Thoughts For Thursday...

We're almost at the weekend...again, and it promises to be another slick-as-snot morning in the Midwest with the weather.
Our Hoosierland conditions will find us with some patchy, freezing misty drizzle this morning, with temps reaching around 34, with mostly cloudy skies all day.
Yeah, another dreary one for the books.
Seems we're getting into some sort of "pattern" here, doesn't it?
(more like a rut)
No matter, it IS winter, so let's get that cup of Thursday fortitude poured and see what all has been going on...
*** First out of the haze is the answer to yesterday's WHO SAID THAT? quote:
"Our government... teaches the whole people by its example. If the government becomes the lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy".

This was spoken by one of my favorite (and quite possibly best) Supreme Court Justices, Louis D. Brandeis (13 Nov 1856 - 5 Oct 1941), and in case you didn't bookmark it, here is his WIKI:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Brandeis
Some of the best quotes from "The Supremes" have come from this man, and the current crop might learn something by reading a few of them, and taking them to heart.
Oddly enough, it was Woodrow Wilson (don't like that guy) who nominated Brandeis to the Supreme Court in 1916.
While Brandeis was a staunch advocate for social justice, and would take on anyone in either party, he had ONE major "card up his sleeve" - he was INCORRUPTIBLE.
Try and find someone like THAT in D.C. these days, hmm?
He was a leader in the Progressive movement, and launched a 6-year fight to prevent banker  J.P. Morgan from monopolizing the railroads.
I guess progressivism was a lot difference than it has become today.
Brandeis also exposed insurance fraud in 1906, which led to a Massachusetts plan (that he devised) to protect small wage earners through savings -bank life insurance.
His anti-corruption philosophy describes his vision of the public servant:
"They cannot be worthy of the respect and admiration of the people unless they add to the virtue of obedience some other virtues—the virtues of manliness, of truth, of courage, of willingness to risk positions, of the willingness to risk criticism, of the willingness to risk the misunderstanding that so often comes when people do the heroic thing."
He didn't take to monopolies as stated earlier, nor in big corporations (which defeated the ability of small businesses to succeed).
Although he himself was a millionaire, he disliked most other wealthy people, because of their ostentatious consumerism. He hated advertising and developed a loss of respect for the "average" manipulated consumer. He bought his suits "off the rack ", as it were.
He felt that consumers were becoming "servile, self-indulgent, indolent, and ignorant."
Hey, I guess he WAS prophetic in that, wasn't he?
The WIKI is a good read about someone people hardly discuss...and should.
 *** Next up is our salute to the calendar with our "What the hell happens today, Bob?"
January 22 - 
Today has only ONE thing and it's NATIONAL BLONDE BROWNIE DAY...

Might have to check into making some of these...looks damn good.
*** And now, the wait is over and we can once again begin our "dead pool" as we bring you Fort Wayne's FIRST homicide of the year.

(you just knew we could not go ONE month without one).
Here's the story link:
http://www.journalgazette.net/news/local/Fatal-Shooting-on-Hanna
This happened last night around 2217 hrs at 3032 S. Hanna St, nestled in the quaint GHETTOHOOD on the SOUTHEAST side.
(where else?)
A man was inside his house on the second floor, when a stray bullet came through and struck him in the head.

Police investigators believe there was "a running gun battle". leading to the shooting.
Don't we have enough of them already down here?
Cripes, if these thugs aren't DRIVING by shooting, they're RUNNING by shooting?.
And to hit someone UPSTAIRS shows a reckless regard for people in the area...and being a LOUSY-ASS SHOT.

Other people were inside the house, but were not hit.
Now, for the AMBIGUOUS part of the story - Police don't know how many shots struck the house, no suspects, no vehicle descriptions, and no motive...sounds about right (read typical).
How can so many "po people" get all these firearms...too poor to (obviously) WORK for a living), but not poor enough to settle a quarrel with gun-play. Too poor to be a decent human being, but NOT poor enough to be living under a bridge

Welcome to the SOUTH side...

They're too lazy, too shiftless, too slothful, and way too attached to free stuff from the government.
That needs to change and it starts in the black (or Latino) community..
Stop the handouts, and you'll see how fast these cockroaches scurry to make some sort of (legal) living once again..
Also makes me wonder WHEN the FWPD is going to "get tough" on this part of town...a little more pressure on the right ethnicities would go a LONG way, and might even chase some of these moolies back to the city in which such vermin were spawned.
Moving on...
*** We got word yesterday morning that Wifey's mom had passed away overnight.

She had been moved from the nursing facility to the hospital the day before, because the care services were better attuned to the pain she had been suffering from pancreatic cancer.
Thankfully, she is suffering no longer and is at rest.
But, it's been quite a 24 hour period, with all the phone calls both inbound and outgoing.
Now, I'll be the first to say that her mom and I never "quite" hit it off - we had very strong opinions about more than a few things.
She was a strict liberal, and I was a strict conservative, yet she was always fiscally conservative...go figure.
It was (from time to time) a study in what happens when an irresistible force meets an immovable object...lol
But I never held any ill will towards her, and she knew I cared for her daughter, and would never let anything happen to her.

Mom was a former FWCS teacher and had retired some time ago, but the "teacher" in her never seemed to rest. Her and dad moved to Texas not long after Wifey and I got hitched in the late 1990s, and we "inherited" their house, renaming it "The Fortress of Reason"..

She was also a breast cancer survivor, and a real fighter up to the end.
She was a great planner, and more importantly, she was a good parent.
I know this to be true because her daughter is an intelligent and thoughtful person.
The hard part for me is having this feeling of deja vu...for I've been down this street before, and it's a neighborhood I really don't like to visit.
Yet, ALL of us have to at some time in our lives.
We can't take the grief from those we love (as much as we would like to), but we can BE there for them in their grief and sorrow.
And I will be there when needed.
*** Last back to the wigwam...I'm always saying how complex life is, and there does come those times when it seems overwhelming.

But, as is often the case, the toughest times in our lives are the times that we wind up going above and beyond our capacity to become who were meant to be.
We answer the clarion call, as it were - we step up and do what is needed.
Dealing with the passing of a loved on IS one of those times, however expected OR unexpected it might be.
I believe that when we pass on, we don't just stop existing...we merely go from one plane of existence to another.
And that all who have gone on before us still reside with us, just not in the corporeal sense.
Each of us is the culmination of the experiences we had with those who have passed...what they told us, showed us, taught us, and much more.

And each soul we touch throughout OUR journey has an effect on everyone who has touched our soul.
How we face death is every bit as important as how we face life itself (that's from Star Trek 2, believe it or not), and such words carry much meaning.
May we all look at each day as the gift it truly is, and know that our loved ones are always with us because of who WE have become.

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