America lost another hero last night

America lost one of it's true heroes last night and I lost a true friend. Elmer Eugene Browning passed from our presence on this earth about 9:30 PM last night. His wife said that his heart  gave out and they just couldn't get it started again.

She was so heart broken when I spoke to her this morning and she reminded me how everyone loved Gene and how he loved them. She told me 'he loved you too.' She asked me 'how could anyone not love my Gene?'

Gene was a WWII veteran of 35 combat missions over Europe, in the belly of a B-17 . He held the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Bronze Star and Purple Heart among over a dozen other awards for his actions in service to the nation that he loved. Gene was a small man, you had to be small to fit into a ball turret period. He had lost most of his hearing in that turret by the end of the war, but he never complained that I am aware of. Just the consequences of serving when his country needed him.

I have written of Gene before. I did a piece a few months back called 'Serendipity.' That blog became one of the most read things that I have ever written on this blog.

Gene was a former member of the Douglasville Ga. American Legion and a current member of the Dallas Ga. American legion. He  rode in the Douglasville 4th of July Parade just a few weeks ago and was so proud. He wore his uniform and his old bomber hat and his ostrich skin cowboy boots that he loved.

I tried my best to be there with him that day, but I had obligations that prevented me from getting there until the parade had already begun, so I couldn't ride beside him and share in his joy that day.

We were about seven weeks from realizing a dream that Gene had been looking forward to for almost a year. We had worked very hard to get him on the next Honor Flight to Washington. The Honor Flights are organized to take surviving WWII veterans on a day trip to Washington to see their memorial. And that had finally been accomplished. Gene and I were going. I was going to be his guardian on the flight and for the day. Everything was approved and we were leaving on September 22nd for the trip. Gene was so proud of that news and so happy that he and I would be making that journey for him to see his memorial. His dear wife Melba intended to go also.

I won't be making that trip with Gene now. He is already there. Looking down from glory and smiling at what must truly be  awe inspiring from his vantage point now.

All that I know right now is that my heart is truly breaking. All I can think about is the last time that I saw Gene about a week ago. I went by their home and spent a couple of hours with him and Melba and as always, before I left, Gene stood up and gave me a big hug and said "I love you buddy."

I love you too buddy....and I miss you so much.

I just hope and pray that when the day comes for me to make my own Honor Flight home to glory, that Gene will be one of those there waiting for me at the terminal.


And that he will give me another big hug and say, "I missed you buddy and welcome home."

Saruman wins this round

For those following the Hobbits tale currently unfolding in Washington, last night's political theater was nothing surprising.  Boehner ran around all day yesterday trying to find the way back to his (precious) the supposed power that the speaker of the house holds to lord over the kingdom of the Hobbits. (Also known as the lower life forms in congress and all else beneath his own lofty perch.)

In the end, there were only twenty two who held fast and would not be swayed by the promises of campaign slush funds or committee assignments or anything else in Boehaner's bag of tricks to buy them off.

Personally, I believe they were immediately vindicated by Harry Reid (playing the part of Saruman in this drama) in this parody of the Lord of The Rings. Reid immediately tabled Boehner's bill and thumbed his nose at it as he promised he would. He had already declared anything sent over by the house as dead on arrival in the senate.

Meanwhile, Barack Obama (Mordor the all seeing eye) remains in the background, pleasantly amused by the actions of his minions Saruman Reid and the Ring Wraith's like Chucky Shumer and the rest who parade about in front of the media spouting off about how the republicans are just being unreasonable etc. etc.

Any takers on the odds that Obama's minions purposely crash the mechanism this coming week? Watch and see. It's happening before your eyes. The Hobbits (the Tea Party) have for the moment been thwarted by their own in congress and ultimately by their enemies in the senate.

What's different? What has changed?

The Boehner bill originally called for 917 billion in debt ceiling increases and 900 billion in cuts over ten years. What a deal! To that he had to add the whiff of a balanced budget amendment to the bill to sway some of the easily duped Hobbits to get his 218 votes yesterday. But knowing all the while that the single addition of that rider to the bill would be all the reason Harry Reid needed to justify killing it in the senate regardless.

So in the end, what was it that was accomplished in Washington yesterday?

Mean while. Obama wants at least 1.6 trillion in increased debt ceiling limit, which equals more spending and very little substantive cutting anywhere in the federal budget.  I believe we have already seen that version back in February, when John Boehner signed on to the smoke and mirrors version of a budget then, after this administration had spent two years ignoring passing a budget period.

The Tea Party Hobbits got burned by that deal and at least twenty two of them held their ground in the face of the Ring Wraiths and Gollum dancing around threatening them yesterday, while Boehner told them that he would gladly take them to the precious.  But first they would have to trust him.

A deal between the two houses and this president to cut spending and balance a budget? A deal to pay down the deficit and stop the bleeding?  That's not going to happen people. Obama is hell bent to destroy this nation and he is working his plan as we speak. Make no mistake, they will pass something next week. Everyone will smile and they will all pat each other on the ass and shake hands and stand in line to have their photos made with Obama as he signs it, but nothing will be solved or resolved in the end. Aside from the fact that those like you and I remain on the hook for the entire tab.

We are all simply hanging there like the sides of beef that we actually are. Just something to be used and abused at the mercy of those who know best how we should serve the greater purposes of their belief systems.

And there remain those who actually still believe that we live in a free country. What a pipe dream and what a load of crapola.

And the band plays on.

A Hobbits Crusade

Still not up to spending a lot of time on the computer, but one observation this morning.

As it applies to Senator John McCain's remarks on the floor of the senate yesterday and his retorts aimed at the Wall Street Journal article metaphorically referring to the Tea Party activist as Hobbits?

Lest he forget, or more than likely, the reality is that he never actually read the books.


The Hobbits win in the end senator. Try reading the trilogy.

Now, go have a look at the similarities between yourself and  the one known as Gollum

'my precious.'

Down for therapy

Eyes still not where they need to be. A long story. Taking a hiatus for a while.

Columbine revisited

There will be more than enough analysis of the shootings and death in Oslo to last a life time in the coming weeks. Look to see a book within weeks and a movie by this time next year. Of course the main focus right now? Is hey! Look! It wasn't a Muslim! It was one of those nasty Christians that we have been warning you about!

The cries of Christian radicalism will soar while the realities of Islamic radicalism will continue to be looked at in the same passe manner that they always have, but meanwhile the media will entertain us with their analysis of this massacre by a non Muslim.

The bottom line this time, we have a supposed Christian radical and a Mason on top of that and all these other hater designations rolled into one by the media. The one thing for certain will be this, The media will have a field day with this guy. But will the realities of what happened and what could have been prevented and the lives that could have been saved be addressed at all by the media? I don't think so. Have a look at this report in the morning Telegraph.

Latest on the Norway Terror attacks via the UK Telegraph

15.36 More reports of the horrific scene that greeted local civilians who sailed to the rescue of people swimming in the waters around Utoya Island.

AFP quote a woman who made seven trips in her small motorboat despite warnings from police not to approach.

" I saw three heads in the water, swimming, but then there was only one, only one got on my boat."

I will stop there to make my point. You are welcome to read the entire piece and all the others that will be posted by media today and all those that will follow in the coming weeks. But already a fact is surfacing in this massacre that will once again be overlooked by the media et al. They will overlook it again because they always do.

In the media haste to point fingers and assign blame to everything and everyone from Christians, to the evils of allowing guns to exist in free societies, (maybe that's why they are called free societies) the main point of what has truly happened will be lost once again.

Does anyone remember Columbine? Sure you do. Do you remember how two demented killers stalked the halls of that school for hours wounding and killing their classmates and teachers? While no one did anything? Not a damn thing for hours? One teacher lay there bleeding to death for three hours before he finally died and no rescue was ever even attempted.

I see a parallel here. I see a parallel between Columbine and Oslo. While the talking heads and the pundits want to draw the parallels between this lunatic and Timothy McVeigh, one glaring reality conveniently escapes their analysis in my opinion.

The man killed seven people with his bomb in downtown Oslo on Friday. He then killed at least eighty five people with one or more firearms while he wandered at will (dressed as a police officer) on an island resort and shot his victims at will. Apparently killing until he literally ran out of ammunition.

We know this based upon three realities. Firstly those surviving his murderous attack have told of their account first hand. Secondly, the media has photos of the rampage, some apparently either taken from aircraft or adjacent high rise buildings, showing the killer stalking then killing his victims in plain view.

And thirdly and far more telling in my opinion, we have the reports that it took the police in Norway over and hour and a half to respond to his rampage. I personally have a fourth and perhaps less meaningful observation at this point. "Why is this bastard still alive?" But I will come back to that.

You see people, the fact that we have lunatics amongst us is nothing new. They have always been there. Throughout history they have always been there. It's how society has chosen to deal with them that makes the difference on a wide range of levels of how they appear in our society. Not the least of which being how we deal with them during their episodes of violence and afterward.

I believe that it was the English who first envisioned the need for the Shire Reeve, to become the Sheriff and ultimately they determined need for a 'constabulary' and ultimately police forces.
Here in America, we adopted the same principles and more times than not, justice was administered at the end of a Marshal's pistol or by a rope. A simpler time perhaps that called for simpler approaches, but the bottom line was, the people knew the consequences of evil vileness. Where as today? I submit that they don't care about consequences. The media of the day makes them famous.

What should have happened to this lunatic in Oslo on Friday, is the same thing that should of happened to Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold in Columbine. Police officers should have responded immediately and with a vengeance. Police officers armed and responsible to the public for their safety, had and do have a responsibility to place themselves on the line and between this lunatic and his victims. They had a responsibility to take him out, to kill him, to stop him as soon as humanly possible and to do so at the cost and loss of their own lives if need be!

This is the point being missed people! And it has been being missed for so long that there are few if any of us who still remember it.

When I became a US Marine, I swore and oath to defend this nation, against all enemies, foreign and domestic. I have never forgotten that oath and I consider it to still be in effect. When I swore and oath thirty eight years ago as a police officer, I swore an oath to protect the citizens of the city and state and to intercede and intervene when required to protect them. I swore an oath to disregard my own personal safety or threats of death or injury. I swore an oath to protect and serve and protecting meant putting my own ass on the line and in between those who would intentionally hurt others if need be. And I have done just that on more occasions than I can remember since then.

In service to my country, I was never called upon to openly and directly face any threat or enemy, but as a police officer, I was called upon more times than I can remember. I was called upon to the extent that I was shot and almost killed and subsequently injured in a duty related accident years later that also came very close to killing me.

But never once when called upon, did I back away or stop and consider my own safety before that of those who were depending upon me to be the difference between their surviving or not. I swore an oath and even though I had never met any of these people before that moment, I had made them a vow and a promise. To lay down my life if need be to protect theirs.

Think about that. Do you see why I am so angry about this? Do you see why I was so angry and hurt by Columbine and the dozens of other incidents that I have seen played out over the years before and since? I swore the day of Columbine alright, but it wasn't an oath peeling from my lips. It was anger at the horror that I and millions of others were witnessing. But mostly it was the thoughts down deep inside myself that told me that I would have never stood idly by 'awaiting orders' while kids were being hunted down like vermin and murdered in that school.

Had that happened in my community, I could not have lived with myself if I failed to react and address the threat that those two animals represented. The bottom line at Columbine that day? You didn't need the convergence of opinion of a command structure. You didn't need a SWAT TEAM or an Emergency Response Team. What was needed were men who knew how to act like men and were willing to utilize their training and their commitment to the citizens of that town to protect those kids. Even if it meant that they were to die too in the effort.

Now, have a look at Oslo on Friday and tell me what you think about all that has been reported and the official statements of police and their commanders and why it will take weeks and months to sort out the diabolical mind of this crazed gunman.

As I said earlier, his mind should have already been sorted out. It should have been sorted out by a "double tap" by a pistol or an assault rifle in the capable hands of a police officer willing and committed to saving lives. This jerk should have suffered the same fate as Osama Bin Ladin. Forget about surrender, Double tap his ass into the next life and then count your blessings on the lives you were able to save by doing so.

But instead of brave police officers in Norway on Friday? We had brave citizens who were ordered not to approach that island by none other than the police, but did so anyway. They went in and rescued people whom otherwise would have died. Why? Because is was for damn sure that the police weren't going to do anything about it and something had to be done. Something called human decency prevailed over official police protocols and thank God that it did.

I am sickened by this tragedy and by the senseless loss of life, but I am inspired to read of common people who knew what to do and that they did it. Men and women, young and old. And you know what? They weren't armed and they hadn't sworn any oaths, They just knew what had to be done and they did it.

God bless them......

News Flash! On Drudge right now

DEM POLL: OBAMA WOULD LOSE TODAY
                       DRUDGE REPORT


Well no shite Sherlock.  And that revelation represents precisely what? Does that change the fact that we still have over 18 months of this anti American poser and his designed destruction of this country via his version of Fabian socialism.

Americans had a choice in November of 2008. Granted, it wasn't much of a choice, but they chose to follow the cumbayah brigades singing we are the world and shouting about how great it will be to have our first black president.

A change we can all believe in remember?

The man promised us that he would fundamentally change this nation and he promised us that he would wreck the energy sector and increase the power of unions in America across the board. As a matter of fact, he promised us his own version of the Brown Shirts. A force to outnumber and rival existing law enforcement in this country. Anyone remember that?

Watch this debt ceiling debate spiral into a forced shutdown. A shut down that Obama wants. A shut down that he needs for the next chapter of the plan.  Watch as the EU collapses, watch as America's economy implodes and chaos and anarchy runs rampant in the streets. You are already seeing it in these reported incidents of flash mob crimes if you are paying attention.

So here we are 2 1/2 years into the joys of an enlightened and progressive America and Barack Obama is right on schedule. And now the American people are dissatisfied with his performance and claim that they would not vote for him again?

Say it isn't so! They haven't seen the half of it yet.........

Semper Fi

The Obama malignancy

Ever seen a cancer grow? Watch as the cancer of
"a change we can believe in" has spread across this country over the past 2 1/2 years. For the record? New filings for unemployment this week are 411,000  They have been over 400,000 each week for the last four months. the published unemployment rate in presently 9.2

And as of today? When the space shuttle Atlantis lands for the final time? There will be another 60,000 people put out of work with NASA as our space program is now ended compliments of a change we can believe in.

Believe it.

MSNBC Media Babe?

MSNBC's Contessa Brewer gets bitch slapped by her own arrogance and idiocy!  And never even realizes it! Priceless!

It's really not their fault.

You see, being a criminal is something that is entirely outside of the average illegal alien's control. They literally can't help it that they are "illegal aliens" and therefore. criminals and therefore, not allowed to obtain drivers licenses etc. So why should they be punished for unjust "status offenses?"

See how simple egalitarianism is. See how simple it works. It's all a matter of fairness after all. And if someone is being deprived of anything at all? Then the culprit is most certainly societal unfairness in America.

This so called chief of police ought to be run out of town on a rail. But that won't happen. because the tipping point has already been reached in LA. There are now more illegals in LA than there are legals and the same is true for the entire state of California.

No more impounds for illegals.

Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck said his department impounds about 1,000 cars a year from illegal immigrants at sobriety checkpoints – not because they’re drunk but because they don’t have driver’s licenses.
“As we reviewed our impound policies it became obvious to me that they had disparate impact on individuals based on something that was entirely out of their control," Beck said.
California doesn’t issue driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants.
Under the new policy, officers will give unlicensed illegal immigrants “reasonable time” to find someone else to drive their cars home.
“No longer will these checkpoints have an adverse impact on somebody merely because of their (immigration) status," Beck said. "The sad truth is that the people who were most impacted by this law were the people that could afford it the least.”
The chief said unlicensed U.S. citizens and legal residents stopped at checkpoints will also be allowed “reasonable time” to find someone else to drive their car home.
Critics of Beck's policy have said undocumented immigrants are not supposed to be in the United States in the first place, and should not be driving.
Latino civil rights activists hailed the Beck’s decision.

Average is versitle? Who knew?

In the present age when we have a president and congress who are adament about refusing to cut spending of the federal budget, perhaps it is time that the people paid more attention to what 'their money' is actually being spent on and who's agendas are being funded with our money.

An interesting glimpse into the bizarre.


The federal government helped fund a study that examined what effect a gay man's penis size has on his sex life and general well-being. 
The study was among several backed by the National Institutes of Health that have come under scrutiny from a group claiming the agency is wasting valuable tax dollars at a time when the country is trying to control its debt. This particular research resulted in a 2009 report titled, "The Association Between Penis Size and Sexual Health Among Men Who Have Sex with Men." 
The study reported, among its findings, that gay men with "below average penises" were more likely to assume a "bottom" sexual position, while those with "above average penises" were more likely to assume a "top" sexual position. Those with average penises identified themselves as "versatile" in the bedroom. 

Read more:

I for one am appalled. Please tell me that I am not alone in my thinking on this. 

A time machine

If we could only go back in time.

Sometimes we can. If only to glimpse an era gone by and those who lived there. This is one of those glimpses back in time.

Obama vows to veto any spending cuts

Excuse me? This interloping anti American poser intends to veto any budget that has any spending cuts in it what so ever? You know, I could go and pull articles and various pieces of entertaining punditry to use as examples of this man's arrogance and idiocy, but to what purpose. I am smart enough to lay most of this out on my own.

I have a functioning mind and reasoned thinking and I don't need to rely on others to tell me what is wrong, what is going on and what the stench is that I smell coming out of Washington. Charles Krauthammer stated it rather succinctly last week in his column when he  said that America needs to go ahead and call Obama's bluff. On that count I couldn't agree more. On the count of reality? I have to believe that this is not a bluff by Obama at all. The man is dead serious in his desire to wreck America and he will do it.

The man literally intends to wreck this nation economically and for those who happened to be listening back in 2008, he directly told us that much up front. He promised that he would wreck the coal industry, he promised that he would place so called alternative energy sources above and beyond any attempts to rescue our existing energy resources. He promised us that he would go after big oil and ruin the so called fat cats and he promised us that he was come hell or high water going to pull out of and leave Afghanistan regardless.

The only thing that he promised that he hasn't delivered on so far? Is to close Guantanamo.

He went after Osama Bin Ladin in an attempt to prop up his numbers, the same as when he released a few million barrels of oil this month from the strategic reserve, but he and his administration of Fabian socialist and outright Marxist have done nothing (absolutely nothing) about jobs or unemployment and for over four months the weekly job losses and new applications for unemployment have remained staggering.  Over 400,000 per week and the beat goes on and there is no end in sight.

Mean while he plays round after round of golf and vacations like he has never ever had a vacation since assuming office and the economy worsens and the prospects of jobs further diminishes. And this audacious Byzantine bastard tells us that he will veto any attempt by congress to stop the bleeding?

And now he comes and adamantly throws down a gauntlet and tells the American people that he will veto any budget that doesn't provide for the government to continue to spend money that we do not have?

I remember in the 70's when the American Farmers besieged Washington with tractors and later when the American truckers ringed the city with big rigs. Each demanding relief from the self imposed insanity of a president and law makers in congress who refused to listen to the American people.

I am literally on the edge of my seat with anticipation and anxiety over what will happen if this moron of a president forces a shutdown of the government over his socialist idealism and his desire to see America reduced to a second tier state.

Make no mistake, what is happening is not by accident. There is a plan and Obama and his administration know full well what they are doing and what the consequences will be. Americans shouldn't be debating whether to re-elect this traitor to American morals, ideals and values, Americans should be marching on our capitol city demanding congress impeach this man and remove him from office immediately. Along with the rest of that band of socialist rogues like Pelosi and Reid and the rest who are literally destroying this nation.

Jefferson was right when he spoke of the need for righteous revolution being not only a necessity of democracy, but something that must be done with regularity and frequency.

The tree of American liberties and freedoms is literally being killed by those who are gleefully standing around it and pissing on in while our enemies laugh at us. Our nation and our liberties are being destroyed by being deprived of the life blood that Jefferson and others spoke of so eloquently in our constitution.

The time is now America. The voices of the people must be heard and they must join together as a deafening cacophony of "hear us now or else!"

What will it take? Does it literally take this man ruining this nation before the people will stand up and call full stop? I seriously believe that we are all about to find out.

Man bites dog

Well, not exactly, but damn close.

Woman Gropes TSA Agent's Breast at Security Checkpoint

This story might be funny if it weren't so sickeningly serious. Islamic terrorist Bombers could be walking around this country at will everyday (and they probably are) and mean while, our illustrious TSA is groping children and invalids and spouting off their egalitarian gibberish about fairness and not wanting to discriminate against people or heavens forbid! Racially profile someone who might actually be a recognizable threat!

Through a Glass Darkly

Some may have noticed, that it has been a week now since I have posted anything to the blog or much anywhere else for that matter. There is a reason for that. I have been under a complete black out. Not a news black out mind you, or even out of contact or out of reach of the neasrest wifi connection. All those have remained intact and my laptop is working fine. My black out has been due to one of my senses being a bit lacking of late. One of my most important senses I might add. I simply haven't been able to see for the past week.

They say that you don't truly miss something until you no longer have use of it. They say that many things in life we simply take for granted. Nothing could be more true when it comes to our ability to see. I have never had what were called hawk eyes. I have always worn glasses and for the most part, they have served me well. I could do just about anything that a normally sighted person could do and aside from the occasional having to take them off to clean them or the having to worry about scratching them or miss placing them, the world of glasses has been a quite tolerable existence in my experience. At least until about eighteen months ago.

That was when I went in for one of my annual eye exams. While there I received all the customary exams and testing, glaucoma, corneal exam, visual acuity etc. and in the end, the optometrist asked, almost as in passing, "has anyone ever told you that you have cataracts?" I responded well no, but added that I was reasonably sure that he was about to.

He assured me that the beginnings of cataracts  were present, but that they were not presenting a problem at that time, but he added that over time they would become a problem and require surgical intervention. We then discussed all the latest and most modern techniques for cataract removal and lens replacement and I left the office with my new prescription for my glasses and felt confident that this was something at the least several years in my future. Nothing to concern myself with at that moment that was for sure. I was only fifty seven at the time and this was something for the seventies crowd at the least. Hell! I couldn't even qualify for a senior's discount yet!

The irony of our conversation that day was the enlightenment that there are different kinds of cataracts. I never knew that before that day. Mine it turned out were caused by sun damage, which was interesting to say the least, as I had spent the majority of my career working night shifts and I have never been one to be a sun worshiper. I am truly one of the original pale faces who's forefathers showed up at Plymouth Rock asking the Indians 'where's the sun screen and the beach umbrellas?'

So here I am, suddenly beset with an ailment of the eyes that literally you expect to be something for the geriatric crowd. So, I spent the last eighteen months muddling through my options, but knowing all the while that my eyesight was literally diminishing before my eyes.  So after some serious soul searching and contemplation, I decided to go and see one of the preeminent local specialist in interocular  lens replacements and Lasik surgery.

I reasoned that if I was going to have to have this done, then I wanted the best, I was going to have the 'full Monty.' No reason to half step, might as well go full tilt and get the full treatment and be done with it. So I made my appointment and when I went in for my appointment, we discussed the cataract lens replacement surgery and a follow up with Lasik corrective lens surgery for my astigmatism. I was told that in the end, I would see 20/20 and wouldn't even have to wear reading glasses.

The doctor and his LASER EYE institute are nationally famous and preeminent in the southeast and he has many accolades and many testimonials from a wide variety of celebrities and athletes. All attesting to his skill as a Lasik Surgeon and how wonderful their eyesight was improved by his skilled approach with lasers and interocular lens replacements.  Of course, even with insurance, this procedure is rather expensive.

I opted for the top of the line interocular lens replacements. The lens that would not only restore my distance vision, but would also eliminate the need for reading glasses. What the hell! If I am paying this kind of money and I am having to have surgery on my eyes?" I am going to get it all done top flight.  The ophthalmologist surgeon and his in practice optometrist each assured me that I was an excellent candidate for the lens replacements and the Lasik and that I would be finished and fit as a fiddle in less than six weeks. So we scheduled the first lens replacement for the 14th of June. In my right eye.

I was told to expect a very short procedure, under 15 minutes beginning to end, but first I would have to have "flaps cut" for both eyes, for the later to be done Lasik surgery. Something about the pressure applied to the eyes while cutting preoperative flaps and the fact that they can't do that for several months if they don't do it before the cataract lens replacement surgeries.

So here I go. I arrive the morning of my procedure and I am taken to the 'recliner room,' where I am given more eye drops than can be counted. All deadening drops and dilating agents and afterward I am escorted into the LASER ROOM!

"EYE PROTECTIONS MUST BE WORN AT ALL TIMES!"

Everyone present had on those Woody Allen type white cotton paper suits, reminiscent of his movie 'Everything you always wanted to know about sex, but were afraid to ask.' I felt like I was going to be dressed like a tampon and loaded into the great sperm delivery gizmo like in the movie. But I digress.

Soon, they helped me up and onto a sterile looking white table and positioned me between two very large medical devices on pivots with swing arms and oculars and huge LASER IN OPERATION! WARNING signs. I presumed these to be the LASERS that would be cutting the flaps in my corneas and I felt like I was was either between the "R2D2" twins? Or I had been paced between the two destroyer robots from the movie Robo Cop.

After laying there for a rather uncomfortable and freezing several minutes, the doctor arrived and began commanding the robotic LASERS into position. My head was placed and locked into some medieval  apparatus and the doctor's last words were, 'hold still, this will just take a minute.'

At that point, he dropped some medical device directly onto my eyeball and suctioned it down. At which point, I went completely blind in that eye. This lasted for approximately a minute, then the suction device was released and the procedure was duplicated in the other eye. There is no way to compare the sensation, other than to say, it's like having a vacuum cleaner hose attached to the end of your eyeball.

Once both eyes had their 'flaps' cut (for later on down the road LASIK surgery) I was returned to the 'recliner room' where I was give Valium and more eye drops and a blood pressure cuff and allowed to watch TV. The only problem was, there was only one channel on the screen and that was the real time closed circuit video feed  of cataract surgeries in progress on those ahead of me. So, having sat there for the next two hours watching one cataract removal and lens replacement after another in high definition on a 42 inch screen? I felt like I was not only familiar with the procedure, but that I could probably also assist should the need arise.

My appointment was for 8:45 that morning and after the LASER eye flap cutting experience and the watching a half dozen of more interocular lens replacements, I felt that since I was the last one in the recliner room, then certainly I was the next one up. I had to be in the on deck circle! Right?

Wrong. The nurse came out and told me that there was one more patient in front of me, but she assured me that just as soon as his procedure was finished, I was next. So here I go again. I kick back once again in the recliner to watch yet another cataract replacement procedure live on closed circuit television. Yippy.

I have to admit, once you have seen one of these procedures done (several times) they tend to lose their appeal to your interest. So I am not really watching this last one all that closely. Just mentally watching the clock and wanting to get in there and get this over with. But after about fifteen minutes, I knew something wasn't right. The surgeon was still in the patient's eye and now he had needles and forceps! Holy bat crap Batman! That doesn't look like fun at all! A lot more involved and bloody. And it looks a lot worse than anything I had seen to this point.  Now I am captivated....

This operation goes on for an hour and needless to say, the screen now has my undivided attention. Finally, after an hour, the surgeon finishes and swabs out the eye and the screen goes blank again and then the  nurse reappears in the recliner room. She asks how I am doing, which was not the right question or approach for me at this point. I have been waiting over three hours for my appointment at this point and I can barely see due to drops and dilation. My eyes are sore from this suction cup flap cutting thing and I have just spent an hour watching some poor bastard get his eyes sewn up like someone darning socks. On top of all that, the fifteen milligrams of Valium that she had given me (three hours ago) to calm my nerves has completely worn off somewhere between "Days of Our Lives In Lens Replacements" and the "Let's Darn You Eyeballs!" episode on the big screen,  I am quite antsy (and quite mad) to say the least. Which I voiced to the nurse when she reappeared.

Of course the nurse apologized and assured me that the other procedure had simply gone far longer than anticipated due to complications, but she assured me that I was next. Just as soon as the surgeon had the opportunity to go and have his lunch. Excuse me? I have been waiting almost four hours now? And the guy is going to take a lunch break? Needless to say. I was way passed pissed off at that point, about six exits back as a matter of fact.

So roughly another hour passes and I finally get 'my turn' about two that afternoon and my procedure when it finally took place, took about twelve minutes start to finish. A drape was placed over my face except for the targeted eye and a glop of cold KY jelly substance (Lidocaine) in the right eye and here we go. The incision is made along the edge of the cornea and the instruments inserted and your lens is broken up with ultra sound and aspirated out. A little window dressing after that to supposedly polish the inside of the cornea, then the new lens is inserted through a small straw like instrument and positioned. A dab here and there of some liquid, a dab here and there of some medication and the next thing you know? They are sitting you up and you are finished.

The surgeon is finished with you at that point. The nurses take over and lead you out to recovery, The affected eye is very blurry, Mine had a large orange spot in front, they said from being under the bright light for so long. They said that it would dissipate in a few minutes and it did. The nurse gives you your meds and an instruction sheet to take home and follow. Take a pain pill when you get home and get some sleep. Then, here is a sleeping pill for later tonight. Come back and see us in the morning.

So off I go, sporting my new geriatric Darth Vader Ray Bans. To the parking lot where my driver awaited me and home we went. At home after the nap, I awoke to the terrifying reality that my vision in my right eye was highly diminished. In interior low light conditions, shapes and colors were about it. In direct sunlight with the Darth Vader glasses, I could make out faces and navigate.

I was told that after the surgery "your vision will be a little "fuzzy" for a couple of days. This wasn't a little fuzzy. Fuzzy to me means blurry and a little means a small quantity. Neither of those terms were applicable. My vision wasn't a little blurry or a little fuzzy. I couldn't see spit out of that eye, other than in bright sunlight and with dark sunglasses on
.  So at the next day's appointment I asked the surgeon specifically about this result, along with why my right eye looked like I had been punched in the eye. (It was blood red). He said the injury was from the flap cutting, but noting to worry about as it would clear up in a week or so. Having noted the night before in the mirror and again that morning, that my pupil in that eye was constricted down to a pin point. (Probably the reason that I couldn't see squat except in bright light. Just a guess.) I wanted to know how long this effect was going to last

The surgeon assured me that this was all to be expected and that it was all normal. Telling that my vision would clear up in 48 hours. Inquiring minds want to know, so I wanted to know. I asked the surgeon, 48 hours from yesterday? Or 48 hours from today?

At that point he just stopped, looked at his assistant and said, "oh....he's one of those."  Let's just say that at that point? my emotions peaked and I lost it. I said Doc! I'd kinda like to know what I am to expect, seeing as to this point, what has occurred is not what I was told to expect and I am having a lot of trouble seeing in this eye. The surgeon gave me one of those supposedly reassuring smiles and told me to check back in a week as he was leaving the room to see another patient. The assistant led me back to the front and arranged my next appointment for the following week.

The following day there was no change in my eye or my visual acuity. Nor was there any change on the third day (72 hours after surgery). So I called and made arrangements to have another ophthalmologist surgeon  examine me that day. He performed an extensive examination taking over an hour. Afterward, he told me that everything looked good and the healing was going nicely, but he agreed that I should have been told what to expect and given a more realistic time frame of healing. He also told me that the pupil had shut down because the other surgeon had paced a medication in the eye to specifically do that, And that sometimes that medication took up to a week to wear off. (couple of days?).

So, at my next appointment with my surgeon, I let him know a few things about how I felt about the entire ordeal and that I had sought out a second opinion. He naturally apologized for any inconvenience and misunderstanding and he assured me that the medication injected was necessary, to help keep the interocular lens centered in the eye until it was properly seated.

So, we went ahead and made plans to do the left eye roughly two weeks later. Last Thursday the 7th of July, I went in to have the second eye done. Thinking that I knew what I was in store for this time and what to expect. The surgeon assured me that he would use a different medication this time and that the pupil reaction time would not be as lengthy.

So last Thursday around 11 AM, I went under the knife once again. all seemed to be progressing with the surgery as the last time for a while. Then my internal body clock began to tell me that this was taking longer. Seeing as I was awake, I asked the surgeon Doc? Is there a problem? To which he answered that this lens was a little more difficult to get out and was taking more time. So more minutes passed. I had no way of knowing the time, but my body told me that we had to be at least thirty minutes into this by now. and that is about the time it began to hurt.

With my first lens replacement, there had been absolutely no pain. Just the visual sensation of shadows as the instruments were passed back and forth across the cornea. But now, there was a definite pain. I said Doc? What the hell is going on? That hurts. He told me that "this one had become more difficult and that the 'capsule had fractured,' therefore, he was having to suture in the lens in order to hold it centered.

So here I lay, head taped down all senses of sight taped over and deprived, getting claustrophobic by the minute as he is suturing my eye, I finally had to move the blankets off as I was getting hot and worried by the minute. Finally after an hour he was finished. and just like last time, he was gone. I was left with the nurses to lead me out to recovery for my next set of instructions.

This time I was told that being under the light for so long? Had completely 'bleached out my retina.' That 'my body had gone into defense mode and shut down the retina to protect it,' and therefore, it would be several hours before my retina would recover. I was sent home once again with my Darth Vader Ray Bans and told to take a nap.  Have you ever tried taking a nap? When you are suddenly and completely blind in one eye?  Didn't work for me either.

I paced the floor until late evening and. finally recovered enough light in the retina to barely be able to see shapes and a few differentiations of browned out colors. I finally took my sleeping pill about 11 and fell asleep in my recliner. And at 6:15, my internal body clock said 'that's enough, wake up. So I open my eyes and I am still basically blind. I can still see only the most minimal shapes and browned out colors. In a bright room, I can navigate by feel, but that is about the extent of it.

So I get ready for my follow up appointment to see the surgeon. Once I arrive, he comes in and has a look and tells me that I have a lot of swelling, but that will go down in a couple of days. That is what is screwing up my vision according to him, but that will go away. 'Everything looks good; keep taking my drops and he will see me again on Monday.'

I am thinking, this is great! I can't see shit and this guy is telling me that all is well and everything will improve and he will see me on Monday. So now I have at least all weekend of this to look forward to.  so what else can I do? I go home and I am miserable.

I can't watch TV, I can't read, I can't look at my computer. In essence, I can't do anything aside from sit in a chair and think about how screwed up my eye is. Then Saturday night the eye starts hurting. Not badly, but noticeably. I check my check sheet over with my now good eye and read that if I suddenly develop a 'deep boring pain, or I suddenly see large specks or other troubling things like bright flashes of light or a curtain creeping across my vision, then to call immediately.

Well, I have a pain, but nothing terrible (yet) and I do have this large speck that keeps floating in and out of my line of sight in that eye. but other than that, the main problem is that everything in the eye looks like I am looking through a shower curtain. I can't see or make or much of anything other than shapes. I am livid. I am scared, I am terrified, but what can I do?

So, I go to sleep about midnight and at 3 AM I am wide awake. The eye is hurting again (I had been taking Ibuprofen most of the day Saturday) only now, I can tell that what little visual acuity that I did have on Saturday is now gone. So in other words, the eye is hurting and the sight is getting worse (if that is possible).

So I walk the floor until 8 AM and finally get my wife up and then call the emergency number for the eye clinic. The female optometrist finally returns my call and tells me that it will be 2 PM before she can meet me at the office. So that meant another five hours of waiting to be seen, but once again, what options did I have at that point. I have to have the eye looked at and I was at their mercy. Either that or an emergency room and that would have easily taken at least that long or longer.

So we load up and make the hour long drive up to the office and the optometrist takes me back to one of the rooms where she checks the eye pressure. I had already told her that the eye was red and hurting. So she gives me some deadening drops and proceeds to check the pressure in my eye.

Once she did, she said that my pressure was pretty high, so she gave me some drops that she said would reduce the pressure and also two pills to take that should also help to reduce the pressure. After waiting ten minutes, she checked the pressure again and noted no changes in the pressure, so she gave me more eye drops and waited another ten minutes and again there was still no change.

She explained that she had a call and text into the surgeon, but at this point, that he had not responded. Finally, about ten minutes later he called. The optometrist had already told me that I might have to come in the following day to have the surgeon 'burp' the cornea to relieve the pressure. The surgeon finally arrived and consulted with the optometrist as to what she had administered and the results concerning the pressure.

The surgeon then took his own pressure reading and noted that nothing had changed. Prior to his arrival the optometrist had told me that normal pressure was 18-22 but that my pressure was 39. There was the problem.

So the surgeon gave me some deadening drops and then took a pair of round tweezers and rolled the fluid in the cornea over to the incision and literally drained off the excess fluid. Immediately I felt a release of fluid and a rather large tear run down my cheek, but more importantly, I could see out of my left eye.

The surgeon gave me some additional pressure reducing drops and told me to go home and come see him the following day. All I knew at that point, was that I could see in the eye again. Which after four days? Was quite a feeling of relief.

So I went back on Monday and was reexamined. I noted when I woke up that the vision had diminished again, but seemed to clear up after I was up for a while and after my drops. I went in and was reexamined and assured that all was going well and that everything would be fine. So, I went home and finished out my day. The surgeon had prescribed me some sleeping pills on Sunday, as sleeping had been something that had eluded me for almost a week.

So I went to bed Monday night I went to sleep in my recliner again and when I awoke yesterday morning? Back to square one. Couldn't see shit out of the eye once again. just shapes and colors. Everything is fuzzy once again and even after the drops, it took most of the afternoon to be able to clear up enough to drive.

So you guess it. Back on the phone to the eye institute and demanding an appointment to see the doctor again. Finally got in to see him about 1 PM yesterday. Only now? I have a large floater that has appeared in the eye. Looks like a large piece of belly lint and has a large triangular piece of gelatinous 'something' attached to it that looks amber.

I had told the surgeon the day that he was doing the lens replacement, that he had missed a piece of the lens, which he assured me the had not. I told him about the floater Sunday too, which he claimed he could not see.

Yesterday, the two optometrist dilated the eye and did a close and comprehensive look around and guess what? They saw it. Ultimately the surgeon has his look around and saw it too. Now he says 'That will absorb' and not give you any problems. But it is still dropping down into my field of vision and bugging the hell out of me. Which leads to the next question, 'what makes this one so special? Other floaters I have had most of my life haven't 'absorbed' or gone away. So why should this one.

As it stand presently, it is Tuesday the 13th of July 2011. It has been one week since my second interocular lens replacement. I woke up at 6:30 this morning and I still can't see out of my left eye. I have taken all my drops and I am about to take them again but seeing out of the eye just isn't happening. Yesterday, the surgeon told me that would gradually get better as the swelling in the cornea goes down. My question is this, what happened to the swelling in the cornea on Sunday when he drained the fluid and I could see clearly immediately?

And what about the Lasik to correct the astigmatism and give me 20/20 after all this? The surgeon says we need to wait about a month for that now.  Really?

This has not been a good experience. I go back to see him again tomorrow. Right now, it is 1:30 in the afternoon and I still can't see worth spit in my left eye. To even write this? I have had to boost fonts up to 24 and use my good eye. Yippy......

Coming to a freeway near you soon

That's right. Mexican trucks will now be crisscrossing the US compliments of NAFTA, Bill Clinton and Obama. Doesn't that make you all warm and fuzzy. Forget about the economic impact and just consider this. There are currently hundreds of Mexican nationals wanted for vehicular homicides all across America. They simply fled back to Mexico.

So now we are going to turn these people loose in junk trucks that are rolling disasters to ply our highways? And don't say 'oh....well! The state DOT enforcement will stay on top of them and insure that they are maintaining their vehicles and safety rules, cause that ain't gonna happen.

How long before we are told that is racial profiling and law enforcement are not allowed to stop trucks just because they are from Mexico. Wait and see. Within a year the facts and the statistics will be in.

Landmark US-Mexico trucking agreement resolves 15-year conflict

After years of wrangling, US and Mexican officials signed an agreement Wednesday that allows trucks from each nation to travel on the other country’s highways – a key provision of NAFTA.

Field of Dreams 2

I really like this....

Field of Dreams 2: NFL Lockout with Taylor Lautner from Taylor Lautner

There is no justice

Having just watched the Casey Anthony verdict rendered live, I have only one observation. There was no justice for Caylee Anthony today. The weakest of alibis prevailed and Casey Anthony walks away with four misdemeanor convictions of lying to police and is declared innocent of murdering her two year old daughter. This coming Thursday she will walk away free and clear.

I would be inclined to argue that this was a case of jury nullification but it wasn't. This was a case of the prosecutor being out of his depth and arrogant to a fault, no more no less. The jury seized on that prosecutorial arrogance and rendered their verdict on the prosecutor's arrogance rather than the evidence of the one responsible for the death of this little girl.

Once again, acquittal does not mean innocence in America and once again acquittal certainly doesn't represent justice. Meanwhile, the talking heads of media are now engaging in the aftermath of lamenting the joys of our legal system and once again our legal system supposedly proving itself as the epitome of fairness and justice.

I am sorry, but there was no justice in that courtroom today. Only the reality that what Abraham Lincoln once said is true. "You can fool some of the people all of the time." And today's verdict stands as testament to the truth of that statement like no other. And in the end, Casey Anthony becomes a celebrity and eventually she will become a reasonably wealthy woman for her "story."

Barack Obama by his own definitions: Is inherently evil

 Anyone listening to the president's speech last week, got another primer on how to conduct class warfare as a political tool to justify taxation. There's just one problem with the president's socialist perspectives of taxation and his representation of the facts concerning who is responsible.


Corporate Jets and Tax Breaks

President Obama’s core message in his Wednesday press conference, his first since March, could be found in his advice to Republicans. “You go talk to your constituents and ask them, ‘Are you willing to compromise your kids’ safety so some corporate-jet owner can get a tax break?’”

Of all the issues discussed in that speech, the corporate jet issue is what really struck a chord with the media and it is something that will continue to resonate with the weak minded and easily led, particularly if the president has his way in the matter.

There is only one small problem with Obama's rhetoric on the economy and who is responsible for our continued woes. It wasn't the evil republicans who passed the corporate tax break for private jet owners. As a matter of fact? It was the Pelosi and Reid controlled congress of 2009 who passed it and president Obama who signed it into law. As part of the $278 billion stimulus bill no less.

Yet here is the president two years later? Telling Americans that it was the evil Republicans and their evil rich supporters who did these terrible thing to the American people. Once again according to Obama, it is the republicans who are responsible for all evil in the world.

But it gets better.

There is the recently released report on Obama' economic stimulus program. A report by the White House’s Council of Economic Advisors. A group of hand picked economist who the president charged with the responsibility of seeing just how well the stimulus package impacted the economy.  The group   evaluated the effects of the stimulus package and their assessment presents a problem. A problem that the White House now admits to be the truth.

Each job created by Obama's stimulus package? Costs American taxpayers $278,000 per job.




Obama administration admits $278 per job costs.

When the Obama administration releases a report on the Friday before a long weekend, it’s clearly not trying to draw attention to the report’s contents. Sure enough, the “Seventh Quarterly Report” on the economic impact of the “stimulus,” released on Friday, July 1, provides further evidence that President Obama’s economic “stimulus” did very little, if anything, to stimulate the economy, and a whole lot to stimulate the debt.

The report was written by the White House’s Council of Economic Advisors, a group of three economists who were all handpicked by Obama, and it chronicles the alleged success of the “stimulus” in adding or saving jobs. The council reports that, using “mainstream estimates of economic multipliers for the effects of fiscal stimulus” (which it describes as a “natural way to estimate the effects of” the legislation), the “stimulus” has added or saved just under 2.4 million jobs — whether private or public — at a cost (to date) of $666 billion. That’s a cost to taxpayers of $278,000 per job.   

In other words, the government could simply have cut a $100,000 check to everyone whose employment was allegedly made possible by the “stimulus,” and taxpayers would have come out $427 billion ahead.

 Now here is the kicker.

If you follow along with the logic presented by the president's speech last Wednesday? A theme that he and the liberal left have continually hammered for the past three years?

The president is directly responsible for the creation of over 2 million more evil rich people. By definition, anyone who makes more than $250,000 a year is evil, rich and probably a corporate jet owner. Therefore, Obama's stimulus package created over 2 million more of these very same people that he blames (once again) for all the ills of the American economy. The very same people that he says need to be taxed more now.

Or else our children won't get scholarships to college, and we will have to stop funding the national weather service and a myriad of other programs that the president says that we cannot do without.

I think not. I think the American people are once again being lied to and once again, the dumb masses will buy into the logic of politically crafted class warfare. And in the end, taxes will increase, the deficit will increase, the size of government will continue to grow and individual rights and freedoms will continue to shrink.

The GOP blinks again

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water.

I don't think anyone in Washington is either listening to the American people or gives a shite what they think period.  I am convinced that regardless of party, the large majority in congress could care less what the people voted for them to do. They are going to continue to do as they damn well please until they steer us all onto the rocks of oblivion.

Republicans set to cave once again.

Republicans would accept a “mini” deal with the Obama administration on raising the debt limit, Senator John Cornyn of Texas, a Republican leader, said.
Cornyn said today on “Fox News Sunday” that while Republicans would prefer a long-term settlement, they would accept a shorter-term agreement if that’s all they could get done. The U.S. Treasury Department has projected that on Aug. 2 the U.S. will no longer be able to meet obligations if the legal debt ceiling isn’t raised.
“The problem with a mini-deal is we have a maxi problem,” said Cornyn, who is in charge of the 2012 Republican Senate campaign strategy. “We’ll take the savings we can get now, and we will re-litigate this as we get closer to the election.”
The Senate shortened its July 4 recess and will remain in Washington to discuss a deal this week to raise the nation’s $14.3 trillion debt limit. The Obama administration is negotiating with Congress on reducing the long-term budget deficit as part of a plan to raise the limit before borrowing authority expires.

"A lot of this fuss is politics"

Well, that is a comforting analysis.



And apparently (according to the president) that is a good legal answer.