Friendship

Friendship
© 2016 Rolland G. Smith

I spent some time with friends just now.

It took me back before my birth.

I do not know the why or how,

But I did feel their spirit's mirth.

I knew them then with other names

And we were clustered in a group.

One day in joyful talk and games

We talked about a mortal loop.

In spirit talk that means again

To come on back to earthly space.

And play with time and choice refrain

And plan each life with guidance grace.

So we did choose our separate ways

And dove into the womb of time;

Accepting growth and dense delays

Depending on our karma's rhyme.

But let me bring us back to now

And all the joys of friendship's love.

By laughs and hugs we did avow

What is below, is love above.

Whoops!

Friday Morning...10:30 after reading all the reports.

Boy, was I wrong!  Bravo Rubio.

Soothsayring

Tis Friday and I’m tired of all of the debates, including the GOP’s Houston session last night.

Who got debunked and who got revived or sustained is up to each watcher who viewed it.

Since I am not going to watch it, let me pontificate what the result might be.

I predict Trump will come off the overall winner.

Cruz will be in second place, but close to Trump.

Rubio will be in a close third.

Trump doesn’t have to say much, but keep his stand and focus and fend off the charges against him. He can stand aside and let Cruz and Rubio destroy each other and in effect, Trump wins.

The others are also-rans.

We’ll see in the morning. Written at 8:15 PM and not published until 6:00 AM

Traveling, but back for awhile

I was going to post about a meeting with friends, but listening to the television political arena in America today I must post these observations.

The political pundits are just as contentious as the candidates or party they profess to endorse.

Nobody, including the endorsers, is looking for the greater good.

They look only at the personal, the political, the partisan view of what they want America to be.

This is not the way it used to be. This is not the way America was designed. Discussion, dissent and demands have always been a part of political parties, but there was always an avenue, a path, of final  compromise.

If we, as the American electret, don’t demand that avenue from our politicians and better yet from our pundits in their pontifications, then we are in a different reality that is no longer simpatico with the basic interpretations of our constitution.

We are no longer the united states; we are a contiguous regions of divergent views.

Unbelieveable!!!!

According to The Daily Caller, a conservative political website, Glen Beck the radical, ultra-conservative radio talk show host said:

“God brought about Scalia’s death so America would vote for Ted Cruz.”

Only idiots, humorists and Congress listens to this kind of putrid detritus on the public airwaves. The sad and frightening part is that some believe it.

America wake-up!

Words

We use many words every day, and often we don't know the meanings. It doesn't mean we're uneducated, but we probably forgot over time. It can happen when one language borrows words from another, such as the word "shampoo".  It comes from ancient India and is Hindi for "press or knead, like in kneading bread. In a way, we do press or knead shampoo into our hair.  The Hindi's spelled it "Champo".

In the news, we often hear of an Arab sheikh. In Arabic, sheikh means "old man" and is a title of respect for those who rule Arab tribes.  The pronunciation is "Sheikh" ( Shake ), but the word "sheek" was popularized with Rudolph Valentino's movie "The Sheikh" way back when movies were still silent.

How about the much-used television term. Videotape. Video is a Latin verb, and it means "I see".
   
The Italian greeting "Ciao" started as "Schiavo" meaning, "I am your slave."

Did you ever play 18 holes of "strike" Some linguists think the word "golf" stems from the old Scottish word gowf, spelled G-O-W-F. It means "Strike."

The Hebrew language has a word meaning " enemy or adversary." Today the word is used as a euphemism for the great enemy of mankind, Lucifer, the archangel who was cast out of heaven.  The word is Satan.

The Loose Blimp

I love it!

Remember that military blimp that broke its mooring line last fall and traveled hundreds of miles downing power lines and causing destruction because of a long tether that dangled behind the loose gigantic balloon.

The L.A. Times and the Washington Post Newspapers broke the story.

Somebody forgot to change the batteries that would have deflated the loose blimp within two miles of the mooring.

I love it.

The Supreme Court Justice Debate

So I took yesterday off!  I wish I hadn’t! The rancor created by the death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia is wrong. Let us honor the man who served America and his principles with grace and conviction first. Then let the constitutional process begin.

Through the years I have voted Republican, and I have voted Democrat, but now the contention and constitutional obstruction created, once again, by the Republican majority in this Congress diminishes the efficacy of our Constitution. Mr. McConnell you cannot change the rules. Unfortunately, you have the position to obstruct, but not the authority.

The President has the right to appoint a person to replace Justice Scalia as required by our constitution. The Senate has the responsibility to adjudicate the qualifications of the appointment. The Senate does not have the right to obstruct the Presidential responsibility and demand that an appointment nomination waits until after the election.

I am so frustrated with this election year; I could scream and frankly I know where I am going to place the blame.

Debate cosmetics

I watched the democratic debate on PBS last night. I was disturbed at the audio quality of each candidate. I know how to use microphones. Each of them, in their answers to various questions, emitted what is called “plosives” of breath into their mics. It’s a pop into the mic. Somebody in audio should have them move just a bit off mic so their their breath pops would not not manifest as sound to the listener.

My other point of last night’s debate was make-up. I thought Hillary was over made-up and her face looked more like a porcelain doll than that of a candidate for president.

All of that is cosmetic and the rest of the debate was expected. Each candidate has a running platform and they defended their positions eloquently.

Sander's ill-advised meeting

I’m glad for Bernie Sanders that he did so well in New Hampshire, but I am disappointed in his choice of meetings.

Yesterday, the day after the New Hampshire primary Bernie came to New York for an appearance on The View and one of the late night shows.

His breakfast meeting, however, was with a man whom I believe is a charlatan, an opportunist in the worse way, a rabble rouser, and a fraud. I guess that narrows it down a bit.

Bernie’s breakfast meeting was to improve his relationship with the black community. He met with Al Sharpton, the so-called Reverend, although he has never truthfully answered questions from where he gets his divinity degree or any of his presumed credentials.

Sharpton has inserted himself into every racial and alleged racial incident that I can remember. Why Sanders amplified Sharpton’s status by meeting with him is beyond me. Mr. Sanders has been ill-informed by his advisors to take this meeting.

Profanity

A loose definition of profanity might be: “a prurient description of a vulgar action or object.” Beyond that, it is probably the vernacular usages of common America and sophisticated America, but, in that case, reserved for private and not public or social usage.

Truthfully, we all use vulgarity, to some extent, to convey our distrust, disdain or contempt of something that offends. Someone once said that swearing provides a relief denied prayer. I don’t think I would go that far, but in certain personal circumstances, I have and would probably do so again.

Perhaps it is the time that we as a society acknowledge that we are not as good as we think we are and certainly not as bad. I know a few evangelicals who use the vernacular to make their point.

I’m not sure it changes one’s devotion or divinity. I remember my Mother telling the story of her father, a very religious man who came rushing back into the house after he headed out to work, shouting as he knelt down by his bed, “I forgot to say my goddamn prayers.”

His statement is not so much vulgarity, but it is a little profane to the divine.

I am not offended by profanity in today presidential campaign. I am offended that the ability to use elegant words seems to be lost to today’s generation and some of yesterday's presidential candidates.

Animal Cruelty

There is always a story out there about someone abusing animals.

A recent one on Facebook made me angry at the kids and the parents of the kids who stuck a puppy with a sharp stick so it couldn’t walk. The puppy later died.

There is a responsibility that kids and adults must take for the care and comfort of domesticated pets. When we choose to have an animal as a pet, a companion, or a protector, there is an implicit agreement of trust in the choice.

The animal, by its created nature, agrees to be unconditionally loyal and loving. The person, the so called owner or master, agrees to provide food, shelter and reasonable affection for the animal.

Humankind is supposed to have dominion over the earth, not insensitive domination over any of its species. Responsibility for -- does not imply callous ownership -- over.

The Latin root for the word animal means breath or soul. It is not possible to own an animals breath. Stewardship is more like it. Owning is only for inanimate things.

Cruelty anywhere, to animals or people, is an act of self-hatred, for if one truly loves oneself, disrespect for another or another species is not possible.

A Woman President

With Hillary Clinton running for President, I am reminded of the first woman to run for that office.

Her name was Victoria Woodhull.

The time was 1872. Victoria Claflin Woodhull was already famous. She was born into a family of hypnotists, spiritualists and medical eccentrics. She gained some fame when she and her sister charmed Commodore Vanderbilt with their spiritualists powers. He became their investment counselor, and the Woodhull's made a lot of money in the market.

Victoria lectured and joined her sister in publishing a weekly newspaper where she informed her readers she was destined for public office.

She formed the Equal Rights Party and cast herself to run for president.

Her campaign platform was probably her undoing. She advocated free love.

A group of New Yorkers, upset over her constant attacks on the sanctity of the family got together to drive her from the city. She spent more time fighting eviction than campaigning and lost the election.

Eventually ill health and dwindling finances brought her political career to a close. Victoria Woodhull went to England and married a prominent British banker.

Conversation v's Debate

Congratulations to CNN. I thought last night’s Democrat Q&A conservation in New Hampshire was excellent. It’s the first time I heard clarity on some issues without the bickering and interruptions of a formal debate. I also thought Bernie and Hillary were at their best connecting emotionally and intellectually with the audience questioners.

The debates we’ve seen so far, in this long, long campaign, have fostered contention, not only with goading questions, but with each candidate vying for air-time, citing made-up facts and making outrageous and derogatory claims.

We the electorate, the citizens of our nation, also have a daily responsibility in this election. We are busy and pre-occupied and maybe even a little bit lazy, and we hear what we want to hear and don’t check or even care about the facts. We are responsible for the future of America.