Author Archives: bfrhodes99

Really Joe – You Could Delegate Responsibility?

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This is an added note. After writing this post and reading it, it occurred to me it would be a good thing for you to know why I wrote it. I just heard on the radio, in his voice, say that he could and did delegate responsibilities to Kamala. I think he should have have said that he delegated the authority

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Don’t understand, Joe. How do you do that? As young marine I was taught from the day I entered to nine years later, responsibility cannot be delegated. The instant Old Joe took the oath of office, he took on the responsibility and the only way out is to resign. Even then, Old Joe is still responsible for each and every decision he made, or decided not to make. Indeed, sometimes deciding not to decide is a decision.

Nonetheless, the saying to remember is this, You can delegate authority all you want. However, the responsibility is always yours. That can never be delegated, ever, no matter how he tries. It is as President Truman said, the buck stops at the oval office. In this case Truman was referring to the responsibility as the buck. I guess that makes him the last democrat to ever accept responsibility to vigorously hold onto his responsibility to all his decisions, even the bad ones.

It is a sad state of affairs, literally, that anyone assuming the responsibilities of president doesn’t understand how that works. It is a sorry thing that Old Joe is unwilling to jealously hold onto and claim his his decisions from the beginning. This in itself, if nothing else makes Old Joe a very poor example of a president. It even makes him a poor example of a man.

If you really think about it, the leaders who were most respected were those that made decisions and stood by them. No one likes to hear excuses. No one likes to hear, “He did it, not me.”

One of the things that I learned while in the Marines was that I am a poor leader. However, I never tried blaming others. When I made mistakes I owned them.

Possibly, Just a Little Terrified?

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I know. How is it that someone can be a little panicked. Either they are afeared or they aren’t, right? Well, let me explain. I’ll let you make up your mind. I’ll let you decide.

Immediately after the debate, Kamala came out and said there will be no more debates. She made it very clear that there will be no more.

My own personal opinion, I would like to see one more, this time on FOX. However, it was already and immediately determined. This is the mark of a woman convinced she not only won the debate, but that she did not need another one. She figured she was already sitting pretty and the election was already in her pocket.

Then, after a couple of days, she decided she did want another debate. After another day, she started begging for another one. She was even trying to goad him into it. She was even taking the old school kid approach and calling him a chicken for not having another debate.

I don’t know how you read that, but to me that means that Kamala has changed her mind. She is terrified that the first debate was not enough. Perhaps someone in her campaign has told her that she might should have actually provided a real answer for at least one of the softball questions given her, or at least the hint of a real answer. She was told by someone in her campaign that the voters have started figuring her out, that she never provides a real answer to any question given her.

But then, someone suggested that the debate be on FOX. Without hesitation, she gave it a solid and emphatic no.

So, my guess is that she is terrified enough that she is begging for another debate, just not terrified enough to go on FOX News where they might actually ask difficult questions she can’t dodge.

As I say… you decide.

Well, one thing we will know. If she becomes desperate enough to suggest to have another debate on FOX, it will eliminate all doubt. Then, she will never permit that. In itself, that she has lost.

How to Deport 20 Million People, Fast

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It’s simple. I have said it before. Most of the red states would be very cooperative, such as Texas, Arizona, Florida and so forth. So, we target those illegal aliens in those states. Some would be deported. Some would run to blue states, such as New York and California.

It would not be long that the red states, especially those really red would have few illegal aliens. On the other hand, all those blue states will start figuring out that it is not so much a good thing to welcome illegal aliens. Then, they too, will be cooperative. All those cities and states that welcomed the illegal aliens would not be so welcoming.

Also, we would need to make sure that those who are not legally in the country couldn’t find jobs or shelter. Finally, it would all start with one thing. If an illegal alien is convicted of anything, put them in prison. Immediately after they serve their term, send them home, even if their home doesn’t want them. I am sure we could figure a method to force them to take them back.

Oh yes. One more big thing.

BUILD THE WALL!!

It Is Why the Founding Fathers Required the President to be a Born Citizen

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We have, among our Congress, people who are not loyal citizens. If asked, I would guess they would admit it. Their loyalty belongs with Mid-eastern Arab and Persian nations. Some were not born here. Some were. However, the flag they chose to wave is not ours.

The more I think it over, the more I think the founding fathers did not go far enough. They maybe should have required that a person be born and raised in the US, not as Obama. He was born in Hawaii, but spent much of his younger years and education in the Middle-east. I would go one step farther and say that they should have parents born in the US. There are no guarantees of a loyal president, but if it were that way, we would not have had one who was not loyal, namely Obama who has stomped all over the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

Also, I would have insisted on one more thing; natural born citizens for House and Senate members. I am sure there are those that would argue with me, but I know of a few that would not be causing us difficulty right now.

Finally, all those who prove to be disloyal after becoming citizens, should have their citizenship revoked for not not honoring their oath of citizenship.

Finally, one more thing. The English language should have been the official language, which means that people would not be able to do business in the US without knowing English or having an interpreter, who would in essence be acting in an official capacity. No paper should be legal unless it is in English.

I am sure that there are many who disagree with me. However, if it had all been set up that way in the beginning, this country would be in a lot better shape. We would not have so many who seek out destruction

from within.

There are those who say that the US is made of immigrants. To which I reply, legal immigrants – not illegal aliens. I say immigrants who took their oath seriously and became true US patriots. The illegal aliens are still loyal to their own country and would go back in a second, provided they could make the living there. That kind of “migrant” we don’t need. Not so much as one, and certainly not by the millions. Even more, we don’t need them in Congress considering that they have soiled the oath they took to become citizens and to become members of the House or Senate.

Covid Shots? Really?

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Not going to happen with my wife or me.

The thing I have noted is that they really seem to be pushing them, for everyone. This even though it is widely known that the younger and healthier folks would not benefit from them. That is, assuming the shots work in the first place.

It seems at least two or three times an hour, they advertise them, especially for Walgreens. I didn’t think a whole lot about it for a while, but it would seem they are not going to let up. “Got to get your covid shot along with your flu shot you know!”

It seems all the worse for Walgreens. Their brand is on the on the table. If it turns out that the shots are as bad as I believe they are, people are very apt to stop trusting Walgreens. They encourage us to get our flu shots and our pneumonia shots. Then in the same breath, they say, and you better get you covid shot at the same time. The implications are that the vaccine works and is safe.

What is behind this? Are they after the money they get from the shot? This may be, but I don’t think enough that they are willing to put their reputation on the line. They are protected from law suits but not so much from people deciding to shuffle their feet elsewhere and do their business elsewhere. If things are exposed, they might be looking at closing a few stores. It is the way of capitalism. If you turn out bad products or service, people go somewhere else.

With this in mind, I turned my concentration toward the CDC. I mean they are batting a thousand, not only with the China virus but also with AIDS. Thousands, maybe millions have died because they said that AIDS could not be transferred through blood products. That is right. Many of you likely don’t remember that one but I do. (Google Arthur Ashe)

Now, the CDCs reputation is at stake assuming they had one. Do they really come out with an official stand, “Do not take the vaccine. It’s no good.”

Yeah, that is asking for the proverbial, figurative black eye. The next time they come out on a stand for an epidemic, how many will believe them? Maybe the feds will turn the research over to a nice little Christian college.

However, that is just a small part of it. Consider those who produced the drugs. They spent a lot of money developing them. Then, do they openly admit, they failed? This of course while they have millions of doses hanging around in warehouses that must be kept really cold, colder than ice. Then there is the fortune that they put out on gearing up. They created millions of doses. That required a big investment. I suspect they want to get that investment back, even if a few kids have heart problems after.

Then too, their reputation is at stake too. They said, the test indicated the vaccine worked. Obviously, their test was less conclusive than they are willing to admit… or they are outright lying.

I don’t know which. I don’t care which. However, at this time, the government needs to remove the protection against lawsuits. They have had all the time they needed to come up with valid tests. If the vaccine can be proved to be ineffective and they continue to distribute it, they should be open to law suits.

Then What?

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The question comes to mind when you ask one more plausible question. What if a reporter asks just the right question? I don’t know what that question might be, but it just might happen that a reporter asks Kamala just the right question that freezes her as the deer with its eyes caught in the headlights. Even if you haven’t seen it, you have heard of it. The deer might could get away but it doesn’t know which way to go.

Just as with the deer, Kamala freezes and has no idea how to reply to the question. It is a new question, one which she has never been programed to reply. Then, the next day, the polls drop 5 or maybe 6 points. The dems would panic. The question then becomes for them. “THEN WHAT?”

It really is NOT beyond the realm of probability. Actually, it is why they are keeping her in the basement. The dems know it is highly probable if she has. oh,4 or 5 questions a day the reporter will have just the right question. It does take just once, you know. And you know Kamala is very good at inserting her foot in her mouth. On the other hand, whatever the question is might make her panic, worse than the wrong reply. The cameras catch the expression on Kamala’s face and suddenly, the whole world realize Kamala is not presidential material.

It does make me speculate. Maybe, just maybe, with the right encouragement, she would decide to pull out of the election as did Old Joe. Then, who would they replace her with? I don’t know. Maybe the one who is now her running mate. I give up. You tell me.

One thing we know. The dems would not be above another musical chairs move, vote or not. They already proved they are willing and able.

Well, there is one more question that would come to mind. Who would be willing to be thrown in the spotlight under those conditions?

New Tech, Old Tech

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Considering the attempted assassination, you may consider me a little confused. In this day and age of relatively inexpensive drones, why in the world did they not have a dozen or so in the air around that golf course. It would be nice if one spotted the man with the gun. The big thing is, the gunman would have seen the drones and likely would have turned tail and run a long time before he had a chance to use the gun.

Moreover, why didn’t they have a few men with dogs walk the perimeter of the golf course, paying particular attention to to the wooded area. I mean, don’t they train the agents to pay particular attention to places that make good hiding areas. It would not have taken a sharp eye. The dogs have the equipment needed to smell them out. Moreover, even if they didn’t sell out the man, if the dogs got close, it would likely be enough to flush the man out. If they got a hundred yards away, he would have likely went running… at which point the drones would have been able to follow him. That is, if the dogs didn’t run him down first.

They keep talking about budget restrictions. How much would the cost be fort half a dozen drones and four men with dogs. Moreover, it is not a requirement that all the drones be for observation. It would not cost much to have a dozen “dummy” drones buzzing the area just for appearances.

Please Give Your Children a Big Head Start

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Many moons ago, they came up with a program called “Head Start.” I don’t have a clue if it did any good or how much. However, the idea was to help underprivileged children get a leg up on education. As far as I can figure, they don’t seem to be doing better; maybe worse.

However, I can tell you how to give your children a real head start that you will be able to see very quickly. Many say that three is too young to teach a child how to read and write. The best way to give your child a leg up in school is to prove the experts wrong. By not teaching to read early, you give up the years that a child is best able to learn.

Besides, if you teach them, it will give the both of you an excellent chance to do some serious bonding. Reading a book together will be far better than watching TV together. Consider switching every paragraph. The parent reads one, the child reads one. In the end, your child will be grateful of the time you spend with him or her. Also, they will be thankful for the skill that they will carry with them all through their life… not just for learning, but also for enjoyment. This is especially true given the quality of entertainment on TV and in the movies these days.

I am sure there are those among you that say you would rather a professional do the teaching; someone who knows how. Well, apparently they don’t know how. Have you seen the recent statistics. Most kids by the end of the third grade can’t read at second grade levels. Besides, these are minimum. I suggest that your child should be reading at least third grade level by the end of the second grade.

And so it is that it starts with memory. It is that way with most stuff. Beyond that, it’s practice. practice. It is how we learn to speak, though we don’t realize it. If we do learn the words to speak and never practice, none of us would be good at speaking either. So we speak every day, getting better with practice. Hopefully, our parents correct us from time to time when we use the wrong word in the wrong place.

I would say I could write a book about it, but it would be little more than a pamphlet. It does not take a lot to teach a child to read. It mostly takes time patience with a lot of love tossed in for good measure.

To start with, there are two methods of teaching a child how to read. Some say that phonics is the best. Others will say, no. It slows their reading down. As in many cases, they are both right. However, both methods do require a little memory and drills at the front end.

Regardless of the method, the child must learn the alphabet and the name of every letter. Per se it is not important to know but rather it is an important tool for the teacher. It is also important to understand the concepts of vowels. To be sure, it is important to know them, but more, they should learn that vowels and only the vowels are pronounced with the mouth open. The sounds that the letter “A” makes cannot be properly pronounced unless the mouth is open. The sound itself comes from way back in the throat.

Now, consider that there are 26 letters in the English language. The vowels have 2 or even 3 sounds. “A” has 3 sounds. (aim, apple and amount) Two consonants have 2 sounds, “C” and “G.” For the most part the others have but one sound. If the child memorizes these thirty-some sounds, he/she is well on the way to learning how to read by phonics.

If the child learns the sounds of 3 letters a day, we are talking less than 10 days to conquer the entire alphabet. To be sure, there are a few curves, TH, CH, SH. And then there are the silent letters. That always adds a little fun to the process, but they can be easily overcome quickly. Children pick up that kind of stuff fast. I did. I never had to be told a second time about the silent “E.”

And so it is that a child armed with phonics can pretty much sound out the majority of the words in the English language. The hitch is that sounding out words can take time. It is why so many don’t like the phonics methods. If a person only learns phonics, they will likely never get above 200 words a minute, if that.

And so it is that recognition comes into play. When you realize the number of words in the standard sized college dictionary, it makes the recognition method unsurmountable, but it’s not.

Someone did the research and found that if a person was to just memorize the 100 most modt common words used in English, a person could read about 70-75 percent of the words in a common fiction novel.

So, while the student memorizes the letters and their sounds, in a second session, he also learns to recognize the 100 most common words. 5 a day. That takes 20 days. That means, if the student really works on the phonics for ten days and the appearance of words for 20 days, a three-year-old should be able to read at least a first grade level. That is not too much to expect from a three year old. A few flash cards and an hour a day should be more than enough.

By the way, consider what those 100 words are. Most have four letters or less. (a, the, an, he, she, it. them, they, him, etc.) If you want to find out what the 100 words are, you can google them. They are listed and you can easily make 100 flash cards for them. Most kids love flash cards.

If you go 1000 most common words, if my memory serves me right, a person can read nearly 90 percent of the words in a novel. Hence, we find that the recognition method, when used in conjunction with phonics, a three-year-older can learn a lot of reading, probably in a couple of months. After that, it’s practice. I’d say 1 to 2 hours a day. If it catches on, you might not have to make them read that long. You might reach a point where they want to read more. If it gets to that point, your child will outperform almost every kid in the first grade, and perhaps the second. When kids read a lot, they start learning a lot, many times not on purpose. Many times, they will start reading for the fun of learning. That reading can help them build confidence, which might lead to better public speaking. Now wouldn’t that be a good thing?

HOT DOG!

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It is not a mistake that people use the term to express that something good just happened. I mean, any kid, when something good happens, they will exclaim, “HOT DOG!”

However, let us go back to the source of the interjection. We need to face it. Hot dogs are one of a child’s favorite form of sustenance. I guess, in a way, that makes me one of the oldest ever kids. Love hot dogs in almost any form. Incidentally, drop that hot dog in corn meal and deep fry it, and it all gets more so. I mean, who in their right mind can resist a corn dog. Bad thing is, the Kristal’s nearby has stopped serving them. That is not fair.

When I was just a little lad, a hot dog was a hot dog. I could eat them plain; with mustard, ketchup and mustard. My favorite, which will offend some, the works which included mayonnaise. Immediately after posting this, I am sure there will be those who will want to raise their indignations. However, as much as I have a freedom of speech, I also have a freedom of how I eat hot dogs.

However, it is more, far more than that. I would guess there are close to a dozen ways of cooking them. When a kid at home, the way we cooked them, it usually just meant tossing them in boiling hot water for a while. However, they can be roasted over an open flame. I think that is my favorite. Then there are those machines with multiple rollers that cook them slow and very evenly. Yeah. I like that kind too.

My mouth waters as I think of it. There is the lazy man’s way. I cut them in half and heat them in a frying pan, fist insides then outside. If I can, I will put them on a bun. On the other hand, if all I have is sliced bread, I make a sandwich out of them. Not as good, but still good.

Did you know that you can heat them in a microwave very quickly. Maybe not the best tasting, but, you know, some of us kids get impatient. Incidentally, good for when you have a crowd of kids around. Let’s face it. Unlike us older kids, they aren’t so picky.

Then, I guess there have to be dozens of types of hot dogs. If you don’t believe me, just take a gander through them at your supermarket. There are beef, turkey, sausages of various types and the list goes on. Moreover, there are places that actually specialize in various hot dogs. There used to be one in Memphis, which the family and I went frequented. When we went to the mall, it was the first place we went. The four of us always looked forward to it. The problem was that we all ate so fast that they never lasted nearly long enough.

Now, you might wonder, just why it is I am writing this. I have this really strong longing for a couple of hot dogs, yes with mayonnaise and the works and we’ve run out of them. It will have to wait until the stores open, a little longer. As a kid, I can’t wait. You know. No kid can ever wait, you know.

Work

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After I posted my last post, I got to thinking. It reminded me about an old TV show. If my memory is wrong, you are welcome correct me. If I am right the series was The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis with Dwayne Hickman. In the show, Bob Denver plays a hippie, Maynard G. Krebs.

One of the on-going gags is that any time someone mentioned the word “work,” around Maynard, he went into a falsetto voice and repeated, “Work,” as if he were horribly afraid of it.

Then too there is the old joke about the hobo who was asked if he was afraid of work; to which he replied, “No sir. I can lie down next to it and sleep all day.”

As I say, I don’t like work, but I am not afraid of it. I did work all my life. I never drew one day of unemployment. I continued to work until I was in my seventies and I have continued to think of even go back at 76. It just is, right now, my job is taking care of my wife, which takes a lot of my time. It is difficult for me to leave her alone for extended times. So we subside on Social Security.

However, all else aside, any time I do work, I’d really prefer it be for a good reason. I would really like to be able to say I am truly accomplishing something. If I had the chance, I would teach people how to read. Every day, I hear the professional teachers give all kinds of excuses for failing to teach their students how to read. If they can’t do it, I would like the opportunity to try. My guess I can. My guess is, the teachers either don’t know how or don’t have the desire. Before a student reaches the 4th grade, it is the one most important thing a teacher can teach. If their students can’t read then they are failures.

Then again, they just might be like the old hobo. They can sit all day in those classrooms and never teach a thing.