American Experience Delayed...

Welcome to our "Not quite the weekend, but we're getting there" edition of the daily dose of common sense.
The temps today will only reach into the low 80s with no precipitation (until the weekend, of course).
And NO FOG today, either.
That means when I'm finished HERE, I get to mow the back yard (oh...joy.).
But before we tackle ANY of that stuff, let's find out the answer to yesterday's WHO SAID THAT? quote:
"I determined to make no-man's land our land. We set out to besiege the besiegers."

This was spoken by. Lt. General Leslie Morshead, his principle of defense as commander of the Tobruk garrison and the North Australian Division, 1944, as quoted in Hornet The Commanders, 1984.
And here's his WIKI:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leslie_Morshead

This is one of those commanders that hardly anyone has heard of (here) and yet, his career spanned TWO World Wars, and during WW2, he seemed to be everywhere from Tobruk and El Alamein to New Guinea.

Truly a remarkable individual...and now you know about him.

Moving along...

*** This is a story that has to make you believe in American Exceptionalism.

Here's the link:
http://www.kcentv.com/story/19451190/wwii-vet-defends-home-against-would-be-robbers

A NINETY-TWO year old veteran...shoots and kills a home invader...gotta love that.

Earl Jones of Verona Kentucky is the man who defended his home, just as he defended this nation ALL those years ago.

And with a .22 caliber rifle, no less.

The recently-deceased was one Lloyd "Adam" Maxwell of Richmond, KY.
This was the third break-in to Jones' farm, and he's lived alone since his wife passed back in 2006.
I say pin a damn MEDAL on this man...for doing the RIGHT thing at the RIGHT time.
Here is a case where all this man wants to do is be left alone and live out the remainder of his life on his farm...and that's something that must bother some people, who feel it's their "right" to take from such a honorable man.
And that's a huge problem in this country these days...some people just don't want to leave other people the hell ALONE.
I know in OUR part of the ghettohood, I certainly want to be left alone, especially by the human vermin that infest the houses around us.
But that's too much to ask of such morons..they want to "include" you in their lives (no thank you...mine and Wifey's is sufficient).

That's why you have to always hear THEIR lives outside your door...put up with THEIR shenanigans and noise to all hours, and deal with THEIR disdain and disrespect for you, because YOU are one of "those" normal folks...and don't really belong here any longer, thanks to the burgeoning FREAKSHOW that has been blooming down here on the SE side for the last 2-3 decades.
My solution is simple...THEY need to learn how to BEHAVE in public...period.
The world does NOT (nor ever will) revolve around THEM!
That applies to everything from keeping your kids on a short leash in stores and restaurants to not dressing like a damn slob (or worse) and becoming a much better role model for your children...
THAT is the basics for a better society, and it IS achievable.
*** Didn't watch much of the DNC last night (American Guns was on Discovery Channel...lol), but I did pick up some of Bill Clinton's speech...seemed like I did a time warp back to the mid 90s...and that was scary.

Somehow, I cannot believe the people of this country can buy into such BS...and so consistently, too.
When you look back to election cycles from early last century, you find the public seemed a lot MORE informed and a lot less "indulged" by the government. I think THAT has got a lot to do with the state of affairs these days.
*** We, as a society have become over-indulgent, giving in time and again to our baser instincts, and it's so easy to see, it's not funny.

It's hedonism, plain and simple.
When you have riots at stores when the latest "athletic shoe" comes to market, or hoards of people descending upon electronic stores when the newest iPhone comes out, that should tell you a LOT.
It's as though Americans are in a perpetual state of ESCAPISM, and that's not good.
Escapism is like that ONE food you love so much, but you only indulge yourself once in a while, because it's SPECIAL and means something to you.

These days, we go from one venue to the other, without cessation, in the "hope" we can find the NEXT BIG THING to occupy our minds and time.
We become SO enamored with whatever comes along, that we are willing to allow the government to come in, part and parcel, and dictate to us HOW we should be running our lives, when WE should be the ones at the wheel, able to practice self-control and moderation.
This is not progress, nor anything that could be called evolutionary.
*** The American Experience is, in essence a grand "experiment" in self-governance...the Founders all but stated as much.
How far we seem to have come from that noble premise.

We seem to be of a mind these days that says we're willing to let the government tell us all we need to know about living...to guide us from cradle to grave, and to even think for us, because we're too busy doing "more important" things like those mentioned above.
I think the time has come where we ALL "ante up", because the stakes are huge.

Every one of us needs to start pulling our OWN weight...holding up OUR part of that log (military PT reference), and being able to LEARN a lot more than we have been, thereby also being able to pass this along to the next generation.
It worked pretty damn well in our past, but sadly, our grandparents and even parents are leaving us all, and after that happens, where do we go if we have not spent time learning all we could from such people?

Time moves in only ONE direction...FORWARD.
(and we all are granted a finite amount OF that time)
No replays, no do-overs, no resets...
And we all need to become more knowledgeable as we move through time, not LESS.
We need to glean wisdom from that knowledge, and be able to apply it to any and all situations we encounter.
And we need to do it ON OUR OWN..without government intervention.

Like I said...that was the way we USED to do things in this country, and we were all the better for doing so...weren't we?
I'd like to believe so.

Be well, make a difference to someone, and...

Stay SAFE out there, America.