Humpday Happenings...

If you like RAIN, then this morning is right up your alley.
But today's high is pretty much whatever it is outside right now. The remainder of the day will see FALLING temps (here we go again), and even the possibility of some snow later tonight. And you WILL be turning the heat back up a notch or two.
Meanwhile, pull up a chair, stay inside where it's DRY , top off that comfort-beverage and let's stare blindly into what's been going on elsewhere...
*** First up today, the Motto Of The Week aka WHO SAID THAT?
"There are two types of people. Those who come into a room and say, 'Well, here I am!' and those who come in and say, 'Ah, there you are.'–"
(I was thinking about "that guy"...LOL)
So...who said that? The answer at the top of tomnorriow's post.
*** Next, I've got a question for you...how do you feel when a part of your childhood is no more?
I know that I always have that sense of loss...like another shard has been taken from my being, like so many chips off of the old china.
Memories of growing up with specific people and things are what we seem to remember most, and I want to share a small part of that from the days back in Philly.

We had a local celebrity back there in Philly recently pass away (or in her case, ride off into the sunset), and she was part of a LOT of children's lives throughout the 1950s into the early 1970s.
Sally Starr, born Alleen Mae Beller (Kansas City, MO) took on a cowgirl persona for her broadcasts, and it was her show that many of us from those days recall with deep fondness.
Here is her WIKI:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sally_Starr_(TV_hostess)
Imagine that, a WOMAN hosting a children's show...replete with TWIN SIX SHOOTERS on her hips.
Can you just see the outcry that would happen TODAY?
She was also the FIRST top-rated female DJ in the entire COUNTRY.
Her opening "tag" line went: "Hope you feel as good as you look, because you sure look good to your gal Sal."
And she often ended her show with: "May the good Lord be blessing you and your family...bye for now."
The PC-police, ACLU, and every local atheist would be all over her with lines spoken like THAT these days...damn shame, because she was a good soul.
She even recorded a few singles, backed by none other than Bill Haley and the Comets (yeah, THAT Bill Haley - Rock Around the Clock).
She passed away at her Berlin, NJ nursing home, two days after her 90th birthday.
Sally appears prominently on this website - Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia:
http://broadcastpioneers.com/sallystarr.html

Many of the stars she featured on her show were the 3 Stooges (she showed their short features along with Popeye cartoons), Chuck Connors (The Rifleman), Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, Gene Autry, Jerry Lewis, Tim Conway, Jimmy Durante, and even Colonel Sanders.
When she was young, Sally was afflicted with polio, which made her unable to have children of her own, but she ALWAYS had time for children wherever she went, and she was active in damn near EVERY charity that involved children.
Sally owned her own horse, named PAL (short for palomino) and he lived to the ripe old age of 28 years before he passed away, "doin' what he does best...just bummin' around".
Here is her death notice from the Philly papers:
http://articles.philly.com/2013-01-28/news/36598289_1_popeye-theater-starr-baby-boomers
Yeah, it's people like HER that made life a lot better...a lot longer...for lots of kids.
Vaya con dios, Sally.
Moving on...
*** More crap going down on the...(...all together, gang...)...SOUTHEAST SIDE of Ft. Wayne.
And here's this story (from WANE):
http://www.wane.com/dpp/news/crime/three-stabbed-after-fight-on-s-anthony

A fight that left THREE people (if you can call them that) stabbed, sending one to hospital in critical condition happened last night at a house (which is different than what a HOME is) in the 3900 block of S. Anthony Blvd.
At least it wasn't a GUNFIGHT...yet (wait for retaliatory attacks, coming to a street near you).
Police are investigating and no arrests have been made. (maybe we should ban KNIVES?)
Maybe we should ban bad behavior...or bad people.
*** You wonder WHY the SE part of town is neglected as often (and as long) as it has been...how about THIS story:
http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20130130/LOCAL/301309981

Sure, we already dumped a sh*tload of money into the DOWNTOWN area, so let's "spruce up" the surrounding areas such as the RIVERFRONTS...makes good sense (to those living damn near anywhere else BUT on the SE side).

The city has to bring IN someone to develop the river areas...!?!
Yet, after all that moolah was put into the downtown, it STILL looks like a damn GHOST-TOWN on most any given night.
Cripes, the only people parking downtown on the streets are all the damn family members of those arrested and being tried in the courts...LOL!
Parking Control is ALWAYS up THERE, tagging cars and checking meters...but they can't come down HERE and tag ANY vehicles, it would seem.
Which is why people park illegally ALL the time, and it damn near takes a act of GOD to get an abandoned car towed away.

All this brings me to the NEXT story about a recently-deceased former member of City Council, one Charles Redd.
Here's THIS story:
http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20130130/EDIT07/301309987/1021/EDIT
So, we've had black representation in OUR council district since the 1960s (except for the never-caring Tim Pape)...well THAT explains a helluva lot.
It sure demonstrates that this area was never going to be given a break...only devolve into a haven for the indigent, the unworthy, and the criminally-intent...how novel an idea.
That's a damn good way to manufacture a ghetto.
I know...I've seen it change all AROUND us.

We STILL have a black councilman (the ever-worthless Glynn Hines), and he's all for more stuff for HIS people...f$ck any of us that actually OWN a home, and are subjected to incessant boomcar noise, gunfire, reckless drivers, robberies, burglaries, drunks, stoners,rapes, homicides, drug dealing, and the like.

(from largely "his" people - if you can call them that)

We're just in the way, so it would seem.
Thing is, "we" (those fewer in number down here that DO own a home and DO pay taxes, and DO happen to hold down a real job) also happen to be the "good guys".
And apparently, NO ONE speaks for us/them.
There is such duplicity at work here, it's not funny, and such double-standards abound as to make even the FEDS blush!
(takes a LOT to do that, too)
We REALLY need to clean house at City Hall, because we can smell the stench all the way down HERE.
(Or...that COULD just be the locals living nearby...hard to tell these days)
Meanwhile, back at "da crib"...
*** Da Prez's immigration plan..well, it SUCKS.

But the "gang of eight" (bipartisan senators) have a half-decent idea...IF "that guy" doesn't EO his way around them.
I'm ALL for LEGAL IMMIGRATION...the PROPER way thought the PROPER channels. That's how OUR ancestors did it.
None of this "fast track to citizenship" BULLSH*T.
And whoever thought we ONLY have 11-12 MILLION illegals here anyway?

It's CLOSER to TWENTY MILLION (recent count)...and if we track back say FIFTY+ YEARS...that number would REALLY be more like FORTY MILLION (given the FACT that in the year I was born, we had 300K illegals come across our border...figure THAT number forward to get an accurate count.)
FIRST thing you do...SECURE THE BORDERS...north AND south.
(there's over 2400+ MILES of NORTHERN border that's as secure as a screen door in a damn submarine - drugs are "drop-shipped" by helicopter into our country)
You're going to have to make some TOUGH calls (for a change) IF you want any new immigration policies to work correctly...simple as that.
*** Lastly today, life is ALL about people....they make the world go 'round...for better or for worse.
We've seen examples of both good AND bad today.
Some are iconic in nature, making a child's life become full of wonderment, while others are just there to be a nuisance...or worse.
Still others just have a hand out to see what they can get for free.
It's ALWAYS about people...there's no avoiding it.

Unfortunately today, we've too many content to be amused to some extent.
It's damn near become an addiction to some.

We've all but lost the ability to act in a CIVIL manner for the most part.

Sure, there are some of us that still subscribe to such Draconian aspects of humankind, but our numbers are WAY fewer than in generations past...and that's shameful.
What we need to do to recapture such times...to back up and RE-LEARN what it means to BE civil, and ACT with a civil demeanor.
We need to learn that life never has a "reset" button, and that whatever we say and do can't really be called back and done over.
We need to recall what it really means to be an...AMERICAN.
And if we need to learn things the hard way by becoming accountable and responsible people, I don't believe that will diminish us in ANY way.

It can only make us all BETTER people in the long run.

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

Stay SAFE out there, America.