Where in the World is Dad?

When my father died in June 1977, at the age of 62, his burial service was held under a large oak tree, very similar to the tree beside our house.  The hill sloped downward past the tree, and that’s where his coffin sat for the service.  No hole had been dug in the ground yet.  However, someone else who died the same time he did, was being buried a body’s width or so to the right of the tree.

In succeeding years, we went to the grave, only to find he wasn’t buried where we know we saw him being buried – at least, so we thought.  After an exhausting hunt, we finally found his marker in a row on the hill above the tree.  As the years went by, the marker mysteriously moved farther and farther over.  Every Memorial Day, I visited the grave first, as my band played in that town’s Memorial Day parade, and left flowers so my mother and brothers could find it later on.

It took five years to convince my family that we were marking either an empty grave or a stranger’s.  Finally, Mom and Big Brother confronted the cemetery owners, who insisted Dad is buried where the marker is.  To prove otherwise, my mother would have to pay to have both sites dug up and the body tested to confirm that it’s my father.

Naturally, my mother wasn’t about to do that.  Digging him up with be expensive and emotionally exhausting.  After the cemetery’s insistence that we were “crazy”, my older brother accepted their story that that’s where our father is buried.  He’s not.  I know it.  My mother knows it.  We remember.  Neither of us has Alzheimer’s.  That marker is nowhere near where he’s buried.

Interestingly, there is no marker for anyone where we thought he was being buried the day of his burial, nor is there a marker for the other person who was being buried that day.  I believe now, that he wasn’t even buried in that spot, but put in the same hole we saw had already been dug on that day.  Only it will be difficult to prove.

The quandary will come on the day when Mom goes home to go God (may it be far in the future).  Where do my brothers and I bury her?  In the empty, or stranger-occupied, grave now by the bushes?  In the grave where we thought our father was being buried?  In the other grave where, if our father is there, it will be impossible to bury her, since there are already two bodies in that grave?  Or do we cremate her and bury her with her parents, who are nearby on the other side of the tree?  Or do we just not worry about it?

Where is Dad, exactly?  In grave no. one, no. two, no. three, or is he really in heaven, and the matter of his remains of no consequence?

That is what I think of when I hear about conspiracy theories.  There is no end to the number of End-Time conspiracy theories held by fundamental Christians.  The New World Order.  The Illuminati.  The Tri-Lateral Commission.  The Masons.  The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and the imminent danger of the zionist state, Israel.
For every conspiracy theory, there is a progressive debunker, who do their best to marginalize as “crazy” the “conspiracy theorist”.  Only when you look into their debunking theories, such as that of David Mitrancy and Antonio Grimasci, you discover there’s more to the conspiracy theories than you might regard as hysteria.  Mitrancy readily admits to belief in a New World Order.  He just doesn’t think it’s crazy, and that the conspiracy theorists are frightening the general population into hysteria over this very natural (to the progressives) “progression” of politics and society.

The design of both groups is to make the individual feel helpless, impotent, and insignificant.  One plans for the kingdom of God, the other to usurp the kingdom of God, to them, a figment of fevered imaginations, and supplant Him with a global ruler or committee.  The anti-zionists, of whom there are plenty to the left and right, have some belief that the Jews want to dominate the world as God’s chosen people.  They fear a Jewish “takeover” of Jerusalem, the place where their Bibles tell them Jesus will return to rule over the Earth.  (My Bible speaks of a new Jerusalem).

Meanwhile, the evidence is incontrovertible that the Progressives are, in fact, establishing what you could call (they certainly do) a new world order.  They call it “globalization”.  These people claim they don’t wish to trample on any nation-state’s sovereignty, but the legislation that the U.N. has passed, the European Union, the mechanizations of a future caliphate, and various treaties indicate otherwise.

We should be concerned that large organizations and cabals are pouring money into elections around the globe.  History has been one long train, from ancient Rome to the present, of tyrants and mobs, corruption and collusion.  The Romans defeated northern Europe and absorbed their populations, which in, turn absorbed Roman corruption and violence.  The Huns came along and defeated the various Goths, who finally conquered Rome and took her place in Constantinople.  From there, Christianity spread, but the conquerors also inherited the Roman genes for corruption and arrogance and sent it all the way to England and France.

France spent the early half of the 19^th Century trying to conquer the world and Germany, a massive country, spent most of the latter half of the 19^th century trying to conquer the rest of Europe, ultimately leading to World War I and then Hitler’s World War II and his eugenic, master race program.  The Night of the Long Knives.  My parents told me about it when I was very young and Glenn Beck has mentioned the incident on his program, looking at the videos of the OWSers and warning them, “You’re next.”  Hitler murdered up to 8,000 of not only his political enemies, but his supporters.  Nice guy.  Watch out OWS.

Hitler was your ultimate conspiracy theorist.  He believed in all sorts of outlandish, crazy theories.  He had his scientists measure the eyes of the “perfect” Germans to use as a standard for all others.  His Nazi symbol is said to be some sort of occult, pagan symbol.  So is the more modern peace sign.  The peace is derived from an ancient Teutonic (Sandinavian/German) rune for the devil.  In its present form, it looks like nothing so much as the astronomical/astrological symbol for earth, with the vertical lines bent down.  The end, or submission, of the world.

We should be concerned, but not hysterical, about Trilateral Commissions and New World Orders.  Hysterical don’t find solutions.  Their hysteria merely causes normal people to bury their heads in the sand.  We have only to reject what is wrong (from both sides – charges of Zionism on the one hand, and the more obvious installment of the coming New World Order on the other) to be safe.  Outlandish outcries will only depress those we’re trying to warn and throw doubts on our credibility.  I seriously doubt the Jews want to rule the world.  They saw what happened with Hitler, after all.  The Muslims, being more numerous, are more of a concern than the Jews.

Still, it might be prudent to stock up on enough food and water, have a useful, vocational skill, be able to defend yourself against marauders, don’t let your kids and grandkids wear or display the peace sign (I made my brother take that thing off his ex-wife’s car.  She was out of the country at the time and he had use of the vehicle), and speak up for freedom and America.  Not to sound “nationalistic” but wear your patriotism on your sleeve.  Buy a cap, a button, a tee or sweat shirt.  Get a bumper sticker for your car.  Don’t be afraid to display Tea Party pride.  Use the Tea Party controversy to your advantage.

As we discussed last night at our Tea Party meeting, we have the knowledge.  Now we have to use it to persuade others to get their heads out of the sand.  Be practical.  The stuff about the New World Order may be (is) true, but you’ll get your neighbor’s attention better by talking about the factual Agenda 21, by which the Progressives can drive your neighbors out of their homes. 

The Progressives will start with the elderly, and try to convince your neighbors that it will be much better for their elderly parents if they’re sent to live in community homes, where, not coincidentally, the children will be relieved of caring for them, or even visiting them.  The definition of “elderly” will be downgraded.  The definition used to be 85 or over, but the Media has been using that word to describe people as young as 65.

This is just an example of where we’re headed.  It’s not conspiracy theory, lunatic ravings, or overwrought imagination. 
It’s reality and it’s happening and it will get worse if we don’t wake up from the televised stupor in which we find ourselves.  It’s never too late to hope and act.

I know where my father is.  Do you know where your fathers are?

The Red Star Store

On his program today, Glenn Beck wondered why the Wall Street Occupiers would throw a Molotov cocktail through the window of Macy’s flagship store on Herald Square in New York City? “Why would they do that?” he wanted to know. Macy’s isn’t Bergdorff-Goodman’s afterall. It’s not like it’s high-end (although it tends towards upper middle class).


Why it even sports a red star logo. Oh – wait. The red star is from the tattoo the store’s founder, Rowland Hussey Macy got when whe worked on a Nantucket whaling ship as a teenager. Maybe that’s why they hate his store: he worked on a whaler. That must be it; the logo wouldn’t stand for the Red Star line because Macy opened his first dry goods store in 1843. In 1851, he opened another store in Haverhill, Mass., to serve the millworkers in the area.

Maybe it’s because his first New York City store opened in 1858 on Sixth Avenue between 13th and 14th Streets. The New York Herald was located at Herald Square (34th Street) back in those days, so that wouldn’t be it. The New School is situated nearby Macy’s original location.

When in doubt about a progressive agenda, you can always count on Wikipedia to tell you exactly, and with great pride, just what it’s all about. After giving biography of R.H. Macy and a history of the story, here’s what Wikipedia has to say under “Controversy”:

“In July 2003, then-New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer launched an investigation of the private policing system Macy's has used to deal with suspected shoplifters. The investigation was prompted by a civil rights lawsuit and an article in The New York Times, which reported on many of Macy's tactics, including private jails and interrogations. Spitzer's investigation found many of Macy's actions, from ethnic profiling to handcuffing detainees, to be unlawful. Macy's settled the civil rights complaint for $600,000, claiming to have put the illegal tactics to an end while maintaining the security system itself.”

Then there’s this:

"The Macy's East downtown Boston store touched off a local public relations firestorm with the June 6, 2006, removal of two mannequins and the Web address of the AIDS Action Committee from a window display promoting Boston's annual gay pride celebration. The removal was apparently in response to pressure from MassResistance, a local group opposed to same-sex marriage, whose members complained the mannequins were homosexual. The removal of the mannequins was widely condemned by residents and officials, including Boston mayor Thomas Menino, who was quoted as saying,

“’I'm very surprised that Macy's would bend to that type of pressure. Macy's was celebrating a part of our community, gay pride, and they should be proud of the gay community, and I'm proud of the gay community and gay pride.’

“Macy's response to the debacle was to publish an apology by the Macy's East chairman, Ron Klein, in In Newsweekly, a Boston-area weekly with a large gay readership. Klein's description of the incident as "an internal breakdown in communication," further stated it was regrettable some would doubt Macy's commitment to diversity as a result. The Web address was later restored—the mannequins, however never made a reappearance.

“Macy's Boston was also a target of Animal Rights protesters, who held signs and handed out pamphlets throughout the 1990s regarding Macy's participation in the fur trade industry. Macy's West had at the time stopped carrying their line of fur coats and apparel, and although the demonstrations have since quieted, Macy's East continues to sell fur coats and apparel, as does a portion of Macy's South stores.

There you have it, a list of Macy’s “crimes” and “transgressions.”

Thanksgiving is next week. Macy’s puts on a great parade every year. If you’re in the metro New York area, take your kids to the parade, have a good time, and afterwards, visit their Santa. Macy’s has the best Santa you’ve ever seen. His workshop is just amazing.

Then, go buy something from Macy’s. Legally. Evidently, the OWSers took exception to being jailed for shoplifting; they thought Macy’s should give them whatever they stowed in their cargo pants. Macy’s is a great American institution. Its founder was one of those hard-working capitalists who worked his way to success. Let’s show Macy’s solidarity and good citizenship.

Go, Macy’s!

Don't Mess with NYC Commuters

The Occupy Wall Street protesters may take over a private New York City park.  They can put up tents, build campfires, defecate on the streets and even on cop cars.  They can hold a sit-in-front-of at the New York Stock Exchange.  They can stop traffic on the Financial District’s narrow streets.

But stop commuters from getting home tonight?  Good luck with that.

Since they’ve never worked a day in their lives, the OWSers can be excused for their ignorance of the laws of commuting.  What do they know about the daily grind of running for a bus or train, being squeezed in between two suits who had martinis for lunch, or being stalled on a train in the dead of winter, their feet freezing to the floor?

What do they know of being packed like a sardine into one of the city’s many subway cars at rush hour in the middle of August, surrounded by fellow straphangers?  Commuters don’t suffer fools or obstructions lightly.  Try to break through that line of New Jersey commuters at the Port Authority at 5:30 at night.  You’d have better luck swimming the Hudson.

God help the OWSers if they get in the way of commuters headed home tonight.  Going one on one, mano a mano with a commuter – especially if you’re an OWSer dressed like one of them – isn’t courage; it’s suicide.  The commuters would avoid them if they’re dressed like hippies.  Dress in suits, like the commuters, and you’ll need the whole army of Port Authority or NYC transit police – in riot gear – to protect you.

Stopping pedestrian commuters isn’t like stopping commuters in vehicles.  The drivers don’t want to take the chance of getting out of their cars and having them stolen.  But the pedestrian commuter trying to get to their bus, train or subway?  That commuter is a desperate animal and will fight and claw to get home. 

You want trouble, OWSers, just try to stop transit commuters from getting home.  The police won’t be there to protect the commuters; they’ll be there to protect you.  The commuters don’t consider themselves one of you, or you, one of them.  To the commuters, you OWSers are the one percent of loafers, rejects, basement boys, garage girls, and professional students.  You’re useless.

Remember – you’ve been warned.

Race Goes to the Wii-fist

In the Internet Age, speed is everything.  Now that the internet providers can model their levels of service on broadband speed – the money you pay, the faster your internet connection.  Those who can’t or done are now finding that it takes forever for an application like Facebook to respond. 

This business model doesn’t work so well with television internet service.  The speed has to be continuous.  Telling lower-paying customers who buy a less-expensive wireless box in order to receive a tv signal, with the downside that it will take longer to download content and that interruptions can be expected, is like telling a new car owner that the economy-model car they’ve just bought will only go 30 miles an hour and that you can expect the car to come to a grinding halt every three minutes or so.  Waiting for the company to reboot your car can take up to five minutes or longer, so you’ll have to restart the car yourself.

Or just take the bus.

That is Roku’s and GBTV’s answer to customers who initially bought Roku’s wireless box in over the summer in order to watch Glenn’s show, for which customers who signed up early could subscribe to for $5 per month.  There were three levels of boxes one could buy.  Suspecting that speed would be a factor, I purchased the most expensive of the selections.  I was suspicious, but it was the only game in town.

Everything was fine, at first.  A Glenn Back fan could watch his entire two-hour evening program with satisfaction and no interruptions.  The only problem that occurred was the dissynchronization of the audio and video signal, which they eventually resolved.

Soon, though another problem developed:  by October, the signal was cutting out.  Gradually, the interruptions got worse and worse.  Either someone was interfering with the signal or the traffic for Glenn Beck was growing beyond either GBTV’s or Roku’s capacity to deliver the signal.  The other night, I counted 21 interruptions in the space of an hour.  That equated to about one interruption every three to four minutes. GBTV featured the movie, The Hiding Place, a wonderful movie about two sisters from Holland and their father who hide a group of Jews during World War II in their attic.  Trying to watch the film on Friday when it debuted was pretty near impossible.  Saturday was a little better but not much.  Finally, I was able to watch the second half with no interruptions.

I complained (repeatedly); the answer was to go watch the show on my computer.

Excuse me, but I bought this gadget specifically for the purpose of watching the show from the comfort of my living room, not sitting in the office chair in my bedroom/study.  I bought it with the understanding that it would deliver the TV signal smoothly, not haltingly like a car with carburetor problems sputtering down the road.  Netflix works fine.  The company is troubled and the programming is somewhat dated.  Since I’m a fan of old movies and love documentaries, and I don’t watch that much television, it’s not a problem.  What is a problem is that my job is going away in March and I can’t afford to keep on buying $100 gadgets to watch Glenn, at least not every four months.  If Roku and GBTV want to make money by tiering their service, let them do it with their programming, not the actual speed and delivery of the signal. 

The high-end box I bought in July is now obsolete.  In order to continue watching the program, I must purchase another box at a cost of $79 (there’s a more expensive, $99 box whose features including gaming and an Ethernet connection).  Glenn is offering a discount of $10 on the purchase of new boxes.  As long as the $79 version offers the optical connection the current box has, I’ll stick with the $79 box.

No one ever said life is fair, new technology even less so, but to base the price of a television signal receiver on speed puts you into the lemon-yellow zone. 

Ousting the OWSers

At 1 a.m. today, the New York Police Department began evacuating the squatters at Zoocotti Park.  Many of the protesters left peacefully, but some chained themselves to a tree and each other, claiming that Zoocotti Park was “their park.”

Others were ousted into the streets and began wandering up and down the streets of Manahttan.  NYPD spokesman Paul Browne sad about 70 protesters were arrested inside the park and another 30 to 40 were arrested as they tried to stop the evacuation.  Among the arrested was City Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez.

According to NBC News, those who left “peacefully” set up housekeeping in nearby Foley Square, creating a makeshift headquarters as they weighed their next move. A message on the organizers' website urged people to meet at Canal Street at 9 a.m., promising, “You can't evict an idea whose time had come.”

Mayor Bloomberg stated that he and the owners of the plaza, Brookfield Properties, were “increasingly concerned” about the health and fire hazard the occupation poses, used generators and other devices to keep warm.”

"Unfortunately, the park was becoming a place where people came not to protest, but rather to break laws, and in some cases, to harm others," he said. "The majority of protesters have been peaceful and responsible. But an unfortunate minority has not been – and as the number of protesters has grown, this has created an intolerable situation."

He said protesters will be welcome to use the park to protest but have to follow the rules.

“Protesters have had two months to occupy the park with tents and sleeping bags,” he added. “Now they will have to occupy the space with the power of their arguments.”

The temporary restraining order said the city could not evict protesters from the park or enforce rules -- like no tents, tarps or sleeping bags -- that were not made clear until after the occupation began.  Before moving in to sweep the park, police handed out letters to protesters ordering them to temporarily evacuate; campers were ordered to remove all their tents.  Any tents, sleeping bags or other items left behind in the park would be brought to a sanitation garage, the letter said.

Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer told NBC New York the overnight raid took him by surprise. He urged police to show restraint and asked protesters not to engage in behavior that would get them arrested.  Being arrested, however, is a badge of honor for OWSers.

“It was always my view that people had the right to be in the park to exercise their right to protest. At the moment, I am encouraging both the police and the protesters to stay calm," Stringer said.  “I urge New Yorkers to take a deep breath. Let’s get all the facts before we make a judgment.”

Bloomberg last month tried to evacuate the park so that it could be cleaned. But the cleanup was ultimately postponed when protesters resisted, raising concerns about a showdown between police and the thousand-plus demonstrators camped out at the park. 

The mandatory evacuation Tuesday came just two days before a massive Occupy Wall Street demonstration planned for Thursday. Demonstrators were planning to march in front of the New York Stock Exchange Thursday morning, get on subway trains across all five boroughs in the afternoon, then rally near City Hall in the evening. Afterward, they were expected to march to area bridges.

Bloomberg has recently gone back and forth between criticizing Occupy Wall Street and defending it, saying recently that protesters were largely law-abiding and did not bother anyone.

When he was asked Monday to address complaints of local business owners and residents about the Occupy encampment, Bloomberg again hedged on whether he planned to step in.

“We'll take appropriate action when it's appropriate,” he said.

Apparently, Bloomberg decided the time was now appropriate.  In two days, we’ll be marking the auspicious occasion of the victory of the Bolshevik Party in Russia – Nov. 17^th.  Meanwhile, a judge will be meeting with all the parties at 11:30 a.m. to determine whether the city has the right to evict the OWS protesters.

The lawyers will probably resort to squatters’ rights arguments.  If an “occupant” has previously been given permission to inhabit a property by the owner, even if the agreement is only verbal, and if the occupant is permitted to remain on the property for a certain period, and receives mail at that location as their resident address, the property could become the property of the “occupant.”

The judge may or may not regard the verbal agreement as valid, depending on his or her political persuasion.  He or she may also be persuaded by First Amendment rights to freedom of speech, which they’ll extend to “occupying” private property.  Such a ruling would set an incredibly dangerous precedent and that may, indeed, be the protesters’ intent.

A ruling like that would allow them to occupy the private property of anyone they choose to protest against.  Private property rights are the main target of communist groups.  Given enough latitude, they could wind up “occupying” your houses, just like in the movie, Dr. Zhivago.

Ohio: Welcome to New Jersey!

Last week, Ohio joined that rare fraternity of states that figures if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.  Ohio voted against curbing public-employee unions shows.  The unions spent huge amounts of money to bring this vote about in their favor.  Money talks, freedom walks.  Hereafter, Ohio voters, like New Jersey voters, won’t need to go to the polls on Election Day because everything will be decided for them.

The question was said to be written in a deliberately confusing manner so that the Ohio voters thought they were voting against public-employee union excess when in fact, they were paving the way for the unions to bankrupt the state.  One mistake Conservative Ohio made was in not exempting the police and fire unions from the fat-cutting.  That enabled the Progressive machine to use scare tactics on Ohioans warning that if they didn’t vote in favor of the unions, their houses would be robbed and then burned down because there’d be no police officers or fire fighters to protect them.

Here in New Jersey, the taxes are so high that the middle class are fleeing their homes for safe-haven states, thanks to those taxes.  Scores of small and middling industrial buildings stand empty.  The police and firefighters in our state are protecting empty buildings because the workers simply couldn’t afford to pay the taxes to support their services.

Justifying law enforcements’ and firefighters’ salaries and pensions is an easy sell.  How are you going to say no?  Teachers, on the other hand.  They take no risks (unless they teach in Newark or Camden), have a 10-month working period, and get to retire at age 55.  When they do teach our children, they teach them false science (climate change) and social ideologies they have no business teaching to our children.

The fear factor doesn’t work so well when it comes to teachers.  Public service workers never should have been allowed to unionize.  Police and firefighters at least don’t have the right to strike, but that agreement was in exchange for being allowed to collectively negotiate contracts.  As they serve a public service, their pay must come from government taxation.  No one minds that.  Good citizens understand that.

What was going on in Ohio that police officers and firefighters wound up on Ohio’s public referendum?  Was it lack of foresight on the part of policymakers or was there some backroom threats made if they weren’t in order to support the other public sector unions?

New Jersey caved in to socialism long ago.  We are the most corrupt state in the union.  It’s taken a really big governor, Chris Christie, a real tough guy, to do battle against the unions.  Alas, thanks to the Democrat redistricting, the Conservative voice has been weakened further.  Our state legislative district map looks like a kid’s drawing of horse:  it’s head is tiny, but it’s got big ears, short legs, and wild tail, and a big backside.

The first act of the public employees of Ohio will be to repaint the state’s welcome signs. 

“Welcome to Ohio:  You’ve just entered the Garden State.”