IT'S OVER, OR A BEGINING?

NOBODY SAYS " IT'S ONLY A GAME"

WHEN THEIR TEAM IS

WINNING.

     Ok, I seem not to be that impressed with sports.  I just am interested in what catches my attention, like all teams Kansas and Big 12.  I just try to see the importance in light of the real things in the world.  March Madness is a time that is over abundant of what is interesting, but not important.

     However, I will say that I enjoyed the Wichita State and KU basketball game.  Not only for the whupping that KU took but that the insufferable attitude that KU has had for Wichita for so many years.

      I am going to be interested now how KU folk are going to complain about the Wichita Fans being mean like they do about K-State fans.  I try to tell them that they are not mean, you all just don't have a sense of humor.  It would not be such a big deal about Wichita booting KU out of the tournament had it not been about the attitude displayed over the years.

     Now don't get me wrong I am a fan of Coach Self and the KU Basketball team and love watching them.  And I like K-State also.  I like to see all Kansas teams go out and represent the state in a good light.  As far as I am concerned the WSU & KU game was the finals.  The rest is just interesting.

      But when KU can play exhibitions with Division 2 Kansas teams and not play Wichita that is just getting snooty.  Wichita State suffers from this image of 'Hillside High'.  Yet it is world class in many of the offerings it has and unique programs you cannot get at the other big 2 schools.

      Part of this is the lack of a football team and taking it's place in the full rounded university concept.  The heart went out of the whole institution and part of the community when the plane crashed in the Rockies.  The culmination was the ending of a program that was not on a winning basis for years.  Yet the only two sports that pay for all the other sports in the University setting is the Basketball and Football programs.  That is why the salaries are so high for coaches.  The program raises the money and it is not the tax money that is used for that.

     If I can have a dream about sports it would be that not only would the 3 Kansas schools play together, but I would love to see Jerry Kill come from Minnesota State and restart a winning WSU Football program.

       We all need dreams.

MARCH MADNESS

I HAVE REACHED THE AGE WHERE

"HAPPY HOUR" IS A

NAP!

      Madness, madness, sheer madness!  It is the time when every would be sports expert or has been, goes mad.  Game after mind numbing game.  The names, background, pedigree, personality, the next NBA star.  It all makes a great background to nap in. 

     I have heard that some people use a 'white noise' machine to be able to sleep.  Well the NCAA & NIT has to be the ultimate white noise.  Work is an after thought and it is statistically the busiest time of the year for vasectomy's.  This so the patient can be off work recovering during the tournaments.  Which I am sure is a relief to the spouse.

     No don't get me wrong.  I to look forward to the Kansas teams playing.  The Big 12 and WSU.  But I have never seen so many schools that I have never heard of.

     The best part of course is that it diverts the attention from all the news about the world falling apart, the government spying on you, and if you deny Al Gore and his ranting's your are a flat earther and deserve to boil in your own fat.

      Really the best part is that the only mention of the Commander in Chief is when he fills out his brackets.  You won't see him shooting hoops and not sinking any baskets til it is over.

      I am mad because at the end of the month I turn 60.  Now I was just 30.  Let this be a lesson to you youngsters, inside every old man is a punk wondering just what the hell happened!

      Actually I am happy because no one expects me to like what passes for music today.  And if my pants hang low, I have a real problem.  And it is not much prettier than what your showing.  And one more thing.  Us old guys know how to wear a cap and what it is for besides advertising for John Deere.



WHERE ANGELS FEAR TO TREAD

"CIVILIZATION HAS BEEN THRUST UPON ME...

AND IT HAS NOT ADDED ONE WHIT

TO MY LOVE FOR TRUTH,

                           HONESTY, AND GENEROSITY."

                            Standing Bear - Lakota

     Now I am going where angels fear to tread.  It is dangerous enough to discuss politics in todays politically correct society.  But I am about to talk about some thoughts on religion.

     I took a 4 year course that was actually college level once studying the bible.  The teacher was brilliant and more qualified than any professor I had ever known.  He had real world practice of living his faith in a world where it is very difficult.  His insights were so fascinating to me because it incorporated as much history as scripture and he had walked the places where it took place.

     It bothers me a lot when church leaders keep buying the line that Islam is a peaceful religion and try's to compromise with it.  Having read the Koran it is apparent that it has nothing to do with peace.  Actions speak louder than words and all you have to do is see the news to understand that it is not.

     Were the Islamists truly peaceful there would be a moderate majority decrying and condemning the radicals.  There would be a reformation movement to grow out of the 8th Century into the modern world.  Do not forget that many of the radical leaders and many followers were educated in university settings and many are professionals in their former lives.

     I do not understand the women's rights movement not coming to the aid of their sex in the exploitation and disgraceful treatment at the hands of these society's.  The rampant pedophilia should give away what the religion truly is and who they worship.  It is not the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  When the population accepts that the truth is a lie and the lie is right, it can only be one entity and that is Lucifer himself.

     I fully believe that Mohamed was the first Anti Christ.  And I have clerics that agree with me.  What bothers me is that while Christians are being crucified, beheaded, and slaughtered many denominations are still set to dispute doctrine from their viewpoint.

      It disturbed me when the Pope walked into a mosque and prayed.  The firestorm that people who just don't accept the papal authority went wild with judgment and hate.

     The more I think about it it makes more sense if you ask yourself how Jesus handled things in his time.  He infuriated the Sanhedrin, Pharisee's, Sadducees, and all authority in the Jewish hierarchy.  They were outraged that he associated with tax collectors and other sinners.  He would thwart their thoughts by giving answers in parables.  He was a man of peace and yet recognized authority when it was just.
     He gives the example of the Good Sheppard leaving the 99 to find the one lost lamb.  And there is more rejoicing in Heaven over one lost soul reclaimed than the righteous.
     God gave man the ability to question and think.  Also freedom of choice.  He asks for faith in him but does not require it.  He gave Ten Commandments for mankind to live by, and man complicates it with scores of rules imposed on others.
      The end of days is foretold in the apocryphal books and yet the signs of the end times have always been with us and still are today.  The Islamist militants believe that they are provoking the Armageddon and will continue to try and create it.  This makes the world nervous.
     And as the frustration of the governments seeming lack of action to thwart evil in the world it has been forgotten that leadership is best accomplished by example.  The Evil Empire was brought down by it's own weight, and the might of the US military, coupled with a leader who projected the strength that made them believe he would use it.
     I read an address by Franklin Graham that made the point as to what the difference is between God and the deity that Islam cites.  'Paraphrased', "God does not need defending.  He does not require man to murder, rape, enslave, and destroy to do his work".  A faith that has to do this is only left with one entity that they defend and that is the Evil One.  The history of Islam has been continual war since the 8th Century.  The culture that once excelled in science, art, poetry, and maintained the largest libraries in the world has been hijacked on those bent on the destruction of all else.
     Do not Judge or be Judged is the line from scripture.  Christians of all denominations need to come back together and stop the infighting and hatred among themselves. I do not feel as threatened about the Pope making the effort to reach out as I once was.  I am more threatened by those who take their eyes from the journey to conflict with each other.



WINTER

"SOMETIME I SITS AND THINKS.

AND OTHER TIMES

I JUST SITS"

                                    Pogo

     As a younger person, which was just not that long ago, I would be out in the cold having a good time or helping with cattle.  Me and my four wheel drive were pretty invincible.  February things would get to be a little dreary. 

     You could always tell Spring was around the corner and everyone was getting cabin fever when the shows started.  RV, Sport Boat & Travel, Boat Show.  You knew you were on the down hill slide when the Lawn, Flower, and Garden Show was on.

     February always seemed to be kind of a bother.  I always liked the idea of Jerry Clower who thought that the Congress should move Feb. between July and August.  Feb. isn't much of a month and at that time we could appreciate some cool weather.  I bet that there is someone there dumb enough to introduce the bill.

     It seems silly to me for people who really gripe about the winter.  Like that will do anything about it?  Winter in Kansas is a roller coaster.  Freezing, blowing, thawing, warming, then blizzard again.  I do feel sorry for the people back east but that global warming is really dumping snow up there.  There is a reason I don't live back there.

      Yes I am seeing the logic in Tucson in the winter.  As I stiffen up and lose my ambition it makes more sense.  Almost makes my heart ach to watch the snow birds leaving in the fall.

     Watching all the world events it is so hard to realize that there are Christians dying for their faith.  Riots break out over things that make no sense to me.  Politicians that can not keep their word or even work to benefit the average citizen.  And those who would throw the nation out with the bath water.

     Looking out the window at the deer and the road runner in the yard.  Watching the geese fly over and the hills off and on white.  The top of the hill is a great place to sit and think.  Or just sit.

PRIORITIES

"I'M FROM THE GOVERNMENT,

AND I AM HERE

                     TO HELP YOU!"

                                                   Greatest lie of all time!

      Three people who were not elected on the FCC board have decided to let the government regulate the internet.  Something that was not broken and needed no interference besides chasing the worldwide criminals using it.  In other words they fixed what was not broke!  Did anyone read the 300+ pages of regulations before it was passed?  Only Google and a couple of internet giants.  Not the Congress.  Not the people.  Not the media.  But it will be OK.  This comes from the people who brought you healthcare, run away spending, and ignoring ISIS!

     So what does the internet do?  A picture goes viral about the color of a dress!  Two Llamas running loose, and a dress stolen from a hotel room.  Earth shattering!

      So I will talk about something really important! 

LETS BRING FOOTBALL BACK TO WSU!!! YEH!!!  So there is an online petition to restart the abandoned football program at Wichita State University.  It has had a lot of support over the years, yet there is always somebody with a little more power that kills the idea.  After all they still have a great stadium.  High school teams and track events still use it.

     On the negative side it would bring more students to the campus and add to the staff.  On the positive side only football and basketball programs make money and pays for the other sports that don't under Title 9.

     The wind was taken from the sails after the tragic plane crash that killed so many players coaches and fans years ago.  But these are the things that we come back from.  It is not like WSU can't produce anything world class, right?

      WSU only has a ranked basketball program, world class engineering facility, a science lab that was consultant to TV programs.  Wichita for some reason is so proud of WSU and yet still holds onto the Hillside High nickname.  To bad it takes a bill from the legislature to make the other two Universities play WSU in anything.

      Now that was important wasn't it?  Back to the Black Site maintained by the Chicago Police Department.  And whether this blog will still be allowed in the future.  After all it is Free speech. 

SCHOOL CUNUNDRUM

"IT IS A MIRACLE THAT CURIOSITY

SURVIVES FORMAL EDUCATION"

                                      Albert Einstein

     My high school Government teacher became my State Representative.  I thought it would be neat to run against him as the free publicity of the student running against the teacher would be great.  I never did.  But I did ask him, as I have asked other Representatives, if it is a requirement that it is required to leave their brains behind in a fruit jar on the porch when they went to Topeka.  Everyone agreed that it seemed like it.

     Having gone through 11 years of public school and 2 years of parochial, I have had a great variety of teachers.  Some inspirational that still have an effect on me today.  Then there were others that fulfilled the old saying "those that can do, and those that can't teach."

     Being that I am not inclined to understand union mentalities and that teacher unions are lopsided on protecting the teacher at all costs, I find that the constant direction of the schools disturbing.  The original formula used today to distribute state funds for education was originally to take the perceived excess of the districts in Southwest Kansas gas fields.  Then dole it out to the "poorer" districts in the state.  Sounds eerily like take from the rich and redistribute.

      The state ends up sending over half of it's annual budget to schools and the schools in return spend some of it on court cases to get more.  Justified or not that is up for you to decide.  I wonder how many kids would have been paid for by all those court cases.  The law profession is of course happy to 'right the wrongs'.  Just send the check.

      School Boards have been a constant source of amazement to me my entire life.  Many members are there to make sure their little darlings get through without being expelled or to keep them on the varsity squad.

     The spending priorities have always confused me since we have gone from spending around $1500 per pupil when I was in school to near $6400 today.  What the money is spent on from the state is supplemented by a mil levy for infrastructure and constant applying for grants and other resources.

     Yet I see new schools being built that are the delight of an architectural students dream instead of practical easy to maintain buildings.  One school board spent $500,000 on a new Astro Turf football field when they had one of the best maintained fields in the state.  Oh, then there was the oversight that they had to spend $100,000 for the machine to clean it.  Life expectancy of the field is 10 years.

      District after district is so happy to spend six figure incomes for superintendents with DR. on their name that they could have funded a couple teaching positions for getting a proven competent administrator without the fancy title.  Also there are districts that are too small and should work together with many things including administration.

      There is the one district that shut down one school that was run with a Head Teacher and not a principal, partially because the building was old.  Yet that school had a better scoring average than the other 4 schools in their district.  They lost funding for 80 kids when it opened as a parochial school.

      The sad truth to the story is that the home schooler's have been achieving higher scores on the ACT tests than the public schooler's in Kansas.  Now the biggest attraction to home schooling is that the 'socialization' that everyone is worried about them missing out on is a non issue.  These students are avoiding bullying, drug pushing, and sex indoctrination starting in the second grade.  They also get to keep God in their education.

      I don't pretend to know what the Governor is doing and the Legislature.  I never have understood the priority that a school board gives to sports and not music.  I do know that to watch the reporters asking the questions of students, and the complete ignorance that is laughed at as comedy on TV is disturbing.

     It is sad that the curriculums to teach living have been done away with and special programs have to be created to do simple things to fit students to become workers.  Everyone is pushed to go to college yet it is not the college grad that is fixing their broken down stuff and doing jobs that you don't want to do.

     It is said that in the next ten years with the advancement of technology that 50% of the jobs as we know it will be gone.  Todays kids need to be taught flexibility and ability to learn.  Not what is determined to be the party line.

     I don't agree with consolidation as it has been done in the past.  Too many communities have been ruined losing their schools.  Since the 8th grade test given in the time of the one room school house could not be passed by most students today, it is not size that is the limiting factor.  In fact the smaller size and individual attention is recognized as being better.  Yet we still want to warehouse kids together and then bus them large distances to do any activities.  And any other activities, other than sports, are canceled. 

FALLING OFF THE TURNIP TRUCK

"THERE ARE TWO WAYS OF LYING.

ONE, NOT TO TELL THE TRUTH,

AND THE OTHER, MAKING UP

STATISTICS."

                                         Josefina Vazquez Mota

     Now I am going to make a bold statement here.  I just did not fall off the turnip truck.  I am not a big believer in coincidence.  And to use the gullibility of anyone to further an agenda that is harmful to people and the country is the ultimate in hubris.  Maybe the country is so far gone that no one will use any thought process and if that is so it is too late to save it.

     Obviously neither side of the Washington crowd has any inkling as to what is right or good for the country or they would not be continuing to sell us down the river.  But here is my thoughts whether you like it or not.

     THE MEASLES EPIDEMIC STARTED AT DISNEYLAND.  Baloney!  I would use stronger words but this is a publication for decent people.  There is a Mumps epidemic, and other contagious diseases going around the country.  The flu vaccine was not formulated for the strains going around. 

     I ask you a question.  What event has happened in the last two to three years that could directly bear on this?  The invitation to send children to the United States from Latin America by our Fearless Leader?  The promotion of it and the hoards of unvaccinated children flooding our southern border?  Then the immigration authorities moving numbers of these kids all over the country?

      The number of unvaccinated children in this country are being blamed but how did they contract it?  I am sorry I do not accept the mainstream reporting of the epidemic and the governments explanations.

      Call me hard headed.  Call me a jerk.  Call me a denier.  I don't care!  We are under invasion and those who see it everyday try to tell us and mostly it gets ignored.

     Well back to what they think we really care about.  Isn't that Kanya West a Jerk?