's nuclear sites greatly increased since Geneva. More so the chances of another war with Hezbollah.

After World War II the U.S. created a global system of security alliances to prevent the kind of foreign policy freelancing that is again becoming rampant in the Middle East. It worked until President Obama decided in his wisdom to throw it away. If you hear echoes of the 1930s in the capitulation at Geneva, it's because the West is being led by the same sort of men, minus the umbrellas.

 

I've made my peace with myself

I've made my peace with myself

            And I'll still responsibly use the Golden Rule, too

·       I'll still submit to a jury of my peers if push may come to shove. If they choose to lock me up, so be it. I still trust a jury of my peers where I live.

·       At age 65, I am more than willing to go to jail for my beliefs and defending my Family and Friends on my land.

·       I have been threatened by the local police for earlier threatening trespassers I caught on my own land. Apparently, trespassers on other people's property  in America have rights, too. And they can complain to the local police, who then came and threatened me on my own land and in my own home. Most of these police came across to me as decent and professional people, by the way. And the trespassers did not return, also by the way. My bee hives and fishing ponds were more protected, in the end.

·       I was grossed out when I read one British government position was that people have human rights to be pirates that cause harm to working and responsible people in the conduct of their own business. That is an absurd position, to me.

·       I was also grossed out when I learned that part of my local County tax payer money (that I pay)  goes towards paying for local County employees to walk an hour each morning. Now most think exercise is good for health and quality of life and reduced insurance premiums, but the way I was raised is that it is the individual's responsibility to take care of their own health while they are alive. If need be, have people pay for their own bad health habits, just don't ask me to pay for the same thing.

·       I've contributed to killing people in combat during military operations for my County, the USA. I have no apologies. Sometimes we have to fight, or so is my own peace with myself.

·       I've threatened and shot at other humans when I thought that was my last choice, usually in defending my own life or property. Often the threat did about the same thing as just shooting, having done both. Sometimes it was as simple as getting Marines to get back into the end of the chow line that they had earlier cut into. Sometimes I just had to shoot people, often just to disable them.  I have. Can you? Talk about making your own peace ahead of time. The classic example is the "Brady bunch" dilemma.

·       I've been shot at, too. Thank goodness for my training teaching me about knowing when the crack of the bullet going by my head is something I still recognize even in my old age.

·       I've been exposed to the killing power of bad people, too.  How about "them" killing Kuwaiti women and gutting them and hanging them upside down naked from telephone poles with their entrails hanging out, for example.

·       If the USA food banks' forecasts are a way to portend our near-term future, then I will have to use the Golden Rule to help my fellow citizens as best I can when they are hungry. Now I have tried before and been abused and embarrassed by some back earlier, and in my mind. So I will use tough love more often in the future, too. Nobody wants to be hungry and wet, period.

·       I once spent a month in Korea during cold times, when it never got above freezing for a month, and I was living in a canvas tent with a dirt floor. And we operated outside all the time, too. So I did it, but can other fellow Americans where I presently live do the same thing, if need be? I believe so.

·       Thieving is already up in the rural area I live in for all imagined reasons.

·       If the governments over me become thieves, I will fight them, too.

·       In the interim, I believe in shopping with my  "pocket book". Apply this idea as you choose. For me, when Walmart started, the "starter" was a fellow named Sam Walton.  He tended to try sell American. Now I believe Walmart where I live tends to try sell Chinese because the price is often so good as to contributing to my quality of life. I also believe President Clinton contributed to this present way of life in America.

·       I am having to fly flags on a local locust pole with various flags on it. On top is the American Flag (3X5)*, then under that is the Tennessee State Flag (2X3)*, and then under that is the local property flag (2X3)*. My intent is two-fold. One is that it pleases me and my own sentiments. Two is that I hope it intimidates the local thieves. I have already been cased once by five young men at 1500 in the afternoon. I threatened them, too, and they left and did not come back. The yard dogs were going, crazy, also. So one does have to defend their property, individual self, Family, and Friends, whether we like it or not. Anyway, I did, and that is how I did it, and when I did it in the USA.

·       So I've still made my peace to help others where I live as best I can. I will use tough love along the way, too. And many are now probably going to die, whether I like it or not. Heck, I may die, too. And many young people are also going to learn about being "draft motivated". But I still believe in also making things better, as best I can.  One old time phrase comes to mind. It follows.

·       Lead, follow, or get the heck out the way.

·       In other words, hard times can lead to a better outcome in the long run, if leaders will lead. And I do not suggest dictating. Politically I think many will say "becoming fascist".

·       I once lived in the Territory of Hawaii, when things like powdered milk mixed with water where usual to me and my brothers. Even my first Christmas Tree there was a decorated twig. But the spirit was just the same. Even we had to wait for a couple of weeks to see Elvis Presley's performance on Ed Sullivan. Apparently, we had to wait for a ship to bring the tapes over from the Mainland back then. And we were just as happy, too. So one's memories can help in making their peace these days, or so is my opinion.

·       I still believe in getting vaccinated. Now I also believe a certain small percentage of people will have an adverse reaction to some vaccines. I also believe, on the balance, vaccinations save a lot of lives. By the way, I also believe that the "small percentage" that have an adverse reaction, including death, is a big number to those affected.

·       Now that I am age 65, I am beginning to believe in Santa Claus, again.

·       So I've made my peace with myself.  And if you do so, you may change your ideas over time, too. That's normal.

 

* In feet