Thoughts For Thursday...

Welcome to another one of those "ditto days" as I have come to call this repetitive weather pattern here in the Midwest.
I mean you could read Monday's post regarding the forecast and it would track true to TODAY.
Our Hoosierland weather will be a damn close copy of the last few days with about the same temps - in the low 80s - and more sunshine, a nice breeze, and hardly a cloud in the sky.
Not bad for the FIRST full day of the FALL season, is it?
So what say we all get our morning beverages pour and we'll get this show up and running...
*** First out of the coffee pot is the answer to yesterday's WHO SAID THAT? quote:
"Moral authority comes from following universal and timeless principles like honesty, integrity, treating people with respect."

This is attributed to one Stephen Richards Covey (October 24 1932 - July 16 2012) who was an American author, educator, businessman and keynote speaker And here is his WIKI:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Covey
His most notable book is THE SEVEN HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE PEOPLE, published in 1989), and I recall the the bestseller when it first came out.
He later published a followup regarding FAMILIES.
His main theme in his books is not centered around other self-help books and their "Personality Ethic" but rather is concerned with what he called "TheCharacter Ethic", which aligned ones values with so-called "universal and timeless" principles.
He saw principles a sn external "natural laws", while he viewed values as something internal and more subjective.

Covey was a practicing member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormon), but I don't see that as an impediment to the practical application of God's tenets for humanity.
Covey was in a biking accident in April 2012, and had struck his head on the pavement, as well as receiving several cracked ribs and a partially collapsed lung.
He went down a hill too fast and went over the handlebars.

He died from complications of that accident in July 2012.
It's not a long read, but he was the recipient of many awards, and in his short turn as author, penned more than a couple spiritually-centered self-help books.
*** Next up is our "What the hell happens today, Bob?" feature:
September 24 -
---Today is NATIONAL CHERRIES JUBILEE DAY

(never had this, but always wanted to try it, especially when they do the flambe gig)
---It's also NATIONAL PUNCTUATION DAY

In case you're curious, here you go (some fun stuff here):
http://www.nationalpunctuationday.com/
---And, it's SCHWENKFELDER THANKSGIVING

(this has got to do with the PA Dutch and a protestant sect that popped up during the Reformation)
http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Schwenkfelder+Thanksgiving
---It's also INNERGIZE DAY – Day after the Autumn Equinox

(So, this really IS just another day for lazy-asses...got it...our "neighbors" have been warming up for THIS one over the LAST 364 days!)
*** Next up, WTF is all this flap about VW and cheating on emissions?

It's nothing new, really.
And, if you need some proof, I happen to have found some right HERE:
http://www.journalgazette.net/business/Emission-cheating-not-new-idea-8968891

Trying to find ways to bypass emission testing has been around since the EPA (damn feds) came along and basically took AWAY all the horsepower we USED to get from our vehicles back in the mid-70s.
And people have cheated by just removing the catalytic converters and putting straight pipes in trucks and cars.
(not the best method, just the easiest method)
We've got cars that spit our cleaner air than can be found in L.A. during rush-hour, and STILL that's not enough for the intrusive federal government.
Remember when California enacted EMISSION REGULATIONS? They are the only state (still) that requires DIFFERENT cars and trucks than the REST of the country - aka special de-tuning of engines to decrease pollution...and they STILL have crappy air on many days.
I got an idea...let's get CHINA...and INDIA...and BRAZIL (for starters) to get THEIR emission shit together and reduce THEIR pollution...if WE in America are so DAMN concerned, hmm?
You know, even after this dust=up I would buy a VW, because I like the manner they tried to go around "the system".
Using SOFTWARE in a computer-controlled car...how "novel".
Wonder why NOTHING was mentioned about FORD using audio "software" to make the Mustang engines sound BETTER?
And while we're at it. let's see who ELSE has been screwing with consumers:
http://www.journalgazette.net/business/VW-just-latest-mired-in-car-scandal-8951908

General Motors has a history of screwups...we know that. Their 4.9 liter Caddy engines could turn off the emission controls whenever the A/C was turned ON..imagine that.
And we ALL know about the Pinto and it;'s problems, but, believe it or not, it wasn't a BAD car (lots better than that damn Escort)
Amazing that there's no mention of the GMC/Chevy pickup truck fiasco...the cases where is a vehicle was broadsided, the gas tank would RUPTURE and engulf the truck in flames (had a few deaths there, too). No mention of THAT one.
I think ONE THING is VERY clear - the MORE we get away from practical and mechanical operation of motor vehicles, and farther INTO the realm of computer operation of the vehicle itself, the MORE problems we're encountering.
But, it's not like we didn't know THAT was coming, right?
It was TOO damn obvious, in fact.
To think it only will take one little EMP (electro-magnetic pulse) to turn damn near ALL of us back into pedestrians, unless YOU have a vehicle built BEFORE the 1970s.
*** Next up, I have liked a lot of what Trump as had to say about problems this nation faces, but it has gotten REAL old REAL fast for me when I hear him "cry the blues" whenever everything does NOT go HIS way...

That sounds a tad "familiar", doesn't it?
It's POLITICS and the MEDIA, Sport...deal with it, or get out of the damn race and let someone who can weather that storm have a go.
He's now angry with FOX news...who cut him a lot of slack (imho).

And, I tired of his "fish-lips" pout...does he have ANY other expressions?
He is a good businessman (you;d have to be to survive FOUR bankruptcies), but he is started to get on my nerves (what few I have left).

Time to get more "professional" in the political arena, and stop the bullying, and the "I'm taking my ball and going home" nonsense, Donny-boy.
That behavior is SO damn grade-school.
*** Okay, so the POPE is here, and I hear the words CLIMATE CHANGE come from him.

That GOD...he's a gonna get'cha!

That troubles me a little...no, make that a lot.
Now, I ain't bustin' on the Pontiff, but it's NOT what I come to expect.
What has the Catholic church got to do with climate change?

Cripes, now the POPE is involved?

John Paul II wouldn't waste time with this...he'd be more concerned about the CHURCH itself (prior scandals), or PEOPLE and ABORTIONS or CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY.

This is just MY take, and I could be wrong, but I feel that the current Pope is trying to blend politics with religion, and the last time that was tried, we had the Roman Catholic church RULING much of Europe (since Constantine) and then there was that Spanish Inquisition gig going on...didn't pan out as expected, did it? That wasn't really popular with a lot of the folk of that era.

The "Popemobile"

Maybe it's okay to have your roots in politics come from religious beliefs, but maybe the line should be drawn there.
Don't think the world is not ready for anything close to a theocracy...not yet, anyway.
I did hear that Obummer asked the Pope to CANONIZE HIM,. but the Pope said that since the MEDIA has already DONE that, he could not. (no "double-dipping")
But, our president and the Pope DO have at least ONE thing in common:
The Pope RIDES in a FIAT - Obummer RULES by FIAT!
*** Last back to the garage...again, we are seeing the problems that vex humanity.

We see people using the pope's visit as a media-op to push the illegal citizen agenda (that 5 year old firl that got past security to meet the pope - her parents are illegals here). And yet NOTHING is mentioned about all the lives snuffed out in abortions for the sake of harvesting baby body parts...such a duplicity at work here.
We see the highest ranking leader of the largest church in the world speaking about global warming...
Got news for him...HELL Is a LOT warmer, and that's just from what I HEARD...and READ...lol.

ICED tea? What are you NUTS?

Maybe we should be concentrating our efforts to keep people out of hell, instead of making them live through it HERE through punishing working people? Perhaps we should not be rewarding non-productive people?
And maybe, we should not  allow ANY government to force it's people to undertake undue debt, and higher costs because of some tree-hugging bullshit agenda?
What if we took care of our OWN people here, rather than trying to be the world's savior?
Maybe we should leave such work to someone in a  MUCH higher authority?
I ask these questions because they NEED to be asked, but moreover, they are the questions that SHOULD be asked by people who are much smarter than I am, and in positions of power much more able to do something to effect such change for the better, and not just for change sake.
That, I'm sure we could pretty much agree upon.

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