tes

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Trump - What’s Next - Bin Laden Not Dead?

#808 - What’s next for Donald Trump aka the “Trumpster”? Does anybody watch his ridiculous show on NBC? Not in my world. I wouldn’t give him or any of his products or properties the right time of day. His brand has rusted. He’s made a fool out of himself, he knows it, and the press and our President have done an outstanding job of reinforcing it. I try to find some redeeming value in everyone, but I’m hard pressed to find anything positive about him. I think it is a credit to the stupidity and prejudice of the Tea Party wing of the extreme Republican right to keep Trump in their favor. Give ‘em the old razzle dazzle Trump, I’m sure, is thinking overtime, probably in the morning, when he’s getting his comb straightened and styled, about how to get right again with the public.

I’d give it a few more days, but since the Trumpster just can’t help himself, I’m quite sure he’s going to ask for – insist on - proof of the Bin Laden assassination. This is really no different than the birth certificate fiasco. And, Obama is going to release something – a photo or tape – with proof that Bin Laden, in fact, is dead – after Trump continues to press him on it. The President will do it to calm the Trumpster, his followers and the media down and end the debate and Trump will, again, declare himself a (Charlie Sheen) winner. It’s all a game. For all we know, the President and Trump are organizing this whole thing behind closed doors together. Perhaps it will all come out in a movie some day.

The government – that is “our” government - does itself no good when their story changes from day to day about what happened in the Bin Laden compound. One helicopter had mechanical problems, then it was hit by small arms fire – then the soldiers blew it up, but then a crucial top secret piece was left or was it? The media, with no journalists to speak of anymore to determine what really happened, is being led around by a carrot on a stick. There was resistance, then there was only one guy with a gun, then one of the wife’s stood in the way, or was it a human shield, a woman from somewhere who just happened to be in the bedroom. Bin Laden’s son – one of them – was shot and killed, but where is that body? Where’s everyone else?

There was an intense fire fight, then there wasn’t. The troops spent most of the 45 minutes on the ground collecting information and hardware or was it 20 minutes? Bin Laden was armed and fired, but then he had no weapon, perhaps a rifle behind him, but then resisted and was shot twice in the eye, above the eye, one in the eye one in the head, or did they hit him over the head with his shoe? Why wasn’t the compound blown up after the soldiers left? Why leave it for people to swarm in and around it? Why wasn’t the women or the wife taken back to the ship or wherever our guys came from? Why leave her to the incompetent Pakistani’s?

OK, kudos to the President, but for goodness sakes, here we go again – this was the problem with the health care bill – the information is not being managed properly. The CIA director is on the news saying one thing and the President is saying something else. Why is the CIA director talking to anyone? Why didn’t the President just order everyone to shut up and he’ll be the mouthpiece for the government. His press secretary is terrible. I thought the first guy was bad but this new guy just does not communicate the message of the White House, at all.

Get the message straight. Stop changing the story. Stick to the facts. The President jokingly said the Trumpster is going to move on to insist on proof of the moon landing. He also made some reference to rappers, that I don’t understand, nor care to. But, in this case, that is the killing of Bin Laden, I think we all need more evidence, and I don’t care if Trumps champions the cause for it or not.

Technorati Tags: Trump,President,Bin Laden,Obama,Osama bin laden,media,news,CIA,journalism,life off the road,Donald Trump

One less loser + They're Married!

#807 - Well, greetings all. It's a good morning. I have one less loser to deal with in my life and I feel good. I did wake up early to catch the Royal wedding. I turned on the "tele" just as the young couple was being pronounced man and wife. I thought it interesting that the NBC, more than a few times, showed Elton John and his wife - or husband. I don't know what they call each other. There were no other shots of any other entertainers or celebrities. What was that all about? I also listened closely to the words of the various religious men presiding over the ceremony with regards to love, respect, children, etc., and wonder about the divorce rate here in the U.S. and around the world. The words from these robed "learned" men are in fact, just a bunch of words - they sound nice and might have meant something in the past, but except to only a few, are meaningless to the rest of civilization in this day and age. I wonder if marriage "until we die" should be changed to "if at such date, perhaps five years from now, if we still can stand each other, we'll renew our vows". Of course, when I got married, we changed our vows to "forever and ever" so you might say I'm really in it for the long haul. The photo is by Alistar Grant of the Associated Press/AP

Censorship is Cowardice…

Professionals have to deal with a wide variety of individuals over the course of their career. You will encounter people who are jealous of your talents, education and experience. This is a problem I am having right now. I have given this person an “out”, but it fell on deaf ears and so the war has begun.

It is hard to reason with a ex-drug addict, someone who failed miserably as a owner/operator of his own truck – a person with limited education and professional experience with an insignificant job. If you’ve studied World War 2, you know that the Nazi’s murdered millions of innocents. They put into power a person like I’m dealing with and they were technocrats. They oversaw censorship in all aspects of the society that was the Third Reich. They put up roadblocks to plug the “normal” flow of communications. They took over the press and put the reports and journalists in prison. The French and Italians also had to contend with such “little” people. They were cowards.

This is the kind of person who now has come into my life. It is unfortunate, and the timing couldn’t been worse, but I don’t succumb to censorship, especially by someone who should be seen and not heard. This person could never hope to be either as good as me or my equal, but I have put up with him because it was good for my curriculum vitae. He had created a positive avenue for discussion and opinion of a rather dull mature industry, but it soured. He snapped over an insignificant issue, unimportant in the scheme of things, listened to detractors and commenter's with even less education, experience and talent than he, and so the castle will eventually crumble.

What a waste. But life goes on. Superior individuals, like myself, must press on and will prevail. I write the truth. I am not interested in what others think. I write for me and nobody else. I have never accepted advertising and no comments are allowed on this or any of my other blogs. I invite you to read, learn and think about what I say. I guarantee, it will make you a better person.

Technorati Tags: trucking,life on the road,life off the road,censorship in blogging,censorship,owner operators failing,cowardice

The Birth Certificate…

This whole birth certificate affair with the President, intensified recently, by Donald Trump, has not made me despise Trump any less, no, in fact, it has made me hate him even more. I believe it was a Nike commercial with the message that the real heroes in our world are NOT athletes, rich bloviating businessmen (like Trump) or performance artists. The real heroes are parents, cops, firemen, judges, the military, just to name a few. These are the folks to be looked up to and followed. Our media needs to devote more time to them than the rich and famous. 

I happen to be one of those people that couldn't care less if President Obama was born here in the U.S. or not. I also don't care if he is a Christian or a Muslim. Perhaps if he had cheated on his wife, I would care, because it would (your honor) go to the question of his character, or lack thereof. But the rest of it - citizenship or religion - no. I judge the man solely on his performance. His job is to improve and protect the democracy, and so far to date, he hasn't done such a bad job. Certainly, that last guy, Bush, was a disaster.

Yes, yes, the President can do better. There’s not a person on this planet that can’t. I would have wanted to see Guantanamo closed, a better national health care program in effect sooner and our "involvement" in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and Pakistan brought to an end last year. The larger problem here is not the President, it is the Congress, comprised, as The New York Times so aptly put it, by cowards.

But what now? What’s the next diversion from our problems coming ‘round the corner? Who is the next fool  - the next BT Barnum - to come along and use their own self-interests and financial resources to get the media to shine their light on them away from what’s really important. Perhaps we need another conspiracy, yeah, why this birth certificate from Hawaii isn’t real – it was made up. Forged by Muslin conspirators who have planned to overthrow the government decades ago and have been “breeding” Obama in Africa until he was ready to be sent to the U.S. to be elected President of the free world.

The whole Ivy League and Harvard Law thing never happened either. All the transcripts were made up and put in the computer by expert terrorist hackers funded by Saudi Arabia. Isn’t this fun? Forget the deficit, health care and the 3 wars – hey this sure makes better news on FOX. Trump, with his bad comb-over, alcoholic big nose and millions of dollars in “Apprentice” television money is great for ratings. Do you recall the tsunami in Japan and the nuclear fall-out? What the heck ever happened with that? I’ll tell you, it wasn’t fun. Too complicated, too confusing for Americans. Maybe they should extend out the NFL season or have a separate summer league so people won’t have to deal with the high gas prices, the miserable weather or whatever else happens this summer.

Technorati Tags: birth certificate,Obama,Congress,Trump,media,news,heroes

AMERICA IS NOT BROKE!

Is the Food Network Destroying the Art of Cooking?

"Cooking is an art and patience a virtue... Careful shopping, fresh ingredients and an unhurried approach are nearly all you need. There is one more thing - love. Love for food and love for those you invite to your table. With a combination of these things you can be an artist - not perhaps in the representational style of a Dutch master, but rather more like Gauguin, the naïve, or Van Gogh, the impressionist. Plates or pictures of sunshine taste of happiness and love." Keith Floyd

The whole concept of the art of cooking being turned into a circus side show with whiny cook wanna-bees (I so hesitate to use the term "chef" in deference to all the real chefs out there) and unknown and quite frankly, unqualified judges, is just deplorable to me. 

This does not apply to Iron Chef America and a show like Bobby Flay's Throwdown both of which do offer enough light entertainment and demonstration of some unique skill and artistry for me that make them tolerable and fun to watch while trying to relax and go to sleep. 

But, new Food Network shows like Chopped are destroying the art of cooking. 

And, I might add. the host, Ted Allen, formerly of the show Queer Eye, is simply terrible. I watched Queer Eye and his contribution to the show was minimal if not unnoticeable. He was transparent. And now to hire him a Food Network "hour" passing him off as some "expert" in cooking is insane. Maybe I could accept him as a judge, as is his part-time gig on Iron Chef America, but I barely can tolerate him in that role. His education is in psychology and journalism and he has experience as a freelance food critic and magazine editor. He gained exposure working in the shadow of Queer Eye's real star, Carson Cressley. I think of him as a fat-free potato chip with no taste and no character for anyone to take him seriously.


The Food Network is after ratings. Nothing else matters to them. What else in new in television. But I do not enjoy watching any show about food and cooking where their is stress, anxiety and disappointment as the primary focus of the production. That is not what cooking and eating are all about. Everything does not have to be about a competition or a car chase or vampires or tears or whatever other nonsense is presented to us as "quality" entertainment. It is not and never will be. The Food Network belittles their desired demographic with what essentially is crap television. Chopped is the perfect example of that. 


A favorite of mine, Anthony Bourdain writes in Michael Ruhlman's excellent blog at: http://ruhlman.com/ - "I actually watch Food Network now and again, more often than not drawn in by the progressive horrors on screen. I find myself riveted by its awfulness, like watching a multi-car accident in slow motion. Mesmerized at the ascent of the ready-made bobble head personalities, and the not-so-subtle shunting aside of the old school chefs, I find myself de-constructing the not-terrible shows, imagining behind the scenes struggles and frustrations, and obsessing unhealthily on the truly awful ones."

So I'm obviously not alone in my feelings toward the Food Network. Enough with the cheesy competitions of amateurs. I don't care if a cook-chef too-be will be the only African-American in his family to ever do whatever this contestant was whining about. Or the short fat and sweaty chef with the middle-class Neew Yorka accent believing he should prevail because he is older than the others and has switched careers and seems to thing he deserves some success for this efforts. Who cares? I cannot muster enough emotion for any of these people to pass them the salt let alone to consider them for some sort of prize after the old guy screwed up a plain hot dog by schmering it with too much molasses and then burning it.


So, what are these people thinking? Do "they" not realize they're taking the art of cooking right into the toilet? Is a show like Chopped supposed to be fun, or entertaining, educational perhaps, or maybe culinary reality television? Does the Food Network think it is something "we" should not take too seriously and consider it some type of light entertainment? I can't be sure. But, they've missed the mark. It accomplishes nothing. It is a waste of our time.

Hey, hey, hey - no Coco Cay...

I just don't get it. Maybe it's because I've been to so many great beaches from those off the China Sea to California to Florida. Royal Caribbean pushes their "private" island beach called Coco Cay - big time. And so we went.

It was my wife's second time there, although the first time she was with a group of Q-tips that were afraid to wear their flowered swim suits and didn't go in the water. It had nothing to do with what I discovered.

That being rocks. And rocks. And more rocks. Gazillions of them. Not little rocks - big ones. And unless you wear your Wal-Mart steel toe work boots, you will spend the next two days dealing with your very sore feet. So bad in fact that it can and will ruin your cruise.

Cove Cay is not a beach like Clearwater Beach, FL. Clearwater has soft hot white sand and you can walk out into the Gulf never touching anything but the passing or floating sea weed. There are little shells, no rocks, and they will not hurt your feet. And the water is clearer than Coco Cay.

I recommend you get off the ship and take the "tender" to Coco Cay - have a light lunch - which is free - and then go back to the ship. It's an enjoyable short trip and the water is amazingly blue. Give you and your partner about an hour for the "excursion."

Spend the rest of your day, which is usually the last day of the cruise, poolside sampling one or two of the excellent Royal Caribbean specialty drinks. That's exactly what my wife and I did - then went back to our 6th floor stateroom and then went to an outstanding dinner.

For the record, I do have my own photos of Coco Cay and will post them in a day or so.

FYI - Three Blogs

Acourtesyflush was my original blog which I started back in 2006. I've written 760 posts and just recently have reactivated it with a new focus on lifestyle, travel, tech and food - all of which are passions of mine. I also continue my writing for http://lifeontheroad.com/ which reflects my ongoing role as an commentator on the trucking industry. At some point, hopefully sooner than later, I plan a transition to the technical writing field, and so I've created a new blog called http://techwriterone.blogspot.com/. I hope you will check all three out. On the drawing board is a blog geared toward folks 50+ changing careers and lifestyles. I'll let you know when it's up and running. Enjoy.

Royal Caribbean - Monarch of the Seas

Simply the best cruise ever. It was our 30th wedding anniversary and we could not have chosen a better venue to celebrate it. More details on this later.

Working on a new design...

to get the site back up and running. I'll be concentrating on travel, health and lifestyle topics. As usual, you can find me posting almost daily over at  http://lifeontheroad.com/ on trucking issues. Chris and I will be leaving the end of this week for Nassau and I'll report on our trip there. We're always asked why if you live in Florida do you need to travel to the Bahamas or Mexico. The reason is this - twenty years ago we moved down here from the New York - New Jersey area to escape the 'rat race.' Unfortunately 'it' followed up down here. Once and in a while it is necessary for us to go to a place, albeit for only a few day,s that has 'less' rat race. To us, that is on a Carnival or Royal Caribbean cruise to the Caribbean or Mexico. This time, we'll also be celebrating our 30th wedding anniversary.