Monday Musings...
Welcome to yet another fun-filled week here in the Heartland of America.
We had some weird weather this past weekend, with temps reaching onto the 40s, only to drop into the 20s overnight.
Hey, at least the streets around the "Fortress" are FINALLY cleared off, thanks to all the damn traffic.
(and NO thanks to the city's street department).
Some days, you can't win for losing.
Our Hoosierland weather today will find us with temps dropping a bit lower than the weekend (only into the mid-30s), and partly cloudy skies, or is that partly sunny. I can never make up my mind?
Might even have some residual windage left over from yesterday.

Yes, the glory of having a TARDIS...!

In other words..your guess is as good as mine..or the weatherman's...lol.
With that said, let's grab our nice hot cup of Monday's liquid strength, and see what has been going on elsewhere...
*** First off of the non-skating pond is our "What the hell happens today, Bob?" feature.
January 19 - 

---Today is MARTIN LUTHER KING DAY...and I'll be talking about that in a bit, so hang in there, it's gonna be laced with a LOT of TRUTH.
---It's also NATIONAL POPCORN DAY...

(movie theater butter for me, please.)
---And, it's NATIONAL GUN APPRECIATION DAY

(well, it was back in 2013, anyway)

This day commemorates OUR right to keep and bear arms, in order to protect the rights of those who tell us we can't have guns. Sound about right?
There 'ya go...
*** Next up, Wifey has returned to the "Fortress" once again, none the worse for wear, and this time, I got to meet her as she came off the plane (around 1510 hrs).

And again, I played the "hired help" that drove her home to a spaghetti dinner I had prepped beforehand.
Sometimes, we just SPOIL those women, don't we?
The best part was that her suitcase came with her THIS time...ROFL!
I suppose they have to get things right ONCE in a while.
So, aside from me dropping a pair of binoculars (and breaking something inside where only the RIGHT eye works now), and then bumping my spotlight off a table, (and having something inside of THAT break) and being unable to fix it...can't get the damn thing apart to work on it...(friggin Chinese!), things turned out rather well.
Naturally, I'm bopping over to Wal-mart to grab a replacement spotlight...in OUR part of the ghettohood, it PAYS to have as MUCH auxiliary and portable light AS POSSIBLE...(for those midnight romps and fights on your lawn, or when the police are searching your property for a weapon that was tossed from a speeding vehicle)...TRUST ME on this one.
Thing is, I can't get another spotlight like the one that broke, because:
A) It's a discontinued item.
B) The closest location that still has one is a Menards in GARY (freaking), INDIANA...(no thank you...not a chance in hell of that happening...even on a dare).
So, we suck up the higher cost of a Black and Decker replacement and move on...
Still, it IS good to have the Missus back home...I'm one of those "worriers"...and to paraphrase from Bill O'Reilly, you can call me a "Culture Worrier"...LMAO!
(and with apologies to Clarence Page, a liberal who is counter to conservatism, who wrote the damn BOOK)
I fret about a great many things, and some of them I actually DO have NO control over...so they get shoved to the bottom of the junk-pile.
I will say that some level of worry does produce a sense of cautionary action...keeps you ALERT, and the world can always use another "lert", right?
Kinda nails that down.
Moving on...
*** We had another police bust at another "after-hours" club on the city's SE side (where the hell else would they have them?), and here's the story link:
http://www.journalgazette.net/news/local/police-fire/One-arrested-in-raid-of-illegal-club-4550127
Closer to downtown...how's THAT work for 'ya, Mr. Mayor?

But...only ONE arrest???
No one else was there or were they all under age?

"Welcome to the jungle"..c'mon, sing along.

Since we've all but run OUT of places for our locals to practice their "trade", they've got nowhere else to go but EVERYWHERE ELSE....
Gotta love the irony of ignorance that produced all the crap down here...
*** Yes, it is indeed Martin Luther King Day...a day in which we hear about the CELEBRATION of MLK...

In fact, we hear MORE about "celebration" that anything ELSE connected to Dr. King, don't we?
But what the hell is there to celebrate when you look around and see how many blacks choose to live these days?
Here's one story about the celebratory goings-on:
http://wane.com/2015/01/17/hundreds-celebrate-mlk-day-early/
Now, I like a decent party as well as the next person, but there IS a time for such things...as well as a time for more honest and solemn reflection.
It's like that one "Boondocks" episode where Dr. King wasn't dead, but in a coma, and awoke in modern day society, setting abouit to continue his preaching and see how far his people had come since the 1960s.

From the Boondocks ep: "Return of the King".

What he finds is appalling to say the least, and he condemns a room full of blacks by telling them:
"You ignorant n!663rs need to SHUT THE HELL UP"..
Here's the link to the speech:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5FR1LGsT7E
Dr. King then moves to CANADA and passes away at the age of 91...as Huey said "It's nice to dream".

And therein lies much of the problem with black America today (in general)...the blacks that need to don't shut the hell up, because when someone is too busy flapping their jaw, they can't HEAR a damn thing...can they?
And sometimes OTHER people are saying things "we":(read THEY) need to hear.
It's much akin to a relationship with God...if we'e too busy jaw-jacking to God about everything under the heavens and HE is trying to TELL US SOMETHING...how do we hear what HE has to say?
Chris Martin did a Sunday post about this very thing  not that long ago, and he knows what it's like...just as the rest of us do.
There are those times we ALL need to shut the hell up...and listen to what's being said, instead of just jabbering away or merely pretending to hear another person or some other point of view, without taking time to listen..
That's why PRIORITY VEHICLES have SIRENS...they MAKE you listen...lol.
But, I digress...
The message that Dr. King brought to ALL people way back when did not initially fall on deaf ears, because TODAY we have more true EQUALITY among races...it's just that that's not ENOUGH for some, and they race-bait their way into becoming MORE equal than everyone else...
That's NOT what Dr. King spoke to...ever.
Dr. King was never one for handouts, but more about a HAND UP...help one another and thereby be able to promote equality among all men.
I think many blacks saw this as a chance to advance a cause that has to have King rolling in his (premature) grave.
Sure, they saw the "writing on the wall"...but it's GRAFFITI, and not words of wisdom or knowledge.
Rap stars, misogynistic pimps, trampy women and music with lyrics that debase other races and authority with such vitriol, it's enough to make your head explode.
Then, there's the single parent dilemma...over 70% of black households subscribe to this...and the women still are making babies, when there is FREE contraception out the wazoo...
Black unemployment and black crime are off the charts (and not in a good way).
The manner in which many of the so-called poverty-stricken is enough to make you puke...and why is this?

Those in Ferguson should have paid attention.

Opportunities exist for those willing to look for them and work at them.
There ARE jobs out there, and plenty of good housing, but there comes with this a sense of being "entitled"...something Dr. King never wanted for his people unless it pertained ONLY to civil rights, as in every black man, woman, and child being able to have the EXACT SAME RIGHTS given to us by GOD...and not by man, for man cannot grant REAL rights...only privileges.
To sit home, collecting welfare, without a care in the world, selling drugs on the side, never making the black males accountable or responsible for the children they sire, and leaving the burdens of life on the shoulders of the women is something else that Dr. King would never espouse.

There are those that DON'T WISH to be educated, though.

Martin Luther King was about ALL men seeing eye-to-eye in equality...not one class working their asses off to support another.
Take the time to listen or read his speeches...you know this to be true.
It saddens me to see what subsequent generations have done to Dr. King's DREAM...
They have corrupted it into a bastard child of dependency, slothfulness, addiction, and crime.

I should put THIS sign on our lawn!

It's more a NIGHTMARE than anything close to being a dream these days...and that should weigh heavy on the hearts of ALL people, but more so on those people of color...it was THEIR legacy Dr. King left to them all...and it was their legacy to embrace or ignore.
We can see how "blissful" many of them are today...and that should never have happened.
As for me and our house...we have listened to Dr. King, and remember his teachings.
We (however) don't have the time for those that have chosen ignorance over intelligence when it comes to such things.
And I fear that even Dr. King HIMSELF could not reach some of these people...
But that is not any fault OF Dr. King...these people have failed him AND themselves.
Certainly not a good example for this nation.
We can all do better...and we must. Some need to do a LOT better.

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