Clip clop clip clop BANG! clip clop clip clop BANG!

What goes- clip clop clip clop BANG! clip clop clip clop BANG!....... An Amish drive by. My lovely wife and I ventured out into Amish country this weekend and we were blown away by the all enveloping beauty of the place. It is an amazingly calming place.
Fall is my favorite time of the year. The vibrant colors, cooler weather and clear bright skies. I love the transition from the lush green of summertime to the reds, yellows and browns of the foliage preparing for winter. The fall sunlight casts a softer more golden tone than the harsher summer sunlight. I love the fresh, tart apples and fall decorations like bundles of corn stalks, pumpkins and bittersweet. So, make a pile of leaves, snuggle with your sweetie, eat a caramel apple and enjoy the bounty that fall brings.

Rioting 101

These people appear to be protesters. They have signs, they look somewhat organized. They appear to dislike Nazis. They want the Nazis to "go home" and "get out", who wouldn't? They won! The Nazis cancelled their Rally. So what did the "protesters" do? They hurled rocks at the police providing security for the rally. Not the smartest way to celebrate a victory. But that wasn't enough celebration.

And........

The looting and vandalism wasn't enough to prompt police to mount an assault and clear the rioters out of the area, even though they were just a few blocks away. It took a fire to get them on the move. All of this protesting a rally that never occurred.

What can we conclude from this and other recent events? Looting and vandalism are now legal! So the next time the power goes out or a storm blows through or someone comes to your neighborhood that you don't agree with, go to the nearest store and clear the shelves! Break windows, commit arson, turn over cars it's a free for all!

To borrow and modify a phrase uttered by George Bush, this is the hard bigotry of accepting lawless behavior from certain minorities.

Are you sure this is wrestlin?

Is there any place you can take your kid that is not completely soaked with vulgarity? When I was a boy, a father could take his son to wrestling. A hot dog, some fake violence, cartoonish entertainment, mostly for the kid..... And for the Dad, the amusement and pleasant recognition that the kid believed this was real just like something he believed was real when he was a boy out with his father. I've known that wrestling has been turned over to the culture pimps for sometime now. The last live match I went to was nearly 20 years ago and it was terrible. It was also not long after the introduction of female managers and sidekicks to the ring. The manager in question, I don't remember who she was, stepped into the ring to argue with the Ref. After the requisite finger pointing and yelling, the opponent picked up this woman and (theatrically) slammed her to the canvas. I was stunned. The two wrestlers resumed fighting out of the ring and the woman lay there still until two guys with an old style hand carry stretcher took her away. A little boy of about 8 or 10 years old 2 seats away from us asked his dad "is she going to be OK?" His father replied "she's not really hurt". The boy seemed to understand it just all was part of the show. A show I no longer wanted a part of.

The picture you see above is of Bobo Brazil, champion professional wrestler. 30 plus years ago I rooted for this man to retain his belt as world champion at Dayton Ohio's Hara Arena. He wrestled the most dangerous and unsavory characters, such as the Wild Man from Borneo and a whole host of villains and ne'er do wells. Bobo was the good guy and he nearly always won. Nobody ever hit or pushed a woman or for that matter even brought a woman near the violence in the ring. This was a place for fake brutality and man to man conflict. There was no disrespect or violence against women, ever. There is a place for "guy only" stuff in this world, but it's only stuff women wouldn't want to participate in anyway. I'm not talking about women who are wrestling fans, don't get me wrong. But this is one of the places where we are taught to kill spiders, even though some of us are as afraid of spiders as you are. This is the place where learn to stand between you and stranger on a city street to protect you from whatever might come. This is one of the places where we learn to behave like men, from our fathers. I'm not suggesting we learn how to behave like men from watching wrestling. I'm saying we learn it from watching the good guy win at a place where our fathers took us. You want to see a man who knows this? Visit Rob's blog. When you wake up at 3 a.m. and hear a noise downstairs, and your husband gets up and finds out where it came from, thank his father and the moments where he learned to be brave and protective. He would gladly stand between you and any danger, because he loves you. He is fighting his fear as much as you are. Understand this, and you understand and further appreciate your man. I know this sounds strange, but also thank Bobo Brazil, the Sheik, Johnny Valentine and the Wild Man from Borneo for all the things your husband does for you. If you want to see what wrestling has become, just watch 10 minutes of a WWE program.

Old people moment

My wife and I have an inside joke, whenever we do or say something that we attribute to old people, we call it an old people moment. I had a gem of an old people moment tonight. I'm laying on the couch, enjoying an episode of M.A.S.H. and I think to myself, this was one of the new episodes, with Harry Morgan and Mike Farrell. At the end of the show I notice my "new" episode was released in 1976. It made me laugh almost as hard as the show itself.

The truth sometimes hurts

The current controversy surrounding the recent remarks made by Bill Bennett on his radio program is the best example of why the blogospere is needed more than ever. The bloggers have made their reputation on waiting for the dust to settle, and then, making their judgments and comments. That is what separates us from the vapid, the regurgitators and the opportunistic.

Bill's remarks were not for the stupid, but the stupid reacted, in droves. The politicians and the pundits who immediately attacked Bill, in my opinion, are either stupid or deliberately lying. If you cannot understand the point the man was making, you are stupid. If you understand and are deliberately making political hay, then you are committing the worst kind of fraud. That kind of political hack is unable to win the point with an argument, so, he tries to bring down his opponent with misrepresentation, knowing the whole time he is being dishonest. The left prides itself on it's intellectual prowess but yet their abilities have utterly failed them regarding this particular event. So it's my verdict is that most of these attackers are frauds. Political opportunists who would like nothing better than to see William Bennett removed from the air. They can't stand him because he does what they can't do, participate in a civil discussion, airing comments from all points of view and at the same time making his own point in a calm and entertaining manner.