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My Trips to the Doctors

Posted by ScarletPimpernel on Monday, November 24, 2008 1:25:53 PM
You know, this is the time of year to feel good. To forget about politics, surround yourself with loved ones and stuff your face (don't mind if I do). So, while you're doing that, I want you NOT to think about:  My Trips to the Doctors.
 
A few months ago I went for my yearly physical. It ended up with me visiting a specialist who referred me to their other office for further testing.  Now don't panic, everything turned out fine.  My father's side of the family, the men specifically, die young - mostly of lifestyle choices which gives them heart attacks, strokes, and the occasional cancer of the You Name It.  My mom's side lives a lot longer but they get a touch of cancer every now and then as well. But this story is not about making you cautious about stuffing your face - it gets funny, trust me.
 
So I went for my physical and told my new Doctor that a long time ago another Doctor told me that I had (probably) a tiny hole on the back of my heart that I was born with.  This was 20 years ago so I don't remember all the details.  News like this makes Doctors go into full safety mode.  She asked me twice if any x-rays were done and I said "not that I can remember. I do remember drinking a giant glass of sweet tea right before getting my blood sugar tested which was the wrong thing to do I learned later."  She nodded at me like "Yes, moron, that would defeat the purpose."  But she was nice about it.  Then it was time for the part that men my age (43) really look forward to: the prostate exam. 
 
My new Doctor is an attractive, spunky Asian lady.  That's 1. She had with her a young Asian woman who looked like she was still a teen ager. That's 2.  Doc tells me "This is so and so who is a graduate of the University of Georgia and who is doing some shadowing this summer before she starts Medical school. This will help her decide if she wants to go to med school or not. Do you mind if she stays for the exams?"  I am a Christian but I still have a sense of humor and am a class clown at heart, especially for the absurd so just bear with me as I tell you what went through my mind.
 
I often see the immediate things happening to me as if I were watching a movie scene.  Many of you know that I know way too much about movies.  It just happens, what can I say?  So when two attractive Asian ladies ask me if I would mind if they examined me while I was naked; well, I started hearing this 70's sound as I grinned inwardly:  "Bomp chicka bomp bouwaaaa".
 
Paul tells us to control our thoughts so I immediately chuckled (to myself in my head) and dismissed that thought.  Let me add that I also often think, "My wife would really razz me about this one" whenever I am involved in a humorous situtation.  Of the young, pre-med student I thought "It's her horror show. If she really wants to see an older dude bend over..."  "Sure" is what I really said.  I don't usually care who sees me naked as my wife can attest. She often pleads with me to put on some pants and get away from the windows. I'm 20 feet away from the windows and only Jack Bauer could see me while he's hiding in a tree but she thinks all the neighbors are looking in our windows just as I'm walking by.  Anyway, I drop trou and bend over and the Doc is doing the old "Moon Riiiiiivveeerrr" deal on me, apologizing all the way.  I think the youngster decided on Architecture School afterall.
 
The lady Doctor recommends me to a heart specialist just to be sure.  So I go to the Heart Doctor and, this time my wife goes with me.  We're sitting in this little office, my wife in a comfortable chair, me on an examination table/chair with just my pants and shoes on.  In walks this handsome dude in his early thirties.  He's the Doctor.  His name is eastern European but he's not the sloped forehead, giant square jaw kind of Eastern European. He's the kind you see on the cover of a romance novel with his dark eyes and shoulder length hair.  No, I'm not gay but I'm not blind either. My wife starts to smirk AS SOON AS HE COMES IN. I know what's going to happen. I just know it. So she's looking at him and me just waiting.  Sure enough, Specialist Doc says, "Undo your belt so I can check your pulse."  "Bomp chicka bomp bouwaaa" Did you hear that?  My wife sure did.  She was over there cracking up silently, making faces at me and generally, enjoying the heck out of my situtation. Okay, I'm not a doctor so this was a new request.  Check my pulse? Down there?  Well, he puts his hands in my pants and checks the femoral arteries, I guess.  The whole time I'm thinking of those jokes about breathalyzers, dentist offices, and dumb blondes.  Everything turns out fine, but, just in case, Eastern Euro Doc recommends me to take some ultrasounds of me heart. 
 
Next stop: the other office of this medical association.  I go into the exam room and in walks this very attractive blonde. She's tall and tan.  "You've got to be kidding me." I think. She tells me to take my shirt off and lay down.  Then another good looking woman walks in.  A curvy brunette.  "Bomp chicka bomp bouwaaa".  Unfortunately for my ego, they pretty much ignore me except to tell me to move one way or another as they talk to each other about family and patients.  Everything turns out fine and they send me on my way.
 
So, let's summarize:  I'm in a room naked with two Asian babes. Nothing. I'm in a room with two other babes. Nothing. But when I'm in the room with Mr. Handsome - BOOM - he puts his hands in my pants in front of my wife.  Well, don't that beat all!  My loving wife only brings this up about once a week now - "Need me to check your pulse? I'll call the Specialist." hardee har har 
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Al-Quaeder Hurts Dem/libs' Feelings?

Posted by ScarletPimpernel on Wednesday, November 19, 2008 10:49:40 AM
 I'm sure I'm not the only American who feels we've all been getting Hoo-dooed lately by powerful, unseen forces.  Although I'm not currently gathering scraps of tin foil to make a hat - I just don't know what to trust lately. 
 
For example I see this report on Drudge:
 
 
In it, the #2 man (I love that term, makes me think of Austen Powers) blasts President Elect Obama as nothing but another in a long line of hate-filled war mongering interveners into countries where bad men want to bully people about.
 
Okay. At first glance one would think "Hey - those dirty rotten scoundrels are treating Barack the same way as any normal Imperialist Infidel!"  But then my skeptical strategic instincts kick in and I'm thinking, "Hmmm. What if Barack's people worked with the Powers That Be in the Dem Party, the Repub Party, the Euros, the A-rabs, the French etc to make us THINK that Al-Quader is slamming Barack when, really, they're all working together to distract and cow us into following blindly any silly notion that they put forth?" See? Oh, I'm on to them. And it would work, to. Conservatives and Republicans - being decent, brave, loyal, and attractive people - would rally around Barack because we don't cotton to foreigners bad mouthing our President or country.
 
On the other hand, we rally around our President anyway in situations like this because we have that "Decent" gene inside us. The Al-Quaeder attack video seems too good to be true because, once again, it would pit two of the Dem/libs' long held beliefs against each other - America hating and race politics.
 
Whether the Al-Quaeder attack is true or not the Dem/lib Barack Worshippers must be torn:  They AGREE with Al-Quader about our country but NOW they have (supposedly) one of their own running it.  What to do? 
 
Liberal mind: "What if Obama decides to continue the hate-filled imperialist roughshod running over of poor defenseless people in the pursuit of power, money, and cheap sneakers?"
 
"But he's black!"
 
"Well, only half black.
 
Deadly stare into the mirror.
 
"Okay, okay. But Al-Quaeder is right! America is the problem in the world."
 
"I said, 'He's BLACK'. AND he's liberal and a Democrat. He organized a community for crying out loud."
 
"Well, that's true. And he's not impressed by the Constitution."
 
hmmm. thinking.
 
"BUT, America is a cancer on the breast of the world and we do love pink."
 
"BARACK LIED! PEOPLE DIED!"
  
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Big Media Hate Workers

Posted by ScarletPimpernel on Saturday, November 15, 2008 10:27:52 AM
Looks like Time, Inc, along with several other Big Media outlets like the NYT and LA Times, is only interested in the bottom line when it comes to profits.  Not caring about whether hard working upper, middle, and lower class people have jobs to support their families, Time, Inc. has laid off more people and even cancelled the Christmas party this year.  Greed, obviously, is the motivating factor for these mean executives.  Instead of having a business so that people will have jobs, they've decided making money is more important. What hard-hearted people who don't care about others these folks are.  Hopefully, Congress will look into these profiteerers and their outlandish obsession with hoarding money.
 
http://www.nypost.com/seven/11142008/business/scrooged_at_time_inc__138677.htm
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The Plan III

Posted by ScarletPimpernel on Thursday, November 13, 2008 12:37:45 PM
I don't know where my head's at:  The Border
 
We will enforce both borders, especially the Southern one.  The Northern one will be a little looser guarded because we DO want some aliens to slip through and live among us without us knowing it - William Shatner, Pamela Anderson, Dan Aykroyd, Kiefer Sutherland, Evangeline Lilly, and, of course, Tom Green. 
 
We will send money, guns and lawyers to the border states to help them.  We will use National Guard units.  We will start shooting upon any armed invaders.
 
We will build an attractive looking wall that runs the whole way from Baja to the Gulf of Mexico. We will use the gated communities of Beverly Hills and San Francisco for inspiration in the design of the walls. 
 
Inland, we will fine apartment owners, banks, mortgage lenders, and employers $10,000 per illegal that we catch them doing business with.  All emergency hospital bills will be sent to the Mexican government or to the mayor of San Francisco whichever is closer.
 
Prisons
There will be no such thing as reform.  Prisons will be for punishment.  No cable television. No magazines. Books only.  No free weights. They can smoke all they want.  There will be a pizza buffet everyday. We don't want a bunch of Hercules coming out into society after years of learning to be better criminals. 
 
Sentencing for prisoners will be contracted - there will be no more 3 to 9 year range. If you are convicted of first degree murder then you get 25 years. If someone was annoying you and you took care of them, you get 7 years. And on down the line. Child molesters get the death penalty.  Rapists get whatever the victim says they should get.
 
There will be an option for prisoners to improve themselves while in prison. They can get their sentences reduced if they write a thesis paper on an agreed upon topic of societal or religious interest.  Being criminals, we will also test their knowledge of said topic and/or give them a college level test to see if they actually wrote the paper.  Pop quiz, hotshot!  This is not reform as it is entirely up to the prisoners to do it or not.  They will have to learn what they should have learned on the outside and will benefit society when they are released.
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The Plan II

Posted by ScarletPimpernel on Monday, November 10, 2008 2:31:48 PM
1. We target education. We get rid of the Dept. of Education (which the Bush people and the Repubs promised to do, only to double it instead).  We encourage home schooling, private schooling, school vouchers.  We hammer on the Teachers Union NOT the teachers. We have people to show up at PTA and School Board Meetings consistently to hammer at them. We file lawsuit after lawsuit until they see the light. We break the bondage that the Federal Govt has over the local school boards. We turn the system back over to the states. For the time being we keep giving them some money from the Feds, no strings attached (except fiscal responsibility of course).
 
2. We figure out how to bring back manufacturing jobs. Not everyone should be expected to go to college. There are other jobs that need to be done besides devising golden parachutes and crashing companies. It would be a smart thing for every American if there were a large solid base of folks who could earn a decent living working at making useful products.  We kill regulation (reasonably), we kill licensing , taxes etc to help businesses.  We pound on the Dems for taking the working man's paycheck with a tax here and a tax there. We use our Pie Charts (yea!) to show the Good Folks of America where their money goes.  We can use NASCAR or VIBE magazine examples if necessary. Whatever it takes. Puppet shows, huge jars full of marbles, a strongman lifting Volkswagens full of Hawaiin Tropic Girls - you get what I'm saying.
 
3. We will tell the Good Folks of America that we will begin billing them monthly for their taxes. 
 
4. We will focus on the poor. Most of them want to work.  Since we've institutionalized a large number of them with welfare and free housing; we owe it to them to train them to work.  But instead of Government Training we will point out that we already have government training substitutes. They are called Entry Level jobs. At fast food joints. At parking lots. At the megastores. We will devise some way for them to work yet still be able to live decently. This will go on for 16 years beginning when we are able. After 16 years the semi-benefits will be reduced yearly.  I don't have it worked out yet, but we must pay attention and help the poor.  It's the Christian thing to do and it's good PR.
 
5. We will target 10 states to apply our ideas.  We will focus like laser beams.  5 Red. 5 Blue.  Our goal is to make every state as great as Utah in the areas of crime, jobs, giving, taxes, growth etc.  Again, examples are the best persuaders for people. I say we could even tackle Michigan.  We go in there, turn that sucker around and then not only do we take a state back from the Dems but we demonstrate that our way actually works. We'd have to bust the unions down though.
 
6.  This is a wild idea, I admit. We encourage our people to move to states that need turning. We might even pay them to do so. Sure it's a crazy idea but we gotta do what we gotta do. 
 
7.  News organizations.  We need more than Fox. We have to get to the old people who watch the regular network losers everyday. We need magazines. We need movie makers.  I know that cons are not usually creative but we have to fight back on the media turf.  I don't understand how our folks can be so wealthy yet have such little influence in news rooms and Hollywood.
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Here's the Plan

Posted by ScarletPimpernel on Friday, November 07, 2008 11:50:16 AM
Obviously, we cons are not happy with the election of Barack Obama. We ARE happy that the moderate liberal Democrat wing of the party lost.  That part is really fun.  But I digress.  Since we cons don't hold grudges like the Loyalists do, here's what we are going to do.
 
1. We'll give the Repubs one more chance.  We will work with the mods and the Country Club repubs.  By "work with" we mean "Just do what we say if you want any power at all."
 
2. The first order of business is to elect a Chief Executive of Messages.  His or her job will be to distribute to the Party talking heads, members of Congress, and state and local members the messages, talking points, PR, strategy and spin of the Party.  There will be no straying from the plan.  No matter where a Party member is in the world, she or he will be telling the Good Folks of America the same things.  Just like the Catholic Church.  Since the messages will be true to conservative principles, there should be no fear of being a cog in the machine or any such scaredy cat thinking.
 
3. The CEM will instinctively know what the messages should be because he actually believes in conservative principles. The CEM will communicate with highly organized and highly active conservative groups in each state who represent the broad stream of America.  These groups will be made up of ALL income level and background level Americans.  It will be NO respector of MONEY.  The CEM will have trusted and vetted staff to help him or her.
 
4. Leaders will be chosen as customary.  There will be a chain of command and group leadership responsiblity. They will be judged by wins and losses as well as whether they stick to the platform in their pursuit of winning. 
 
5. Those members who want to stray will be asked to leave the Party and go form their own.  They can go hang out with Joe Lieberman.
 
6. The NRP will not demonize the Dem/lib party members in Congress - no matter how ridiculous and worthy of scorn they are.  We can point out their "challenges" and "foibles" in a serious way or a humorous way or somewhere in between. We must be specific in our charges. If we wanted to link Dodd to the Insurance and Home Mortgage fiasco, let's connect the dots for the Good Folks of America. The charge must be repeated often over a long period of time if it is to sink in with the Good Folks of America. Otherwise it looks like we are not serious or that we are desperate.
 
7. The NRP will go after lawbreakers and code violators with zeal.  Protection will not be afforded by the Party to any member that embarasses it. A Zero Tolerance Policy will be in place from Day 1.  
 
8. Ronald Reagan's 11th  Commandment will be followed.  All disagreements and complaints will be handled internally by a series of options until, ulitmately it gets to the Star Chamber of Justice.  The first option is that the two sides work it out amongst themselves. Then they can go to the two witnesses in front of a judge model from Hebrew Old Testament times to see who is right.  They can appeal to a jury of their peers next. Then the final option is the Star Chamber. The Chamber will consist of five members who will serve 8 year terms starting on an election year.  The loser in the Star Chamber has to pay all costs and resign his or her post for a three year minimum time frame.
 
9. New ideas and differing opinions and strategies will be welcome in the NRP.  Ideas will be formally submitted to the Master of Principles.  If it passes muster it will be passed up the food chain of various committees until it reaches the CEM and then passed back down for public consumption.  If the NRP is going to put its seal of approval on something it is going to be high quality stuff.
 
10. The NRP will aggressively seek out and financially back and train conservatives of all creeds and color.  The future does not look bright for an all-white party (even if it is just a perception).
 
11. The NRP will be open to all conservatives regardless of religious background or beliefs. Unless they love going to madrasses. We are not crazy.  Any NRP member who constantly harasses or mocks other NRP members of different faiths and practices will be banished to Kosland.  
 
12. The New Republican Party, NRP, will learn how to do politics.  It will no longer be satisfied knowing that it is right and everyone else is wrong. This is egotistical and impractical.  Here are some things it must do to attract the most votes:
         a. See talking points and organization above
 
         b. Make our points and idealogy perfectly clear to the Good Folks of America. Anyone who cannot speak in public in a genuine
            manner will not be allowed to speak. They can still hold office but will only speak in short spurts and only with a teleprompter or
            ventriloquist nearby.  Or they can work behind the scenes.
 
         c. The speaker will expound on our ideas and plans. They no longer will utter sound bites and think that will do the trick.
            Extrapolation, homilies, folksy stories, anecdotes, Aesops Fables, practical outcomes, humor, wit, jokes and any other attracting
            mechanizms will be used to get folks to pay attention.  Pie charts and real life examples are preferred.  Bi-Annual tests and yearly
            evaluations will be made of all Party representatives. Those who score below 90% will be defunded. 
 
         d. Put some moral and spiritual issues on the back back burner on the stove that is in the shed out back behind the big rock pile.    
            Only God saves souls. We servants of the Lord can only spread the Gospel and BE A MODEL for others. Remember, the 
            point is NEVER to get others to AGREE WITH YOU ABOUT YOUR FAITH. The goal is to plant the seed and give 
            comfort and assistance if others have questions about salvation and walking the walk. Jesus never said to do so through 
            Caesar. Amen? 
            Issues like abortion will have to be neutralized. Moral persuasion is always better than law. The idea here is to stick to things like
            taxes, freedom from so many government regulation and laws, getting out of business' way, protecting us from bad guys etc. Cons
            and other Repubs usually agree on moral issues so they don't need to be told about them again. Others do not like being told about
            moral issues because they are Americans.  Let's tell them things that they might like to hear - Getting rid of the income tax, for
            example.
 
         e. The NRP will distinguish itself from the Dem/lib party. Voters should have a choice.
 
 
Note: Some may ask, "Hey, I live in a blue state and I have to bend on this or that. Can I be part of the NRP too?" The answer is "No".  If your idea is so good, it should move right up the food chain and make it to the CEM who will pass it right back down.
         
          
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In These Times

Posted by ScarletPimpernel on Thursday, November 06, 2008 3:10:14 PM
Chapter One
Scarlet Pimpernel stood up. He got another cup of coffee. He turned up the radio. The radio guy was talking about John McCain. Mac's henchmen had started in on the woman. A FOX news reporter told the radio guy that Mac and his gang were at it again. After the whole thing burned down, the henchmen went after the woman.  Scarlet scatched a match against his three-day beard. He lit a hand rolled cigarette.
 
Chapter Two
Scarlet had a gut feeling about Mac from the beginning. It wasn't good. Hell, all one had to do to know about Mac was to look up his record.  Since 2000, Mac had undermined his own party. "Maverick" was the 2008 nominee of the party. Scarlet looked out at the wild backyard. The trees still had rust and yellow colored leaves in abundance. A fat grey squirrel sat eating a nut. "Bullsh#t" said Scarlet.  He poured two fingers of Kentucky bourbon in his tin cup.  He only had fourteen cups since lunch.  The man on the radio kept talking.
 
Chapter Three
Scarlet joined BrianR, PPhil and others at the SCDS club. The SCDS tried to warn people. They knew Mac would lose.  Mac was little different from Barack Obama, his challenger. They knew things had to change.  They were ridiculed. Bashed. Mocked. A little man barged into the club. He was named One Lukewarm Minute. He told Scarlet that Scarlet would be too cowardly to vote Third Party. Scarlet voted Third Party.  Scarlet shot One Lukewarm Minute. Scarlet was drunk. Another intruder, Sisterboy Joe, harassed PPhil for months until a Mexican knifed Joe at a bullfight in Tiajuana. PPhil and BrianR cleaned their guns at the worn and scarred oaken table.  That was Tuesday. 
 
Chapter Four
 Mac was a bad guy. He looked out for himself and nobody else. Mac attacked only Republicans. Mac went crazy when someone disagreed with him. He would cuss and talk about them to the press. Scarlet knew this. The Loyalists should have known this. The woman whom Mac had chosen to run with him did not know.  She wanted to be herself. She bucked the system. The election was over. Mac lost the election.  Now, Mac's people told reporters that the woman was dumb. Mac was his old self again.  Scarlet listened to the story. He ate some ham and eggs.
 
Chapter Five
Scarlet gave Brobuh an uppercut.  He pushed him onto the ropes and smashed a hard left to the ribs.  A straight right jab put Brobuh down. The gym was dimly lit and gray and dirty white. It smelled like a place for men without women. Scarlet lit up a cigarette. His resting pulse was forty four.  He stayed on the stool and drank his bottle of wine.  "I'm going to eat steak tonight. Rare." The old man who collected towels grunted. Scarlet thought about the story he'd heard. "The woman can't be that dumb. Those guys in Mac's camp are lying. Typical Mac."  Scarlet walked home. It was raining. The world was dark.  
 
 
 
 
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Obama Elected President (or Why Is Jesse Crying?)

Posted by ScarletPimpernel on Wednesday, November 05, 2008 10:28:21 AM
Barack Obama was elected the 44th President of these United States last night. All congratulations and best wishes go out to him.  He will have his hands full that's for certain.  His victory speech made me feel pretty confident about his stewardship of this country.  Despite being a Dem/lib, I think it is what had to happen to get us all to move on in the area of race relations AND political maturation.  Some people are of the notion that others should just get over it in regards to historical customs and legacies that supposedly have been redeemed.  Humans don't work like that - it takes time. Unfortunately for conservatives, only a Democrat who is African American has the ability to motivate some members of our society to MoveOn.  As of today (or Jan 20, 2009) many of the clingers to old notions have run out of excuses.  No more laying about and blaming the system.  This is good news to all Americans.
 
In his victory speech, Obama moved directly to the center. He told the wild left crazies to MoveOn when he said the following things:

It's the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Latino, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled — Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been a collection of red states and blue states; we are, and always will be, the United States of America.
 
and
 
There will be setbacks and false starts. There are many who won't agree with every decision or policy I make as president, and we know that government can't solve every problem. But I will always be honest with you about the challenges we face. I will listen to you, especially when we disagree.
 
and

Let us resist the temptation to fall back on the same partisanship and pettiness and immaturity that has poisoned our politics for so long. Let us remember that it was a man from this state who first carried the banner of the Republican Party to the White House — a party founded on the values of self-reliance, individual liberty and national unity. Those are values we all share, and while the Democratic Party has won a great victory tonight, we do so with a measure of humility and determination to heal the divides that have held back our progress.

As Lincoln said to a nation far more divided than ours, "We are not enemies, but friends... Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection." And, to those Americans whose support I have yet to earn, I may not have won your vote, but I hear your voices, I need your help, and I will be your president, too.
 
Which brings us to Jesse Jackson.  It was weirdly surreal, seeing him standing there, a face in the crowd.  Wasn't he supposed to be onstage, sharing the spotlight?  And he was crying.  The cynic might say it was for effect. Maya Angelou knows why the caged bird sings and we all know why Jesse was crying.  He just might have lost his job as a professional race baiter.  More good news.

 
 
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Free Elections Not So Bad

Posted by ScarletPimpernel on Saturday, November 01, 2008 1:09:02 PM
I voted early yesterday.  It took three and a half hours from start to finish.  Here in my neck of Georgia, that was not bad.  The first place I went, the line was a mile long. I'm not even exaggerating this time. I've been running a lot these days and eyeballed it at a mile. So I drove north thinking that fewer people would drive to the outskirts of the county to vote.  Well, I was half right. The line was only a half mile long.  Coincidentally, the three and a half hour time was my best time for a half mile:) 
 
I found the end of the line and said hello to the three people standing in front of me: an older black man who turned out to be a school bus driver;  a younger black man who was wearing a company jacket and work boots; and in between them a white woman in her late twenties who looked like she worked in a school system or something.  She wasn't quite a hippy or a commie but I was sure by the no-frills appearance that she was most likely a Dem/lib.  A few quick minutes later and several other people joined us in line:  a white guy in his late thirties, non-descript and whom I took to be a moderate by his opinions on some topics;  a good ol' boy who also turned out to be a mercenary. Yeah, no kidding. Behind him was a white woman who looked like most white women in Georgia - cheerful; and a pleasant black woman who did a lot of church work.  
 
The sky was bright blue and the temperature was close to 70 degrees. We were in a recreational park parking lot so the surroundings were pastoral. A beautiful day for voting.  We all made small talk about how we should have voted earlier and "How bout these lines?".  I joked that next time, I'm renting a wheelchair so I can go first.  There were some folks who drove up to give food and drink to their family members and friends standing in line.  There were two couples, one couple black - one couple white, who apparently called for a pizza delivery.  They toasted each other with their Cokes and grinned in their cleverness.  A few of the people around me said they had not eaten yet and should have. I helpfully suggested that I wouldn't mind at all if all the hungry people got out of line to go eat. We all laughed but no one took me up on it.
 
The good ol' boy was about 50 years old.  He was a talker and a likeable fella.  We all learned his life story in the 3 hours that we waited to get inside the building where the voting machines waited for us. Now me, I get along with everybody. Mostly. I am truly open minded.  So when this man started talking about being a merc, a former police officer involved in some notorious shoot outs, a miniature dachshund hunting dog breeder and trainer, a big game hunter who uses muzzle loaders, and competed in outdoor festival contests where he wore a loin cloth and leggings while throwing tomahawks - I didn't flinch.  I love this stuff about people.
 
He was giving the history of America's intervention in the Middle East AND the drug smuggling that went on since the 80's to the non-descript Average man behind me, who gamely conversed with him.  I put on my earphones to my walkman at this point.  Tuned out for a minute, you might say.  The non-descript guy was relieved after the first half of the wait by the pleasant black church lady who engaged the GOB the rest of the time. They traded stories and questions, and even recipes for poke salad.  I really enjoyed listening to two such disparate people passing the time so nicely.
 
I was impressed that the GOB hunted with a muzzle loader. It's next to bow hunting for fairness in my book. The not quite a committed commie hippy woman in front of me got a sour look on her face as she listened to his hunting exploits.  She tried to get the two black men to empathize with her but they didn't seem bothered by it.  See, the way I figure the scenario, the woman was either not from the country, or she denied her roots.  The black men and I were non-committal as we heard the tales of the GOB shooting black bears from his tree perch. (we couldn't help it as the GOB didn't have a volume control on his voice.)  We just smiled and talked about other things. I wanted to say to the woman, "Welcome to America". 
 
That's what made me feel really good about yesterday.  In a ten person stretch of the line we had 10 different aspects of life in America.  We had cons, Dem/libs, mods, independents.  We had Old School, both black and white. And new school thinking as well.  I saw some kids with gigantic earrings and nose rings and bad haircuts. I saw ladies in their 70's wheeling in their moms to vote.  I'm sure we all earned different salaries as well. And we are all Americans.  I am proud of our democratic republic and its free election process. What a nice day that was.  And the wait to vote for Joe Biden was all worth it...
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