Thoughts On Thursday...

April showers...that's what greets us on this morning.
The good news is that they will be scattered in nature...and not constant.
The even better news is that it's NOT SNOW...lol!
(yeah, I think we're pretty much done with that for a few months)
The rest of our Hoosierland weather will find us with temps (again) reaching into the lower to mid- 60s, with partly to mostly cloudy skies.
(You'll have to decide on which is partly and which is mostly with the cloud thing)
Shouldn't be a bad day...(until someone comes along and f#cks it all up)
So, let's all get our refreshing morning cup of bliss and then take a look at all the other "stuff" going on...
*** First out of the garden is the answer to yesterday's WHO SAID THAT? quote:
"My dream is of a place and a time where America will once again be seen as the last best hope on Earth.."

Now, if you figured out the clue I provided (nation's capital), and part of the significance of yesterday, you know this was spoken by none other than our 16th President, Abraham Lincoln ( 12 February 1809 - 15 April 1865). And if you want to refresh your history studies, here is his WIKI:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Lincoln
It's a lengthy read, but well worth your time.
As far as the number of books written about him...well, the word EXTENSIVE comes to mind.
And to be at the Lincoln Memorial in D.C., or at Gettysburg, seeing the impact that ONE man had ON this nation and what he meant TO this nation becomes a study in humility.
Moving on...
*** Next up is our "What the hell happens today, Bob?" feature:
April 16 - 
---Today is NATIONAL EGGS BENEDICT DAY

I'll take a side of scrapple, too.

(hold the 'Arnold")
---It's also NATIONAL LIBRARIAN DAY.

Good day to read up on Lincoln and thank a librarian for the experience.
---And, it's NATIONAL HIGH-FIVE DAY.

(pass it on...and remember there is ALSO a LOW-five...lol)
---It's also NATIONAL STRESS AWARENESS DAY.

Now HOW 'bout THAT?

Sorry, don't need ONE day a year to be aware of this...I have 365 days of it, thanks to the morons living all around us.
And I am ALWAYS aware of it, believe you me.
*** Next up, anyone kinda PO'ed at this whole "$15 an hour" for service workers minimum pay thing?

I know I am...pissed off royally, too.
People have not gotten it through their thick and primate heads that raising the minimum wage THAT MUCH will have something you readers here know a lot about...CONSEQUENCES.
There is never a better example of CAUSE AND EFFECT than this.
Say you DO raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour.
That means the burger flipper gets paid more than your dad did when he was at his place for 20 years.
Now, that HIGHER wage has GOT to come from SOMEPLACE, right? It doesn't just appear out of thin air (like the libtards believe).

The fast food owner HAS to raise the PRICE of everything to COMPENSATE for the higher wages (and Obummercare costs, but that's another story for another post).
And guess who PAYS those higher prices for the same fast food?
YOU DO, kids...every blessed one of you.
So, if it could be said, I'm just not seeing more bang for any buck around this clusterf#ck.
If anything, it kicks the snowball down the proverbial mountain, and none of us want to be at the BOTTOM when it arrives.
A MINIMUM wage...no matter WHERE you work is NOT (nor ever was) intended to be the alpha and omega of WAGES for ANYONE.
It's called a "starting salary" or "hourly wage" for a REASON...it's what you make when you first walk in the damn door and punch the clock for the first time. It's not designed to be the SAME wage you make after 2, 5, or even ten years from that day (unless you're a twit, but you'd probably be fired long before that).

It's the bottom rung of the working-class ladder.
But, thanks to leftists, AFSCME, SEIU (both are George Soros funded), and others bent on economically ruining this nation, they want EVERYONE to start in the MIDDLE of that same working-class ladder.
Well, we could cut off those rungs that no one starts at, but that would THEN make the MIDDLE (of that ladder) the "new" BOTTOM, and the libtards would start this game all over AGAIN, right?
It's a good form of FORCED INFLATION, and with a devalued dollar, we really don't want (or need) something like this coming along.
I once started at $2 and change minimum wage, and in ten years, I was UP to $10 an hour...because I WORKED FOR IT.
I EARNED the privilege of making more money because I was a GOOD worker, and not some falsely "entitled" cry-baby.
THAT is the way business works (or used to), and it's based NOT on any "trend", but on PERSONAL ACHIEVEMENT, GOOD WORK HABITS, and a WILLINGNESS to follow direction and submit possible ways to improve the environment at the workplace.
Today's young people LACK much of that, but they demand the money they "feel" is OWED to them.
I say WORK for it...you'll GET it if you stick it out and APPLY yourselves.
*** Next up, I want to touch a little on what I started yesterday when I was talking about VIOLENCE.

I basically covered the TYPES of violence in the previous post, and while I didn't get into all the nuances OF those methodologies, you could easily see the MANY variations on the "theme".
Today, I want to get into a little of the "Justifications" behind violence, because there ARE some, and the reasoning behind them are quite valid.

The 'Nam - 1966

Let's take warfare...it's nasty, deadly, costs a ton of money to back, and costs lives in the process (on both sides).
It can't be helped, because the BASIS for war is what propels it along.
It could be a territorial dispute, or a clash of ideologies, or the want of one power to dominate the entire world through subjugation in some fashion, usually through fascism or communism.
Whatever the cause, those waging war are violent, and must be MET with violence in order to defeat that foe. No getting around it, unless you prefer surrender and subjugation under the "new order" of whatever regime wins.
Then, we have those who protect the people, enforce our laws, and take down the bad guys on our streets.
One might say it's a "form" of warfare, and in many cases, it sure as hell SEEMS like it.
But, this is a microcosm of true warfare...on the street level in our cities across the nation.
And many times, criminals know NO boundaries, ergo, they practice violent behavior with abandon such as in the cases of rape, robberies, home invasions, car-jackings, homicides, and the like.
As often as these occur, the response by law-enforcement can also illicit an equal amount of violence to STOP the criminal when they turn their violence onto the LEO trying to make that arrest.
When a perps goes for an officer's sidearm and the officer manages to keep that from happening and kills the perp in the act, that is JUSTIFIED VIOLENCE. Same when a perp is tased, night-stcked, maced, batoned into compliance. Even when a K-9 unit is deployed...it's meeting violence with equal (or as needed, GREATER) violence. And it works.

Good example of justifiable violence.

The stress one deals with when employing such tactics is also a part of the job not many understand.
Cops are family people...nice people, friendly people, but when it comes to the job we task them with, all bets are off (and so are the kid gloves).
Law-enforcement TRIES to tone down a situation by PEACEFUL MEANS first, but that doesn't always work.
That's when violence has to be used, much as it might be disdainful by the officer.
So, you can see that there ARE times that call FOR violence on behalf of everyday people to go against the evil-doers out there.
*** Last back to the station house...This nation was born in the shadow of violence...and it WAS justified.

People in the country were tired of tyrannical rule by another and sought out a better way of life.
When all peaceful means of doing so were exhausted, colonists here had NO other recourse but to give back violence for violence.
And that proved successful, as this nation's birth has proven.
The French tried something similar in their revolution...that did NOT prove as successful.
There will be times when violence can (and should) be used in a POSITIVE manner, like to protect one's family.
Violence should NEVER be used to incite further violence. It should never become the beginning factor to ANY situation, if one is of good ethical behavior. That's the bad guy's job and they will do it with vigor.
We have to be ready to do whatever is need to halt such activity when it's leveled AGAINST us.
And in that, I believe that all Americans have in them the capacity to do the right thing, when (and if) the need should arise.
Our ends must always justify the means, and never was a more pure form of that statement provided.

Be well, make a difference to someone, and...
Stay SAFE out there, America.