Your are reading the blog Random Observations from Dallas.
Showing posts with label Rick Perry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rick Perry. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Friday, November 18, 2011
Texas Overtakes California In Nut Production
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Monday, November 14, 2011
Consider Perry's Prayers
Rating for this letter writer: Unrated because having read and re-read this letter repeatedly I am not entirely sure what the author is wanting us to understand
Author: Daniel Younger, Itasca
"Consider Perry's prayers"
Out of all those we see running for president, none is perfect.
However, I hold a lot of respect for Gov. Rick Perry and the way he was quick to humble himself before our creator and call for a day of prayer as we faced the out-of-control fires in Texas.
You can look back through history and see the effects from leaders who called for a day of payer when we were in crises.
In the early 1950s, we were suffering from a severe drought. There was a group of people at Waco who had hired a "rainmaker," and that was the year that tornados hit downtown Waco and many lives were lost.
Hmmmmm. Well, I thought a good long while on whether to condemn, praise or otherwise characterize your letter Mr. Younger. But, in the end, a letter to the newspaper that seems to suggest humbling oneself in public prayer is found to be of credit to a political candidate just begs out for me to comment on it solely on the basis of content, even when your overall message seems muddled to say the least.
First things first. Finding a politician engaged in public prayer during a campaign is about as remarkable as finding that it's cold in Winter and tells us just about as much about Mr. Perry's character as saying he's to be admired because he wears sensible shoes. If you find this generates in you enough respect to set him above the admittedly less than perfect candidates, you are easily impressed.
You say we can look back through history and see the effects of leaders who called for a day of prayer when we were in crises. Indeed we can. Type such a search in Google and you'll get a list of references to public prayer events too long to even begin to fathom. What I could not find was any reports of the "effects" of these prayer events. Could you be so kind as to give me a list of the relevant prayer events side by side with their effects? I'd like to know which approaches to arranging and conducting these events seems most effective in actually producing the stated purpose.
However, I would like to point out that Adolph Hitler made multiple appeals to The Almighty and HE certainly got the intended results. The greatest of these events took place in a place called Nuremberg. The results of these public appeals were so astonishing the Allies chose Nuremberg as the site for trials of Nazi's and what we can only presume were also The Almighty's justice here on earth.
I'm not sure what you mean us to gain from the "rainmaker" and "tornado" connection. Are you suggesting that they got a death-dealing tornado instead of rain because they should have been praying rather than "hiring" the work out to a contractor?
People pray for many things and have good motivations in doing so. I recommend prayer in fact; but on a one on one basis with God, in private. God's will is not a popularity contest and his good benefices do not depend on a minimum number of requests. All public prayer is suspect and should be. Letting everyone else know that you are praying for the same thing they are causes me to wonder what is to be gained from demonstrating one's needs for Divine intervention in public, when the need for intervention or relief is obvious in the first place.
So, here in public let me chastise you just a bit by giving you Matthew 6 versus 5 through 7.
- 5. And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites [are]: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.
- 6. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.
- 7. But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen [do]: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.
God hears the prayers of every single soul regardless of their place on earth, their place in the public eye but least of all their place in a crowd.
Finally, humbling oneself before one's creator is indeed a great virtue. Humility is in fact a virtue we should all practice with greater frequency. The fact that Gov. Perry chose to publicly demonstrate his humbling in public suggests to me he practices humility in private to a very much lesser degree.
Saturday, November 12, 2011
2012: Death of the Republican Party
Let me make the following predictions and anyone who cares to look back after the 2012 Presidential election can shake my hand or take me to task in whatever manner they choose suitable.
President Barack Obama will be elected to a second term.
Democrats will control both the Senate and House of Representatives from 2012 and through the 2014 mid-terms elections.
Reasoning: The living breathing Republican Party died with the choice of Newt Gingrich as the Speaker of the House of Representatives. Unfortunately, no one felt responsible for providing a respectful burial for the body politic known as the Republican Party and since it's self-inflicted suicide the corpse has lain in the streets, rotting and festering, waiting for its "Weekend at Bernie's" revival. Despite the intervention of high-profile clerics such as Robert Jeffress, at First Baptist Church in Dallas, no resurrection is in sight.
Why do I say this? It is a purely rational evaluation of the "emotional" comments I find in the news. Within the past few weeks the author of a letter to the editors of The Dallas Mornings said something to the effect that watching the Republican debates without Rick Perry was like watching Gilligan's Island without Gilligan. Then the ABC Evening News reported that a survey of likely Republican voters revealed that the respondents were at the point where they were willing to look past the character and previous performance of the likely Republican candidates in order to find a candidate. Then multiple reports on local and state election results which indicate that "contrary" voters, likely to fall into the Republican camp have ousted incumbents and "single-issue" candidates in favor or candidates with broader views on solutions to what ails our nation.
In my mind, this is what the Republican candidates, debates, and appeal to likely voters looks like.
It's a train wreck we can't take out eyes off.
Watching the Republican debates without Rick Perry is something like Gilligan's Island, except instead of missing Gilligan, what is missing is the island. The Republican candidates are like the survivors off a sunken ship treading water, waiting for the sharks to pick off everyone else and leave one of them the victor by default.
I see the forces that direct the shape and direction of the Republican Party as something like actuaries at an insurance company. They have refined the pool of available insured, through exclusion of the unworthy and risky, to the point that the cost of insurance is now spread across so shallow a pool that those still in the pool can't afford it. Hence, those die-hard "I'm a Republican" voters now must pay the high price of looking past the candidates' obvious defects in order to remain true to their Republican straight-jacket.
Let's look at the potential candidates as they bob and weave, rise and fall, pop up and then down like the children's game in which one hits the head of one wooden peg to force it down only to find by doing so they have caused another wooden peg to resurface.
Let's start with the latest of those star rising in the polls - Newt Gingrich. This is the architect who redesigned the House of Representatives along partisan lines, through absolute adherence to the party line, to the point that compromise became the equivalent of treason. This man is un-electable to the point that President Obama could vacation between now and November 2012 and still be re-elected.
Mitt Romney. Suspected by all sides for good reason. Will he sell out the middle ground now in order to be elected or will he sell out the far-right in order to govern once elected. This is a candidacy built on the shifting sands of left-wing, right-wing politics, attempting to built a bridge between them, without ever touching the solid ground between them. Sorry Mitt, but you are not Santiago Calatrava. It is not pretty to see.
Michele Bachmann. Who knew she was a numerologist and that by simply turning 9-9-9 upside down could find the devil in Herman Cain. Enough said, this woman would put her name and imprint on anything, including a writ of indentured servitude for her mother, if she thought it would help her chances of being elected. I used to be embarrassed that I lived in the state that had elected Rick Perry governor four times in a row. No, longer. I now feel superior to the voters from Minnesota that elected this one-horse rodeo as their best choice for the 6th District in Minnesota.
Ron Paul. Please, please, please keep your candidacy alive through any means possible. You are the Ralph Nader of this election. Siphon off enough Republican voters and you will have a life-long position on the "public speakers" rubber-chicken fund raising circuit.
Rick Perry. Hang you heads in shame Texas voters [members of Minnesotsa's 6th District set aside for the moment] this is your Governor. Let's see what comments come extemporaneously to mind. Brevity is the soul of the (nit) wit. I'd rather remain silent and thought a fool than open my mouth and confirm the fact; except you did indeed open your mouth and the fact was confirmed. Here is a man who would have us elect him to the highest office in the land on the basis of his ability to create jobs but can't remember the name of the department he would wish to eliminate (The Energy Department) So, let's increase employment by putting the approximately 16,000 highly-educated and trained in the employment lines. No matter, he can't remember where they came from so they must not count.
Herman Cain. Christ on his cross bless you. Could you commit such excess anywhere else but in the public eye? How many attorneys and advisers did it take to confirm that you could "reject" but not "deny" the information in the EEOC complaint against you? Remember folks, this is a guy to whom expediency means everything. Can't get a confession you want from an innocent detainee? Well, let's see if this pistol held next to your head doesn't get us what we need. Your posturing brings to mind the Christmas carol "I Heard The Bells on Christmas Day." God is not not dead nor doth he sleep. The wrong shall fail and right prevail. On your knees in fervent prayer all you heathens, "God save us from Herman Cain."
I watched the first election and judicial appointment of the second President Bush from outside the country and like the Dixie Chicks held my head in shame. Then I watched the 2008 election from the comfort of my den and cheered out loud though there was no one there to hear. This coming 2012 election I plan to watch in a very public place, like a sports bar turned Election Central for the evening, and scream out loud "I told you so."
President Barack Obama will be elected to a second term.
Democrats will control both the Senate and House of Representatives from 2012 and through the 2014 mid-terms elections.
Reasoning: The living breathing Republican Party died with the choice of Newt Gingrich as the Speaker of the House of Representatives. Unfortunately, no one felt responsible for providing a respectful burial for the body politic known as the Republican Party and since it's self-inflicted suicide the corpse has lain in the streets, rotting and festering, waiting for its "Weekend at Bernie's" revival. Despite the intervention of high-profile clerics such as Robert Jeffress, at First Baptist Church in Dallas, no resurrection is in sight.
Why do I say this? It is a purely rational evaluation of the "emotional" comments I find in the news. Within the past few weeks the author of a letter to the editors of The Dallas Mornings said something to the effect that watching the Republican debates without Rick Perry was like watching Gilligan's Island without Gilligan. Then the ABC Evening News reported that a survey of likely Republican voters revealed that the respondents were at the point where they were willing to look past the character and previous performance of the likely Republican candidates in order to find a candidate. Then multiple reports on local and state election results which indicate that "contrary" voters, likely to fall into the Republican camp have ousted incumbents and "single-issue" candidates in favor or candidates with broader views on solutions to what ails our nation.
In my mind, this is what the Republican candidates, debates, and appeal to likely voters looks like.
It's a train wreck we can't take out eyes off.
Watching the Republican debates without Rick Perry is something like Gilligan's Island, except instead of missing Gilligan, what is missing is the island. The Republican candidates are like the survivors off a sunken ship treading water, waiting for the sharks to pick off everyone else and leave one of them the victor by default.
I see the forces that direct the shape and direction of the Republican Party as something like actuaries at an insurance company. They have refined the pool of available insured, through exclusion of the unworthy and risky, to the point that the cost of insurance is now spread across so shallow a pool that those still in the pool can't afford it. Hence, those die-hard "I'm a Republican" voters now must pay the high price of looking past the candidates' obvious defects in order to remain true to their Republican straight-jacket.
Let's look at the potential candidates as they bob and weave, rise and fall, pop up and then down like the children's game in which one hits the head of one wooden peg to force it down only to find by doing so they have caused another wooden peg to resurface.
Let's start with the latest of those star rising in the polls - Newt Gingrich. This is the architect who redesigned the House of Representatives along partisan lines, through absolute adherence to the party line, to the point that compromise became the equivalent of treason. This man is un-electable to the point that President Obama could vacation between now and November 2012 and still be re-elected.
Mitt Romney. Suspected by all sides for good reason. Will he sell out the middle ground now in order to be elected or will he sell out the far-right in order to govern once elected. This is a candidacy built on the shifting sands of left-wing, right-wing politics, attempting to built a bridge between them, without ever touching the solid ground between them. Sorry Mitt, but you are not Santiago Calatrava. It is not pretty to see.
Michele Bachmann. Who knew she was a numerologist and that by simply turning 9-9-9 upside down could find the devil in Herman Cain. Enough said, this woman would put her name and imprint on anything, including a writ of indentured servitude for her mother, if she thought it would help her chances of being elected. I used to be embarrassed that I lived in the state that had elected Rick Perry governor four times in a row. No, longer. I now feel superior to the voters from Minnesota that elected this one-horse rodeo as their best choice for the 6th District in Minnesota.
Ron Paul. Please, please, please keep your candidacy alive through any means possible. You are the Ralph Nader of this election. Siphon off enough Republican voters and you will have a life-long position on the "public speakers" rubber-chicken fund raising circuit.
Rick Perry. Hang you heads in shame Texas voters [members of Minnesotsa's 6th District set aside for the moment] this is your Governor. Let's see what comments come extemporaneously to mind. Brevity is the soul of the (nit) wit. I'd rather remain silent and thought a fool than open my mouth and confirm the fact; except you did indeed open your mouth and the fact was confirmed. Here is a man who would have us elect him to the highest office in the land on the basis of his ability to create jobs but can't remember the name of the department he would wish to eliminate (The Energy Department) So, let's increase employment by putting the approximately 16,000 highly-educated and trained in the employment lines. No matter, he can't remember where they came from so they must not count.
Herman Cain. Christ on his cross bless you. Could you commit such excess anywhere else but in the public eye? How many attorneys and advisers did it take to confirm that you could "reject" but not "deny" the information in the EEOC complaint against you? Remember folks, this is a guy to whom expediency means everything. Can't get a confession you want from an innocent detainee? Well, let's see if this pistol held next to your head doesn't get us what we need. Your posturing brings to mind the Christmas carol "I Heard The Bells on Christmas Day." God is not not dead nor doth he sleep. The wrong shall fail and right prevail. On your knees in fervent prayer all you heathens, "God save us from Herman Cain."
I watched the first election and judicial appointment of the second President Bush from outside the country and like the Dixie Chicks held my head in shame. Then I watched the 2008 election from the comfort of my den and cheered out loud though there was no one there to hear. This coming 2012 election I plan to watch in a very public place, like a sports bar turned Election Central for the evening, and scream out loud "I told you so."
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