What’s in a Name?

Posted in Biden, Reporters, Vocabulary by

I was discharged in Memphis so, for a short time afterword, that is where my wife and I lived. We just had one car between us and neither of us had a job. Then I got on at a fast food place. This put my wife in a predicament. She had an appointment at Baptist Memorial and was not at all familiar with the area. Not only that, she had been driving for a little over a year.

If I could have, I would have taken her, but, given as I just got my job, I figured I’d better show up for work. So, the day before the appointment, I drove the route with her and it was pretty simple. All she really needed to do was drive straight west on North parkway to Pauline and turn left(south). The parking lot for the hospital was on Pauline.

Well she got lost. She went all over downtown and midtown Memphis and, a couple of times caught herself on the newer bridge on the way to Arkansas. She did eventually find her way after stopping a couple of times for directions.

Afterword, she told me about it. She said if she got on that bridge one more time, she would just go on to to Fort Smith, where she grew up. It confused me enormously. As I said, I drove the route the day before and was certain of the instructions.

So, when I had a chance, I drove the route again, with her in the car. When i got to Pauline, I made the turn, and right there was the hospital. She was very animate about it. She said that she looked very closely and Pauline was not there the day before.

I went back to the intersection and looked more closely. It was true. On the south side of North Parkway, it was Pauline. On the North side it was some other name, I can’t ever remember what. Had she looked at the street sign on the south side, she would have made the turn and it would have been fine. Since she looked at the one on the north side, she continued west and toward the bridge.

Sometimes these people try to confuse us drivers with tricks like this. I don’t have the foggiest idea why. One day in Yuma I looked for a theater that had an address on Second Street. I looked for hours for it. I gave up and started walking toward the downtown, figuring there would be something there. There was. I soon found myself on the corner of Second Street and 2nd Street. There was also a First Street and 1st Street.

That’s right. If you ever go to Yuma, you might remember that. The ordinals are used one direction. The other way they spell them out. I don’t remember which. At any rate, I got to see most of Yuma that day…while on foot. The one good part, it was winter and the temperature was mild.

My name is Benjamin Franklin Rhodes. I was named after my grandfather, not the founding father of of the Keystone State. I don’t know, but I would guess that, somewhere in my ancestry, someone was likely name named for old Ben. None the less, I have had my share of nicknames. Most of my youth I was called Benny. One or two have called me Benji. A few have called me Dusty and once or twice I was even called Frankie. None of it bothered me much, but I decided in my late youth to that I preferred Ben. While I went by Benny, there were frequently people that spelled it Bennie, not my favorite.

We humans put quite a lot in names. Some people get really upset if you call them by the wrong name. I never have and never will. To me it isn’t that big a deal. It did confuse me some when one guy called me Barney, mostly because I didn’t know he was talking to me.

None the less, we give names to many things, roads, cities, counties states and countries. We give names to people, places, and things. We give names to streams, rivers, lakes and oceans. It is, I suppose so that we can tell one from another. No one would think to create a civilization where we identify people by numbers instead of names. Well, I guess we do have Social Security Numbers, but can you imagine calling each other by number that is nine digits long. Even then we would still have names. Each of us would have a unique number that we would be known by. Of note: the number method would make things easier on computer. Not so much for us humans.

Nonetheless, we have chosen to use names. There are over 7 billion people in this world and each of us has a name. When you add in those that are no longer living, that is a bunch of names. It is sort of odd in a way. The street that my wife looked for that day was likely named after a woman.

We do a lot of that. Some streets have women’s names and some men’s. In Fort Smith, there are several streets that are named for WWII heroes. In some cases, there are streets named for battles. We used to name battleships for states. Subs were named mostly for cities, and so forth. Nowadays, you don’t get an aircraft named after you unless you lived in The White House for a while. Yet the first nuclear carrier was named for a WWII carrier, Enterprise. I have no idea what prompted the original carrier’s name.

Maybe to keep the confusion down, we ought not change names too much. Can you imagine if the navy kept changing the names of ships. Also, in order to understand each other, maybe we shouldn’t keep changing the meanings of words just to fit our purpose. I mean, when a person says infrastructure, he really ought to mean infrastructure. There is already enough confusion in this world.

Vocabulary

Posted in Uncategorized by

It is oh so easy to win the debate when one controls the meaning of the words. It is so amazing when one considers just how frequently the liberals have changed our vocabulary. I guess that is what one does when they the facts keep getting in the way.

I Love Unions! I Hate Unions!

Posted in Abuse of Power, Unions by

There was a time in this nation when when big business was horrible. A child working on an assembly line would be hurt and he would be effectively tossed out the door and was quickly replaced by another. Ford Motor Company provided a good wage – for the day – but Ford expected far too much from his employees. So, his employees unionized.

The unions stopped the northern form of slavery. Oh, to be sure, no one was forced to work. However, if you wanted a salary, you better do what you were told and under horrible conditions. Many times, those on the assembly line were working under dangerous and unhealthy standards. Coal miners were dying early from black lung disease. Those who owned the mines would not provide proper ventilation and protection equipment so those who provided the rest of us the material to power our homes and industry breathed in the fatal black dust. So they unionized.

The reason I write on the subject today is that the employees of Amazon have voted and, apparently turned down the unions, which, from my point of view, is a good thing. As near as I can tell, they are being paid very well and they seem to be working under safe and good conditions.

I can’t speak from first hand experience, of course. I don’t work for Amazon. Maybe I would think differently if I did.

However, I do know this. When unions move in, so do the dishonest people who run them. I don’t know of any union that voted itself out of existence when it was no longer needed. Once a union gains control, it never gives up its power. You see, many people have a strong yen for power. Virtually every major union formed in this country have had questionable people running them at one time or the other. Instead of seeking the good of the rank and file, they seek their own fortune, fame and power. If the rank and file are not careful, the monster they create in the name of a union becomes almost as bad as the employers the dislike so much.

Moreover, the unions can create disincentives. My father was a carpenter. More than once, he was cautioned against working too fast. “You’re making the others look bad.” Today, it is the unions that control our schools. The school boards have little control over them. The parents are afraid of retribution should they complain. To be sure, they have good reason. Whoa to the person who suggests the idea of allowing school choice. You see that would be disaster for the teacher’s union. Every time 30 students go to a private school, it would mean one less member in the teacher’s union. I assure you, the teacher’s unions do not have our kids at heart. They don’t even have the teacher’s interest at heart.

All they care about is the power they can muster and how they can use it for their betterment. Those bribes they send to the state and federal government don’t help our students or our schools. Oh, it is called lobbying, but I call it for what it is, bribes. They pay our representatives for the sole purpose of controlling their vote. That’s a bribe.

And so it is, I love unions and I hate unions. It is something of a quandary. You can’t live with them and you can’t live without them.

However, let me say just one more thing. They have driven our auto industry almost to extinction. In their effort to obtain their wealth and power, they have drained the life blood out of a once thriving industry. In this way, they are not much better than leaches. The union leaders have seen what they have done and yet they demand higher wages and more benefits, forcing GM and Chrysler into bankruptcy. They almost did the same to Ford. Worse yet, they turned out poor quality cars. It was only after the bankruptcy that they have improved their product. However, even now, the cars that come ashore from foreign manufactures are better quality. To be sure, even those cars built here are built with foreign parts.

In the union’s effort to squeeze the golden goose, they have about destroyed her. The employees they promise to protect are becoming a vanishing breed. The industry that helped save us during WWII, is fading into obscurity. What happens if again we need that industry? What happens if we can no longer use the foreign parts or steel? What happens to us then — and the unions?

A Message to the CEOs

Posted in Biden, Cancel Culture, Communist Takover, Important things, Politcal Opinion, Socialists by

Pepsi is a good alternative to Coke. Sam’s Cola tastes as good and is far less expensive. When I go out to eat, I just might start drinking Ice tea or water. It is likely better for me anyway.

I used to fly quite a bunch, especially when I repaired computers. I preferred American Airlines. I don’t have the need or desire to fly as much but if I did, it would not be American or Delta. They likely won’t miss me but there are others who feel as I do when I say I’d rather take the bus than give them a dollar.

As for the major leagues, I gave them up long ago… all of them. I’ve started watching college games. I even go to little league games in the area. I found them far more interesting and they don’t toss in a bunch of left wing propaganda. Those ten, eleven and twelve-year-olds know the purpose of the game. The old pros seem to have forgotten it.

I am not even a drop in the water. The above folks will likely never miss me. I will not even show up on their stats. However, I am sure I am not alone and those stats just might show that they made a bad decision.

Far more important they might all remember this. We need farmers. We need truck drivers. We need storekeepers and we need homes. Coca-cola… not so much. Without pro basketball, baseball or football, some might go into sports withdrawal, but we CAN do without them. It is a convenience to be able to visit relatives who are far away, but we don’t have to. And, as I mentioned before, there is always the bus. Maybe those of you who sit in your ivory towers and have taken bailout dollars should remember where that money came from. The government might have signed the checks, but part of it came from me and people like me. There are over 70 million people in the country who will remember what you have done. For that matter, there might be a few dems who will remember it too, such as the people in Georgia. There just might be a few who own restaurants, cafes and hotels near the ball bark. There were also a few people who worked there. But then, why should you care. You managed to survive for another day or two. That is the attitude of business today. Never mind the decades. Just, let’s just survive today.

No Room for the Proud

Posted in Christian values, Pride, Religion, Truth by

Please note the following from the King James version of the Bible

Ephesians 2: 8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.

Almost all preachers concentrate on verse 8 and rightfully so. However we should never overlook verse 9. I cannot say exactly what God meant by what he said, but I know His result. Those who think that they will be received in heaven because of what they did or said, will never be accepted. Those that expect that they will, are going to be very disappointed. For if they think they will contribute to their salvation is pride.

Hence, I think I can safely say that the those who are proud will not find room for them in heaven. Maybe that was His purpose, though I cannot say for sure. Yet it does serve the purpose.

I caution you that if you plan on telling God all your good works, He will not be impressed by them or you. You see, you will have had your chance to rely totally on His Son for your salvation and you decided not to. You decided to rely on yourself at least in part; or to follow the false teachings of some so called church whose teachings lead people astray by the millions…and ultimately to hell.

If you try to stand before God your pride, your home is not in heaven. For those of use who bow humbly at the feet of Jesus Christ and accept His gift of salvation, without trying to add anything to it, heaven is already our home. We have been assured of it. It is not bragging on what we did, but what Jesus did.

Of all the sins of man, pride is the one that God hates the most. I suspect it is because it leads us from him and to our own means. So, it is my deduction that, no matter how large heaven is, God will make sure that there will be no room for the proud.

Something a man told me a long time ago is that it is better to be thankful than to be proud. For sure, I have no reason to be proud of the United States, though I do believe it is the greatest nation in modern history. However, I am thankful that God made it so. God did not have to put in Los Angeles, California when I was born, but He did. For that I am grateful. God did not have to put me in a Christian family with really good brothers and sisters, but I am thankful He did. God did not have to send his Son to die on the cross for my sins, but He did, and I am thankful beyond words He did. Moreover, I will not try to add anything to it. If I try, not only will I mess things up, but it would mean that I think His work is incomplete or insufficient, a lack of faith.

God does not make us go to heaven, though He could. He has given us the choice. It is a gift, not a something to be forced upon us. To be sure He pleads with each of us to accept the gift for which He paid so much. However, should you turn it down, it will be your greatest mistake. The pride you insist on holding onto will lead to an eternity of suffering.

Of all the allusions that Satin presented to man, the one that man can earn, or help earn his salvation is the most devastating. The reason it succeeds more often than not is because of the pride of mankind.

One For All

Posted in Abuse of Power, Biden, Communism, Lawyers and Representation by

While I was going through Marine boot camp, they had an interesting way of punishing us. When one of us messed up, we all got punished. On the other hand, when someone did well, we all reaped the reward, though the the rewards were few.

It sounds unfair, but it did help to build teamwork. I quickly found, that as a team, we could accomplish far more than we could as a bunch of individuals. Though I never saw combat, it was easy to see the benefit of everyone watching out for each other. I also realized the importance to be able to trust each other. I mean, you just know the other marine is going to do his part of the job because that was how we were trained.

Still if I mess up, why should eighty other guys suffer for it? It just doesn’t seem right. Mostly, I would expect that most people, especially those who have had no military training, agree.

Yet, in our country, that is the way we live. We have a couple of million people in the military and we all benefit from the security. Maybe one out of a thousand, maybe less, volunteers to risk his life in law enforcement and we all benefit by living in relative safety. A small minority of folks agree to work their fingers to the bone and we all eat well. If we don’t buy the food in a store, we go to the wide variety of restaurants. There too, we benefit from the hardworking souls. I know. I worked in one and it is hard work.

Personally, I have lived a blessed life, even during my time in the Marines. Okay, I walked a few guard post and I spent my time on mess duty. However, other than a year in Nam, I had it pretty good. Even while I was in Nam, I had three squares a day. Though I had to walk a ways outdoors, the shower wasn’t that far. I even lived in an 8 by 8 foot area set aside for me. Never once did I have to go running through a rice paddy and I never dodged bullets. On the other hand, I did have a few mortars fell uncomfortably too close.

I never finished college but I benefited from the doctors who did. I don’t know how to build or maintain cars but I have two reliable ones sitting out in our driveway.

Is it really so horrible to expect me or any citizen in this country to present an ID to vote. I mean, most of us gained that right by accident. Is it so awful to expect others to respect and obey the law. I mean most of us have the privileges of freedom bestowed upon us at birth. Those who have legally immigrated did not have to risk life and limb, though some did.

And it is true, every time someone does something wrong, we all suffer. Invariably, many of the laws that cause us grief were made for the 10% who have no respect for others or their country.

I would like a law requiring that Congressmen from both houses to live by all the laws they create for the rest of us. However, you and I know that will not happen. Because of their position they get the best of everything. They made Obamacare, yet we pay for their healthcare. There is no way on this earth that they would live under the health plan that they forced on the rest of us.

But then, that is the way it is in a land that has royalty. It is one for all, but then again, it is all for them. They will not build a wall to keep out those who don’t belong, but they build walls all over DC to protect themselves, to the inconvenience of others.

When the China virus went on the rampage, not one of them went without a paycheck, while others by the millions went into unemployment. And now, our new king, he had destroyed what good was done.

It has been said many times, the democrats and republicans need to get together and solve the border problems. They are getting together…to keep us from closing the border President Trump tried to maintain the border, but at each turn of events, someone stood in the way, and they weren’t all democrat.

We have a certain number of people that immigrate each year legally. If we were to totally shut the borders tomorrow, it would be twenty or more years before we caught up with the legal quotas. But the rich want cheap labor and the dems want to turn the whole country blue. Therefore the rich cooperate with the dems and, of course, as in my basic training, we all suffer for it. We all suffer for what the ten percent does. After all, the ten percent is really for themselves. Ultimately, it is all about control.

Fear

Posted in Abuse of Power, Controllers, Cuomo, Hillery's E-mails, Lawyers and Representation, Nadler, Pelosi, Politcal Opinion, President Trump, Truth, Twitter by

Many of us learn fear from our youth. For some people the fear is not natural. Some people refuse to leave their homes. Others, like me, fear heights. Fortunately, my fear of heights is more-or-less under control. Still, I refuse to go up in those rides where all they do is lift you to great heights. Some, let you rapidly descend and slow you just before you reach the ground.

I guess my fear of heights does have some basis. To be sure, the height won’t cause any harm. In general most people survive the fall. It’s that sudden stop I fear.

Some have great fear of the dark while most of us know that it isn’t the dark that can cause us harm. Now on the other hand, all those treacherous gremlin that hide in the dark….

Most of us, to some degree, fear the IRS. If you don’t believe me, just tell someone that the IRS is going to audit his last five years of returns. I suppose, to some degree, this is a good fear. It keeps most of us honest. On the other hand, the not so honest have more fear than most of us. Sometimes it nags at such people. It is the ol’ “What if” question that comes to mind, at least once or twice a day.

Often times we try to destroy what we fear. Sometimes, this is without reason. Sometimes we have a reason.

Take for instance the dems, the general news media, and especially those who have lied to the public. In general, they fear the truth and as such they try to destroy it.

This speaks well of President Trump. Those that have lied, cheated and stolen, or those who have aided and abetted those who have, have a good reason to fear the former president. He represents the truth. And, if there is one thing these folks have to fear is the truth, or those who speak the truth. It is no wonder there are so many trying to destroy President Trump and those who support him.

If they don’t fear the truth, then why won’t they let him speak? Why did they take him down from all the social sites?

It looks to me as if they are running scared. Because they fear him, they try to destroy him.

Moreover, it is a pattern. Anywhere you see someone trying to destroy the truth, it is a sign that they have something to hide. Remember Ms. Clinton and her E-mails. She feared the truth getting out more than she feared the penalty of the law. Then again, she does have a D after her name. She did know she had a good chance of getting away with it. So she successfully broke the law and hid the truth. As such, we, the public will never know what she hid.

Maybe Joe Should Have Checked With Kamala

Posted in Abuse of Power, Biden, Build the Wall!, Kamala by

The other day, it seems to me that I heard Joe say that he was handing over the whole border disaster to Kamala. For those that are unaware, I even wrote a post about it — how much better I felt about it. For those that did not figure it out, it was tongue-in-cheek. In no way did it make me feel better. The fact is, neither of them knows what they are doing on the matter, but it did look to me that Joe was trying to hand off the ball in the option play, hoping that he would not get tackled.

Now we find out that she is not in charge of it. There is no way that I know exactly what happened but I do have an imagination. My guess is, Kamala said something to the affect of “YOU WANT ME TO DO WHAT?!!!” Apparently she didn’t want the ball. Instead of taking it, she fumbled it. She sort of looked at it like a piece of dynamite attached to a lit fuse.

Now I ask you, just why would anyone want a hand-off like that?

Maybe a better way of putting it is, he handed her a grenade without the pin and she handed it back, saying “No way. You made this mess. You live with it. You’re not ruining my career!”

Meanwhile, the problem, whatever you want to call it, keeps getting worse. The shelters getting more crowded and the cartels keep benefiting.

20,000 Containers?

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When I first heard of the ship being grounded cross-ways in the Suez Canal, I immediately had an idea. Maybe instead of building the canal, they should have just built a railway overland. The ships could unload and the cargo could be carried by rail. Then the ships could be reloaded and they would be on their way.

It is true that it would take time to load and unload, but the speed of the train would partially make that up. After all, the rail could be reasonably straight, which would allow the trains to run at, maybe 80 or 90 miles an hour. Then I heard that they had 20,000 containers on the ship.

Bear in mind, this is a rough calculation because I don’t have the exact numbers to work from. However, containers come in 10, 20 and 40 feet sizes. Train cars are up to 60 feet. That means you could put one 20 and one 40 foot container on each car. That assumes there are an equal number of 20 and 40 foot containers. Invariably, not all the railroad cars would not be fully loaded. For my calculation, I would consider that they are.

That would mean that it would take 10,000 railroad cars. That would mean that the train would need to be over a hundred miles long, actually more like 115 miles when you consider distance between cars and who knows how many locomotives.

My conclusion… I don’t think it would work. It would never be practical, though it could be done.

However, it does illustrate how big those ships are.