With the above image seared into your mind, might I offer another timely word of advice to the Republican field of primary candidates: Let us NOT do the work of the Democrat Party for them. Think it would behove all of us looking for a viable alternative to the status-quo --of the past eight years-- to have our primary candidates conduct themselves, during the course of the primary, with a strong measure of decorum and respect for one another. As I told my daughter the other day: just because someone is LOUD and obnoxious, doesn't make them right. Translation --in this instance-- those with the fabric necessary for true Presidential leadership will find their way to using words effectivly, in a constructive manner, towards the end of conveying the thoughts and ideas needed to alter the trajectory our nation has been set upon.
One last thought: A true leader also possesses the ability to listen and to consider the input of others, otherwise we will find ourselves right back in the throws of Congressional grid-lock and Executive Order overreach.
7/20/2015 Why embrace real issues, with real solutions when you can embrace a media circus drenched with hyperbole?
7/24/2015 In keeping with the theme of "hyperbole" in my last comment: I actually heard a meteorologist (on the weather channel) say the following in a weather forecast this morning, in reference to a tropical storm currently brewing in the Atlantic Ocean: "This activity is a key signature of climate change. When we have these types of weather extremes: Severe drought (motions to California on the western coast of United States) with tropical storms simultaneously delivering large amounts rainfall in other parts of the country." And this meteorologist made this statement rather mater-of-factly; he didn't even blink an eye. Seems he's well-positioned on the "science is settled" bandwagon, happily purveying a political (profit-driven) agenda: non-manipulated/unbiased data, actual facts and the inherent chaos of Earth's dynamic weather system be damned (I, personally, have no issue with the notion that Earth's climate obviously changes; it's been doing this for hundreds of thousands of years and it will continue to do so for thousands more with or without the input of mankind (e.g., witness previous ice-ages and periods of global warming, long before man entered into the picture in any significant way). To think that we, mere humans, can in some way control or influence nature is simply ludicrous. To think that world-wide impending doom is charging towards us at the hands of nature, via ""climate change"" -- previously referred to as "global warming"-- is simply profit-driven insanity. The latter aside, are we called to be responsible stewards of the Earth with which we have been entrusted: absolutely, but "gloom and doom" at the hands of nature is not imminent in anyway ... now man destroying himself or being subject to larger cosmic forces may be another story, but I digress). I mention this meteorologists weather statement --issued as if it were a documented scientific fact and subsequent effect thereof of man-induced ""climate change""-- not only because his statement caught me entirely off-guard (the larger portion of the present CA drought happens to be man-induced due to the diversion of river waters natural flow in an effort to protect some species of "smelt" fish) but because I am sincerely wondering where "The Donald" happens to stand on the issue of ""climate change""?
Side Note: Went home over the course of my travels these past several weeks, to visit with my family in Texas. Upon my arrival, I was surprised to find that nature had once again, after several drought-ridden years, finally reversed her course a full 180+ degrees. That is to say, where once ponds and lakes had dried up, or sorely receded, and the sombre brown-brush of parched dryness had swept over a sullen land: a blanket of lush greenness, swaddled in an abundance of liquid gold now unfolded across the vast landscape. For me, it was, despite the areas of significant flooding, a refreshing sight to behold. Life was returning to a seemingly barren-struck land. In talking with parents about the change in their own piece of the vast Texas landscape they had this to say [paraphrasing]: "The drought took both of our stock ponds, killing the fish in them. It also diminished our harvest and it was hard on the animals, but the upside is that the drought seems to have taken all of the plague of disease-ridden oak trees and the disease they carried right along with them ("Texas oak-wilt"). Also the swarms of west-Nile carrying mosquitoes seems to have died off as well. We now have 1/20th of the mosquito population we had prior to the years of drought and thus far we have not heard of a single reported case of the west-Nile virus in the area. And both of our stock tanks are filled to the top once again." So with the latter insight from my parents, I am thinking, in some strange and mysterious way: Nature knew what she was doing all along. Go figure? Nature finds a way.
7/28/2015 The 'damage' due to "carbon-footprints" has absolutely nothing on the potential for damage due to nuclear weapons in our much more immediate future. (i.e., Iran nuclear deal). The time for a serious embracing reality-check is long, long overdue, people. Let's blow away the smoke and shatter the mirrors already.
9/2015 "Like" him or "leave" him, Donald Trump has been a lightening rod for focusing attention onto the presidential primary races. Perhaps Donald Trump's entering the race has served a useful end in drawing the attention of the usually uninformed, low-information voter into the media-fray surrounding this candidate --and by default drawing attention to the other candidates, Republican and Democratic alike. I mean viewer-ship for the Republican Primary debates has clearly broken all sorts of records, evidence that people who normally don't tune-in to the politics surrounding elections are actually listening this time around. Perhaps the mere exposure potential voters receive to thought, information and ideas exchanged in the ensuing media dialogue will open their hearts and minds to consider another perspective and in the process of doing so these voters might glean new insights about candidates and issues important to them. Thanks to Donald Trump, 2016 could actually be the year of the informed voter. How exciting is that?!
