By Greg Evans
If he was wearing a mask he'd pull off the perfect villain in Despicable Me 2. But there is no telling whether or not he was truly out to become the greatest villain of 2013, or if the circumstances of poor decision making lead to him up on the chopping block. Everywhere I go I hear people discussing the case and everyone has a different opinion on what will happen, what should happen, and why they are right, hands down. I have my own idea of what the outcome should be as well as what happened on that night. Now that the trial is coming to a close and the possibility of a hung jury hanging in the balance which would no doubt cause a stir with everyone needing some kind of closure on the case even though they are in no way connected to the mysterious shooting of a 17-year old tattooed thug. The fact that Trayvon Martin was no saint, a petty burglar and dope smoker that is not what the case should be about, nor should it be about race. What the case should be about in my opinion is the fact that George Zimmerman, a vigilante should not have provoked a fight with a person, shoot the person who he engaged in a confrontation and then cry foul ball, "it was self-defense." That simply doesn't make nut. Everything else about this case is irrelevant. George Zimmerman's wounds to his head and wherever else, his wounded pride about losing the fight, Trayvon Martin's shopping list from the convenient store, what either one was wearing or what was said or whether in was raining or there was an eclipse, none of it mattered. All that mattered was that Trayvon Martin was walking down the road, Zimmerman forced the confrontation and then shot his opponent and calls that self-defense. No way buddy! Sour grapes. This is a cut and dry case that should result in a manslaughter conviction. The fact that it got so much media attention and publicity is a bit outrageous but since it is in the spotlight we might as well discuss it because there is an element of interest.
People become very tied up and sensitive when it comes to big time trials often regarding ambiguous arguments that for the most part appear fairly clear cut but time and time again we are faced with jury decisions that have seemed to have originated from Neptune. As so in the case of O.J. Simpson who more likely than not killed his wife and her friend. There was also the case of the Casey Anthony case where such incredibly overwhelming evidence pointed at her having either killed her daughter or kept her death a secret allowing her corpse to rot in garbage bags in a swamp with duck tape on her face. Of course she was acquitted but that doesn't mean that she was innocent, it only meant that the jury found reasonable doubt in the prosecutions case.
A new update in the case is that the jury appears to be confused about the definition of manslaughter. What else are they confused about? I blame the prosecution for not clarifying the manslaughter charge and providing a step by step blueprint of why manslaughter as a conviction would be rational.
P.S. The judge in this case has been a rotten mess and should be kicked off the bench.
Simple Life
Saturday, July 13, 2013
A PORTRAIT OF IMPERFECTION
By Greg Evans
I am a huge baseball fan, a New York Yankees fan to be exact. I grew up not far from Yankee stadium, lived briefly in the Bronx, attended many games over the years, and spoke of the Yankees often on my morning radio show on WRCM back in the 90s. I have always supported the players on the roster though every now and then something will irritate me along with every other fan of professional sports. And that is when the big money players don't perform. And what is worse is when they don't perform year after year but continue to get paid astronomical salaries lack luster showings. Why is this the case? Because of the stupidity of long-term contracts in professional sports guaranteeing these athletes money regardless of their production. Alex Rodriguez is the one-time third baseman for the Yankees, initially thought to be a superstar in the making he has, for the most part, crashed and burned while wearing the pinstripes though his wallet hasn't taken the nose dive that his performance has and this is troubling. Here is a guy who currently is playing for a minor league baseball program coming off an injury batting .133 (which is terrible) and earning in excess of $30,000,000. Why should he deserve to make that much money despite performing worse than say someone earning $450,000, which is around the minimum wage for professional baseball?
I honestly don't have too much of a problem with athletes making large sums of money because that is what the market pays and so if you are talented enough to reach that pinnacle, then go for it. But what bothers me is those who are paid to disappoint. If a brain surgeon is regularly giving people brain damage or worse fatal injuries should they still be able to earn over $1,000,000? Of course not and they don't because they are either demoted or fired. In most sports if a coach can't seem to produce a winning team they are fired and rightly so, that is the nature of the beast. But for a team to be locked into a contract with a guy for many years for enormous sums of money for nothing is absolutely absurd. Alex Rodriguez should be cut from the team and not paid any money because frankly, he doesn't deserve $25 let alone $100,000,000. And that is coming from a die hard Yankee fan who never likes to put down members of the team. I had to get that off my chest after reading an article this morning.
I am a huge baseball fan, a New York Yankees fan to be exact. I grew up not far from Yankee stadium, lived briefly in the Bronx, attended many games over the years, and spoke of the Yankees often on my morning radio show on WRCM back in the 90s. I have always supported the players on the roster though every now and then something will irritate me along with every other fan of professional sports. And that is when the big money players don't perform. And what is worse is when they don't perform year after year but continue to get paid astronomical salaries lack luster showings. Why is this the case? Because of the stupidity of long-term contracts in professional sports guaranteeing these athletes money regardless of their production. Alex Rodriguez is the one-time third baseman for the Yankees, initially thought to be a superstar in the making he has, for the most part, crashed and burned while wearing the pinstripes though his wallet hasn't taken the nose dive that his performance has and this is troubling. Here is a guy who currently is playing for a minor league baseball program coming off an injury batting .133 (which is terrible) and earning in excess of $30,000,000. Why should he deserve to make that much money despite performing worse than say someone earning $450,000, which is around the minimum wage for professional baseball?
I honestly don't have too much of a problem with athletes making large sums of money because that is what the market pays and so if you are talented enough to reach that pinnacle, then go for it. But what bothers me is those who are paid to disappoint. If a brain surgeon is regularly giving people brain damage or worse fatal injuries should they still be able to earn over $1,000,000? Of course not and they don't because they are either demoted or fired. In most sports if a coach can't seem to produce a winning team they are fired and rightly so, that is the nature of the beast. But for a team to be locked into a contract with a guy for many years for enormous sums of money for nothing is absolutely absurd. Alex Rodriguez should be cut from the team and not paid any money because frankly, he doesn't deserve $25 let alone $100,000,000. And that is coming from a die hard Yankee fan who never likes to put down members of the team. I had to get that off my chest after reading an article this morning.
Friday, July 12, 2013
OFF THE BEATEN PATH
By Greg Evans
Years ago my mother took us on a trip to the western coast of Mexico to a little pueblo about a forty minute drive northeast of Mazatlan Mexico. Mazatlan is a glamorous, exotic port city filled with mouth watering eateries (the most well known the Vieux Port), old cantinas, Las Olas Altas beach, the Malecon, El Faro shining out over the blue warm water of the Pacific Ocean, beautiful women and all the adventure any petal to the metal traveler could ever wish to find. The small pueblo was called La Noria and just outside this dusty, sun drenched village located at the base of the San Madre Occidental is a luxury resort called the Hacienda Las Moras. But the day I stepped out of the old cowboys beat up blue jalopy at the end of a long red dirt road, there was no luxury hotel. It was an abandoned former tequila factory and vinata owned by a one-time high roller in the world of tequila named Roberto Conde. The life of this man, Roberto Conde is a fairly mysterious one and despite his friendship with Pancho Villa, his great wealth forged from the liquid gold of Mexico, his popularity during his lifetime in the local politics, little is known about him in the modern day tequila world, though he was a pioneer in his day.
He would often be seen riding a bicycle from his ranch estate to town where he had another large home and flying alongside him from tree branch to tree branch was his beloved pet green parrot. In the year 1917 Roberto Conde contracted the world wide flu that killed 28 million people. Roberto Conde also perished and the tequila business was inherited by his son Zacarias who at the time happened to be married to the daughter of another prominent tequila manufacturer in the area. But those were volatile times back then and an ambitious mayor with the last name Tirado an ametuer tequila producer with a vision of monopolizing the tequila business for himself in the Mazatlan area decided that he was going to take land owned by about six or seven of the prominent tequila manufacturers. The vinata owners refused to submit to his strong arming and declared that he would never take their land. Rumors were spreading through the area that Tirado was building a small military like force and he would use it to take the land he wanted by force. Zacarias Conde in secret had been arming the vinata owners and one warm sunny morning, while Zacarias was walking up the court house steps in Mazatlan most likely to argue the case for the vinata owners against Tirado he was assassinated in cold blood. His killer was never caught though a well known assassin during those times was suspected of his killing and the rumor was that he was hired by Tirado. The vinata owners were now frightened about what the future held for them knowing that Tirado would actually use violence to satisfy his ambitions they hired a mercenary outfit known loosely as the "woodsmen" or something to that effect to guard the vinatas at a moments notice. And that moment soon came.
With Zacarias out of the picture and the Hacienda Las Moras now being run by Zacarias's widowed wife, Tirado set his force of over 250 armed soldiers to take the land for him. The soldiers and the mercenary force hired by the vinata owners met on the grounds of the Hacienda Las Moras and waged a bloody battle for six long hours. When it was all over 216 of Tirado's men lay dead and wounded and the rest had fled. The vinata owners were victorious in their defeat of Tirado and he never again attempted to take any of their land by force. Unfortunately the damage to the Hacienda Las Moras was extensive and Zacarias's wife understandably didn't feel comfortable continuing to try and run the business or live on the land for fear they would again be attacked in the middle of the night and have no way to fight off the attackers and she moved back onto her family's land nearby. Part of the tequila factory was taken over by the other family and continued to produce the liquid gold for many years afterward. The estate itself fell into disrepair and that is when I visited it with my mother and sisters back in the late 1980's when it was still an abandoned estate. Sometime later it was sold to the current owners who renovated the place and turned it into a beautiful hotel that receives many visitors throughout the year.
As far as I can tell no more of Roberto Conde's mezcal or pulque are in existence today. The thing about the name of the liquor is that it can only be called tequila if it comes from the State of Jalisco and maybe one or two other states in Mexico under certain regulations and is mostly made from the blue agave. Roberto Conde produced mezcal which is made from the cooked heart of the agave. Tequila is a variation of mescal. Pulque is a milky colored sour tasting drink made from the fermented sap of the agave plant and was considered in Roberto Conde's day as the "poor man's tequila," though it was a prominent drink among elite classes in Mesoamerica up to the time of the Spanish Conquistadors before the creation of beer competed with pulque for customers.
It is enchanting to visit a location and hear the stories told of the people who once lived and worked the land, fought for their rights and their means to make a living and then the lives and stories of those people become shrouded in mystery, lost to the swirling dust of time and incidently become legend. Late at night in and around the old cantinas of the pueblo of La Noria if you sit with the old timers you can still hear the oral history passed down over a shot of tequila or a cold cerveza. "Buy the ticket, take the ride."
* The quote used above, "Buy the ticket, take the ride,"is credited to the late Hunter S. Thompson.
Years ago my mother took us on a trip to the western coast of Mexico to a little pueblo about a forty minute drive northeast of Mazatlan Mexico. Mazatlan is a glamorous, exotic port city filled with mouth watering eateries (the most well known the Vieux Port), old cantinas, Las Olas Altas beach, the Malecon, El Faro shining out over the blue warm water of the Pacific Ocean, beautiful women and all the adventure any petal to the metal traveler could ever wish to find. The small pueblo was called La Noria and just outside this dusty, sun drenched village located at the base of the San Madre Occidental is a luxury resort called the Hacienda Las Moras. But the day I stepped out of the old cowboys beat up blue jalopy at the end of a long red dirt road, there was no luxury hotel. It was an abandoned former tequila factory and vinata owned by a one-time high roller in the world of tequila named Roberto Conde. The life of this man, Roberto Conde is a fairly mysterious one and despite his friendship with Pancho Villa, his great wealth forged from the liquid gold of Mexico, his popularity during his lifetime in the local politics, little is known about him in the modern day tequila world, though he was a pioneer in his day.
He would often be seen riding a bicycle from his ranch estate to town where he had another large home and flying alongside him from tree branch to tree branch was his beloved pet green parrot. In the year 1917 Roberto Conde contracted the world wide flu that killed 28 million people. Roberto Conde also perished and the tequila business was inherited by his son Zacarias who at the time happened to be married to the daughter of another prominent tequila manufacturer in the area. But those were volatile times back then and an ambitious mayor with the last name Tirado an ametuer tequila producer with a vision of monopolizing the tequila business for himself in the Mazatlan area decided that he was going to take land owned by about six or seven of the prominent tequila manufacturers. The vinata owners refused to submit to his strong arming and declared that he would never take their land. Rumors were spreading through the area that Tirado was building a small military like force and he would use it to take the land he wanted by force. Zacarias Conde in secret had been arming the vinata owners and one warm sunny morning, while Zacarias was walking up the court house steps in Mazatlan most likely to argue the case for the vinata owners against Tirado he was assassinated in cold blood. His killer was never caught though a well known assassin during those times was suspected of his killing and the rumor was that he was hired by Tirado. The vinata owners were now frightened about what the future held for them knowing that Tirado would actually use violence to satisfy his ambitions they hired a mercenary outfit known loosely as the "woodsmen" or something to that effect to guard the vinatas at a moments notice. And that moment soon came.
With Zacarias out of the picture and the Hacienda Las Moras now being run by Zacarias's widowed wife, Tirado set his force of over 250 armed soldiers to take the land for him. The soldiers and the mercenary force hired by the vinata owners met on the grounds of the Hacienda Las Moras and waged a bloody battle for six long hours. When it was all over 216 of Tirado's men lay dead and wounded and the rest had fled. The vinata owners were victorious in their defeat of Tirado and he never again attempted to take any of their land by force. Unfortunately the damage to the Hacienda Las Moras was extensive and Zacarias's wife understandably didn't feel comfortable continuing to try and run the business or live on the land for fear they would again be attacked in the middle of the night and have no way to fight off the attackers and she moved back onto her family's land nearby. Part of the tequila factory was taken over by the other family and continued to produce the liquid gold for many years afterward. The estate itself fell into disrepair and that is when I visited it with my mother and sisters back in the late 1980's when it was still an abandoned estate. Sometime later it was sold to the current owners who renovated the place and turned it into a beautiful hotel that receives many visitors throughout the year.
As far as I can tell no more of Roberto Conde's mezcal or pulque are in existence today. The thing about the name of the liquor is that it can only be called tequila if it comes from the State of Jalisco and maybe one or two other states in Mexico under certain regulations and is mostly made from the blue agave. Roberto Conde produced mezcal which is made from the cooked heart of the agave. Tequila is a variation of mescal. Pulque is a milky colored sour tasting drink made from the fermented sap of the agave plant and was considered in Roberto Conde's day as the "poor man's tequila," though it was a prominent drink among elite classes in Mesoamerica up to the time of the Spanish Conquistadors before the creation of beer competed with pulque for customers.
It is enchanting to visit a location and hear the stories told of the people who once lived and worked the land, fought for their rights and their means to make a living and then the lives and stories of those people become shrouded in mystery, lost to the swirling dust of time and incidently become legend. Late at night in and around the old cantinas of the pueblo of La Noria if you sit with the old timers you can still hear the oral history passed down over a shot of tequila or a cold cerveza. "Buy the ticket, take the ride."
* The quote used above, "Buy the ticket, take the ride,"is credited to the late Hunter S. Thompson.
Thursday, July 11, 2013
THE DOUBLE CHIN HYPOTHESIS
By Greg Evans
A favorite time to talk about all the new diet fads, and secret dishes that you can eat and lose 20 pounds in a week without doing any remarkable exercise, is often while sitting in front of a television set shoveling a cheeseburger and french fries, a cherry pie, extra meat lovers pizza, krispy kreme donuts into your mouth while washing it all down with a soda pop or extra sweet tea. It is a study in the desperate illusion people have in contemporary society with losing weight and looking "good" while remotely varying an ordinarily awful diet. If you haven't noticed before, take a look around you at the lines at the fast food restaurants every morning while driving to work. You may even be one of the people waiting in the fast food line for an extra greasy egg biscuit with bacon and cheese, or the coffee loaded up with heavy cream and sugar. Then for a snack to keep you from clawing the walls until lunch time you eat candy stuffed in your desk, or a bag of chips or something unhealthy and high in salt from the vending machine along with a couple soda pops. Ah! Finally, lunch time rolls around and you roll on down to the nearby take out restaurant or fast food joint and load up on something with two whoppers with cheese, some ungodly fat count and what...4,000 mg of sodium, along with a large heavily sugared drink. Then you still have the last leg of your work day to get through. You munch on candy until it is finally time to go home for the day and while driving home you call in an order for a take out dish or you may just heat up a notoriously fattening frozen pizza or T.V. dinner. But this kind of behavior and eating habits are not a one time thing but a regular practice and you wonder why you have a double chin and drop dead of a massive heart attack at 45.
It isn't rocket science that healthy people are lean. And no it isn't about genetics. They work to stay that lean and fit. The secret to losing all that unwanted fat is eat healthy food, small portions and suffer through the agonizing pangs of hunger. You will feel as if you are starving to death, wasting away like some Ethiopian but in fact you are only ridding yourself of blubber. I feel so bad for some of you out there when I see how you struggle to live a normal life being so obese that I am going to give you a weekly eating regime. It isn't a fancy diet and you won't lose weight rapidly. It is a slow process and once you get thin then you remain so because you will continue to eat well. There will be no returning to 300+ and size 60 jeans.
Breakfast (Pick one): 1 cup Oatmeal, two hard boiled eggs, 1 bowl of cheerios and banana and skim milk.
Lunch (Pick one): Peanut butter sandwich on wheat bread and piece of fruit, plain yogurt, tuna sandwich on wheat bread and piece of fruit, plain yogurt
Dinner : Baked fish (Salmon, Cod, Tuna, etc.) with three vegetables, Plain chicken (not fried) with vegetables.
Now comes the hardest part...no eating after 6:00 pm. And I promise you all no matter who you are, if you are over weight, keeping to that regime is unbearable. I was once 225 pounds and followed the eating schedule above and I am now and have been for over a year 175 pounds. It does work and once you reach your target weight then you can throw in the pizza on friday night or the occasional fast food breakfast, but it can only be occasional. I personally don't eat fast food.
I feel sorry for the obese people of the world because I think it must be so difficult to live like that. I imagine they often feel uncomfortable and self-conscious, but at the same time it is almost offensive to see some gigantic person with their head in their plate going to town on a portion that could kill a normal person, and I wonder why they don't decide that enough is enough and it is time to take back their lives. It is time to say no to pork rinds and yes to broccoli. And with what we know about health today it begins with your diet. Of course you also need to exercise and twenty minutes of power walking around the neighborhood daily is perfect. And then you should try and get a fairly good nights sleep, especially during the weight losing period. It is all about discipline! That's all, it is not e=mc2.
A favorite time to talk about all the new diet fads, and secret dishes that you can eat and lose 20 pounds in a week without doing any remarkable exercise, is often while sitting in front of a television set shoveling a cheeseburger and french fries, a cherry pie, extra meat lovers pizza, krispy kreme donuts into your mouth while washing it all down with a soda pop or extra sweet tea. It is a study in the desperate illusion people have in contemporary society with losing weight and looking "good" while remotely varying an ordinarily awful diet. If you haven't noticed before, take a look around you at the lines at the fast food restaurants every morning while driving to work. You may even be one of the people waiting in the fast food line for an extra greasy egg biscuit with bacon and cheese, or the coffee loaded up with heavy cream and sugar. Then for a snack to keep you from clawing the walls until lunch time you eat candy stuffed in your desk, or a bag of chips or something unhealthy and high in salt from the vending machine along with a couple soda pops. Ah! Finally, lunch time rolls around and you roll on down to the nearby take out restaurant or fast food joint and load up on something with two whoppers with cheese, some ungodly fat count and what...4,000 mg of sodium, along with a large heavily sugared drink. Then you still have the last leg of your work day to get through. You munch on candy until it is finally time to go home for the day and while driving home you call in an order for a take out dish or you may just heat up a notoriously fattening frozen pizza or T.V. dinner. But this kind of behavior and eating habits are not a one time thing but a regular practice and you wonder why you have a double chin and drop dead of a massive heart attack at 45.
It isn't rocket science that healthy people are lean. And no it isn't about genetics. They work to stay that lean and fit. The secret to losing all that unwanted fat is eat healthy food, small portions and suffer through the agonizing pangs of hunger. You will feel as if you are starving to death, wasting away like some Ethiopian but in fact you are only ridding yourself of blubber. I feel so bad for some of you out there when I see how you struggle to live a normal life being so obese that I am going to give you a weekly eating regime. It isn't a fancy diet and you won't lose weight rapidly. It is a slow process and once you get thin then you remain so because you will continue to eat well. There will be no returning to 300+ and size 60 jeans.
Breakfast (Pick one): 1 cup Oatmeal, two hard boiled eggs, 1 bowl of cheerios and banana and skim milk.
Lunch (Pick one): Peanut butter sandwich on wheat bread and piece of fruit, plain yogurt, tuna sandwich on wheat bread and piece of fruit, plain yogurt
Dinner : Baked fish (Salmon, Cod, Tuna, etc.) with three vegetables, Plain chicken (not fried) with vegetables.
Now comes the hardest part...no eating after 6:00 pm. And I promise you all no matter who you are, if you are over weight, keeping to that regime is unbearable. I was once 225 pounds and followed the eating schedule above and I am now and have been for over a year 175 pounds. It does work and once you reach your target weight then you can throw in the pizza on friday night or the occasional fast food breakfast, but it can only be occasional. I personally don't eat fast food.
I feel sorry for the obese people of the world because I think it must be so difficult to live like that. I imagine they often feel uncomfortable and self-conscious, but at the same time it is almost offensive to see some gigantic person with their head in their plate going to town on a portion that could kill a normal person, and I wonder why they don't decide that enough is enough and it is time to take back their lives. It is time to say no to pork rinds and yes to broccoli. And with what we know about health today it begins with your diet. Of course you also need to exercise and twenty minutes of power walking around the neighborhood daily is perfect. And then you should try and get a fairly good nights sleep, especially during the weight losing period. It is all about discipline! That's all, it is not e=mc2.
Tuesday, July 9, 2013
THE BIG DIVORCE
By Greg Evans
It must be the "in" thing to do because everybody is doing it. Jump on the band wagon, be cool, get single and hit those music festivals and be hip. And what's worse, parents who want to party and be accepted by the single promiscuous pot heads. The parent who wants to be far out and goes off the deep end and abandons the majority of their domestic responsibility. They spend all their free time on social media sights and traveling to music festivals, night clubs, bars, dinner with the "friends."A large portion of today's youth marry simply to be able to divorce so they can have the coveted "ex."
Nowadays anyone who is anyone has an "ex." It goes like this, "Hey man are you cool?"
"Yeah man, I'm cool,"
"No I mean, are you cool?"
"I'm cool, I'm righteous, I've got soul."
"I could tell you had an ex."
"I got my ex six months ago, snap, bang, I'm a lady ready to be crazy,"
"Right on, welcome to the beginning, party righteous, club iguana tonight, party every night of the weeks, ex's only."
There you go. That is the basic gist of it. To be cool you need to be a divorcee. Marriage takes work and in this hippy colony we call society it takes too much energy to have a marriage and a normal family life. Washing dishes, mowing the lawn, doing laundry, reading to the kids, playing with the kids, saying grace before dinner, eating dinner together at the table, going to the playground, etc. it's all too boring, too mundane, too unhip for the hipsters.
Divorce has been around forever but these days it is becoming as ordinary as ordering super sized french fries and double cheeseburger to help feed the other vices you may have along with night clubbing and promiscuous sex with whoever agrees that capitalism is a fungus. And surprisingly it is women who are initiating the majority of the divorces. Though both men and women can't handle the monogamy of marriage, the domesticity, the wonderful joys of playing quietly with the kids and enjoying the hard work of having a family. In Ancient Athens you had to submit a request to a magistrate who would then decide if your reasons were sufficient to be granted divorce. That right there would void nearly 97% of the divorces since 2000 - 2013.
Anyone who has ever been approached by their spouse who says, "I'm not happy because I'm not having enough fun," knows that any form of debate would probably be pointless because already their rationalization for breaking up a marriage and family to have fun is already having bizarre personal issues that would probably have landed the person in the hen house before 1998. In half the cafes and 3/4 of the bars in the country you can hear the nonsense of unhappy spouses telling some garbage about wanting to get out there and have fun, it's all about living to have fun and what fun is a marriage and kids anyway? If anyone thinks I'm the one who is crazy feel free to respond. But there is nothing that anyone could ever say to me that would make me change my mind.
It must be the "in" thing to do because everybody is doing it. Jump on the band wagon, be cool, get single and hit those music festivals and be hip. And what's worse, parents who want to party and be accepted by the single promiscuous pot heads. The parent who wants to be far out and goes off the deep end and abandons the majority of their domestic responsibility. They spend all their free time on social media sights and traveling to music festivals, night clubs, bars, dinner with the "friends."A large portion of today's youth marry simply to be able to divorce so they can have the coveted "ex."
Nowadays anyone who is anyone has an "ex." It goes like this, "Hey man are you cool?"
"Yeah man, I'm cool,"
"No I mean, are you cool?"
"I'm cool, I'm righteous, I've got soul."
"I could tell you had an ex."
"I got my ex six months ago, snap, bang, I'm a lady ready to be crazy,"
"Right on, welcome to the beginning, party righteous, club iguana tonight, party every night of the weeks, ex's only."
There you go. That is the basic gist of it. To be cool you need to be a divorcee. Marriage takes work and in this hippy colony we call society it takes too much energy to have a marriage and a normal family life. Washing dishes, mowing the lawn, doing laundry, reading to the kids, playing with the kids, saying grace before dinner, eating dinner together at the table, going to the playground, etc. it's all too boring, too mundane, too unhip for the hipsters.
Divorce has been around forever but these days it is becoming as ordinary as ordering super sized french fries and double cheeseburger to help feed the other vices you may have along with night clubbing and promiscuous sex with whoever agrees that capitalism is a fungus. And surprisingly it is women who are initiating the majority of the divorces. Though both men and women can't handle the monogamy of marriage, the domesticity, the wonderful joys of playing quietly with the kids and enjoying the hard work of having a family. In Ancient Athens you had to submit a request to a magistrate who would then decide if your reasons were sufficient to be granted divorce. That right there would void nearly 97% of the divorces since 2000 - 2013.
Anyone who has ever been approached by their spouse who says, "I'm not happy because I'm not having enough fun," knows that any form of debate would probably be pointless because already their rationalization for breaking up a marriage and family to have fun is already having bizarre personal issues that would probably have landed the person in the hen house before 1998. In half the cafes and 3/4 of the bars in the country you can hear the nonsense of unhappy spouses telling some garbage about wanting to get out there and have fun, it's all about living to have fun and what fun is a marriage and kids anyway? If anyone thinks I'm the one who is crazy feel free to respond. But there is nothing that anyone could ever say to me that would make me change my mind.
Sunday, July 7, 2013
IN SEARCH OF THE 50'S
By Greg Evans
When I was a kid growing up in the 1980's my mother used to say to us that she ran our home like it was the 1950's. "Life was more wholesome then." It was a term she would use often and whenever she was trying to explain to us why we couldn't watch T.V. during dinner, or why we had to go to church on Sunday or why we had to use manners at all times and why we had to be well groomed and well dressed when we left the house. She was always home we when got off from school, drove us to our sports practices and scout meetings and we always ate dinner together at the table always saying grace before beginning. Back then, as a kid, I really didn't fully understand what she was getting at. Today though, now that I have my own child and I am trying to raise her in a similar environment to the one I was raised in I completely understand her rational. In a society where people seem to be living haphazardly, carrying on like barbarians, treating each other horribly, no work ethic, accepting mediocrity, sex and foul language on every television show and movie it is no wonder society is having the problems it is.
And so I am influenced by my mother's wisdom far beyond her years, I am regularly now in search of the 50's kind of lifestyle and in the way children are raised because now a days they don't much seem they are raised much at all. Maybe if we halted the "progress," except for medicine, then we would be amazed at how society would begin to correct itself. We should do it at least for our children. Do our daughters to think it is OK for mothers to spend all their free time going out to bars and night clubs, socializing without restraint and not seeming to make much effort in the domesticity aspect of life. My life has been affected by such behavior first hand. And it truly affects the behavior of the children when they don't understand why they aren't being put first.
There are many aspects of today's world that just don't seem to be improving society and even if you run your own home properly the outside world can be damaging. Look for example at the cost of living today compared to how it was thirty to fifty years ago. I spoke with an old timer not long ago and he talked in depth about how the cost of living today was far higher then one could earn compared to the way it used to be where you could live off of what you earned. And to earn a bachelor's degree would provide you with many opportunities. All you needed back then was the will to work and a good reference. Today couldn't get you a job sweeping toilets in Grand Central Station. Today even with a PhD it can be difficult to find a job unless you have an immediate family member with influence. You'd be surprised how many people out there think they have clout in their company until they are asked to help out with job placement and they realized no one gives a damn about their opinion.
If only we could start turning the clock backwards (metaphorically) and find a way to become a wholesome society in the sense of bettering ourselves and the small little world immediate around us for the children if not for ourselves. I miss the life I knew when I was a child and it doesn't have to completely disappear.
When I was a kid growing up in the 1980's my mother used to say to us that she ran our home like it was the 1950's. "Life was more wholesome then." It was a term she would use often and whenever she was trying to explain to us why we couldn't watch T.V. during dinner, or why we had to go to church on Sunday or why we had to use manners at all times and why we had to be well groomed and well dressed when we left the house. She was always home we when got off from school, drove us to our sports practices and scout meetings and we always ate dinner together at the table always saying grace before beginning. Back then, as a kid, I really didn't fully understand what she was getting at. Today though, now that I have my own child and I am trying to raise her in a similar environment to the one I was raised in I completely understand her rational. In a society where people seem to be living haphazardly, carrying on like barbarians, treating each other horribly, no work ethic, accepting mediocrity, sex and foul language on every television show and movie it is no wonder society is having the problems it is.
And so I am influenced by my mother's wisdom far beyond her years, I am regularly now in search of the 50's kind of lifestyle and in the way children are raised because now a days they don't much seem they are raised much at all. Maybe if we halted the "progress," except for medicine, then we would be amazed at how society would begin to correct itself. We should do it at least for our children. Do our daughters to think it is OK for mothers to spend all their free time going out to bars and night clubs, socializing without restraint and not seeming to make much effort in the domesticity aspect of life. My life has been affected by such behavior first hand. And it truly affects the behavior of the children when they don't understand why they aren't being put first.
There are many aspects of today's world that just don't seem to be improving society and even if you run your own home properly the outside world can be damaging. Look for example at the cost of living today compared to how it was thirty to fifty years ago. I spoke with an old timer not long ago and he talked in depth about how the cost of living today was far higher then one could earn compared to the way it used to be where you could live off of what you earned. And to earn a bachelor's degree would provide you with many opportunities. All you needed back then was the will to work and a good reference. Today couldn't get you a job sweeping toilets in Grand Central Station. Today even with a PhD it can be difficult to find a job unless you have an immediate family member with influence. You'd be surprised how many people out there think they have clout in their company until they are asked to help out with job placement and they realized no one gives a damn about their opinion.
If only we could start turning the clock backwards (metaphorically) and find a way to become a wholesome society in the sense of bettering ourselves and the small little world immediate around us for the children if not for ourselves. I miss the life I knew when I was a child and it doesn't have to completely disappear.
Friday, July 5, 2013
LIFE IN THE SLOW LANE
By Greg Evans
I have never been in a car accident, not even a fender bender and I don't have to knock on wood despite the fact that I am very superstitious. The fact that I have never been in an accident is not because of luck or the Grace of God, even though I do have a strong relationship with God, it is because I don't trust anybody else on the road and I am extremely careful and aware of my surroundings while on the road at all times. I'd be an equally successful driver in Bolivia. I have very little patience for other people though I try to be as courteous as I can even though 98% of the time people don't show me the same courtesy. Though rarely a day goes by that I don't wish I was driving a tank convertible that I could casually roll my way to where I need to go, never having to worry about the unsychronized traffic lights or red lights that last four minutes, longer then Super Bowl commercials for heavens sake. One certainty we will always have is that the roads will always be filled with wretched sloppy drivers that should be shuttled to their jobs as Krispy Kreme donut tasters. Even if the world consisted of golf cart only communities like The Villages near Ocala, Florida, you'd have the bad golf cart etiquette and want to bash their taillights with a five iron. It annoys me just thinking about it. The people who argue against guns and try to pass laws against people driving with their guns are the same people who cut you off on the highway and then flip you the bird. Those freaks who then run to the poll and vote against guns so they can abuse the highways and the law abiding, courteous drivers who would think nothing of dragging you into the weeds and beating you to within an inch of your life. I know there are others out there like me. I have seen you on the roads and we share a nod of recognition. The gun owners out there, the God fearing gun owners are the safest drivers on the road and everyone of us are out of patience. We are tired of all the burnouts wrecking the road ways. Tired of it and all this has risen my blood pressure and I feel like I'm about to breakout in hives.
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