Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic

Posted on 10/03/2010 by Grumpa Joe

     Free education in the USA is a joke. There is nothing free about it. We pay dearly in taxes. The education opportunity given to our children is a golden gift. They waste the gift from grades 1-12 daily. Our kids just do not get it. They are too young to get it on their own. The problem is with parents who fail to take their parental responsibility seriously.

     My own parents did not have the same opportunity that they gave me. Their formal education was at a fourth grade level. Both Mom and Dad left their homes in a foreign country to migrate to America as teenagers.  The experience of coming to a new land on your own at age sixteen is unimaginable. Yet, there were thousands of European kids coming to America for a better life. When they arrived, they did not find a friendly country. People called them greenhorns and hunkies. They stuck with others of their own nationality in order to survive.  After they settled into a community, they attended school for two reasons: first to learn the language, second to become citizens.

     What I am getting to is that they understood the value of education, and insisted that we get a good one.  My own philosophy is the same. My children’s philosophy is the same as mine. Our kids will not squander the golden gift. I made sure the kids went to good schools.  We insisted they show us their assignments, and reviewed their homework. We talked to their teachers and gave them our permission to discipline our kids when they were out of line. Every teacher they had was a caring person who was serious about his work and my kids. I am satisfied that my kids took advantage of the gift.

     What makes me upset today, is the low graduation rate and the number of kids who get out of school, and do not know how to read. I hear politicians campaigning on the promise to spend more money on education. I see Chicago schools that are a hundred years old, and in need of serious repair. I see school busses lined up to deliver kids to school. I see kids getting free breakfast and lunch. I see teachers afraid to enter a classroom because of discipline problems. I see parents who do not give a hoot about their kid’s education. I see gangs substituting for parents and family in a kid’s life.

     All of the above only makes me mad as hell. What makes me furious is when I hear about teachers who are no longer interested or capable of teaching, and the administration cannot fire them because of their tenure. Between tenure and the teachers unions, I see my tax dollars flushed down the toilet.  I recently learned that it costs $219,000.00 to fire a bad teacher in the Chicago system. As a result, the bad teachers remain in force. They ignore our kids, and waste our dollars. When they retire, they get great pensions. Our kids are screwed.

     My point is that we have to make the teacher unions give a little in order to improve the school system. Certainly, more money is not the answer.

Filed under: Biography, Cartoons, Conservative, Election, family, liberals, politics, Satire, Society | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Mega-Spoonful

Posted on 05/03/2010 by Grumpa Joe

     During my childhood, I got sick often. Usually, it was during the winter months. I missed a lot of school because of it.  Mom was beside herself trying to keep me well. She had a whole army of home remedies for most of the things I got. Vicks Vapo-Rub on the chest, hot cloths wrapped around the throat, vapor inhalation treatment s of Vicks in super hot water; she tried them all. I suffered through them all, and survived in spite of it. She heard of a new treatment from a friend. Most likely, it was one of the nuns from Our Lady of Hungary.  Out of desperation, she experimented on me. The new torture was a regular diet of castor oil. For those of you have not tried castor oil, I suggest that you get some and try swallowing a shot glass full of the stuff. If you like it, call a psychiatrist immediately.

    I was not about to take the stuff without a fight. Mom had other plans. She could not stand to do nothing. Any idea was worth a try to keep her precious little Jun-e-or healthy.  I do not remember how she ever got me to sit in a chair for her because the mind blocks out terrible things that occur in a person’s life.  Thank God for that. The first time, I probably went for it until I tasted and felt the gooey stuff in my mouth. The second time became a battle. She literally had me held in the chair while she pinched my nose closed. Of course, I enjoyed breathing, and had to open my mouth to do so. When my mouth opened, a spoonful of castor oil flooded my throat, and her hand came up under my chin to close my jaw. I had to swallow.  After that try, she did not force me to take the stuff straight anymore. Instead, she put the oil into orange juice and forced me to drink the juice. It was still terrible.

     Thankfully, I outgrew many of the childhood diseases and became healthier in spite of Mom’s homeopathic treatments. I am positive that not even one of them worked, but they made Mom feel better because she thought she was doing something to help me.

     I am telling this story because I see a parallel between my experience as a boy, and the health care proposal that is currently on the table. My mother did not have a clue as to the benefits of castor oil on my health, but she believed it would help. She also felt good about doing something as opposed to doing nothing. The difference between my own health and the massive health care bill is I outgrew my problems.  The castor oil was limited to me, not the whole country. The health care plan will affect everyone, and it will stay with us forever. If you think we’ll be able to change health care later, just look all the ineffective governmental agencies that we implemented to take care of us: Department  of Homeland Security,  Department of Energy, Department of Education, FDA, the list is endless, and they never go away.

     Health Care will never go away either. We will just become more dependent on the government .  The actual care anyone gets will erode into something that is ineffectual and useless, but it will keep on costing a fortune. Do not let them shove it down our throats because it is better than doing nothing. That is bullshit. Doing anything instead of the right thing is a feel good solution for the implementer, and useless for the people who have to swallow it.

Filed under: Biography, Cartoons, Conservative, economy, Election, family, Government, health care, Jun-e-or, liberals, Memories, politics, religion, Satire, Warm and Fuzzy | Tagged: , , | 5 Comments »

Scairy Tale

Posted on 04/03/2010 by Grumpa Joe

      . . .  between the Atlantic and Pacific called the United States of America. The people there lived in freedom. They did as they pleased, went where they wanted, surfed the internet, practiced the religion of their choice, went to school, ate what they wanted, and spoke freely. Life in the USA became so good that the common Ignorant Ones did not notice a threat coming toward them. The Ignorant Ones elected a President named Wilson who believed that the Smart Ones must care for the Ignorant Ones. Other Smart Ones followed, and built on his platform.  Another president named Roosevelt also decided the Ignorant Ones could not take care of themselves. So he gave them Social Security, and the New Deal.  

     Then, President Johnson decided the Ignorant Ones needed a Great Society, and he made sure they got it. He needed money to pay for the Great Society, so he took some back from Ignorant Ones who were getting Social Security. They will never miss it he said. It is for the good of everyone. All the Ignorant Ones will benefit, and the Smart Ones will get more.

     Along came President Clinton. He wanted to give all the Ignorant Ones a free house. Everyone should live the American Dream. He signed a law to make the banks lend money to everyone to buy a house. When the banks said “no,” to the Ignorant Ones because they could not afford it, he sent ACORN to picket until they gave in. Eventually, millions of the Ignorant Ones owned the American Dream.  Meanwhile, the Smart Ones prospered more.   

     Eventually, a silver-tongued fox named Obama spoke to the Ignorant Ones. He hypnotized them with lyrical poetry, and his smartness. They named him The One. While they were in The One’s trance, he promised to change the greatest country in the world.  “Amen,” shouted the Ignorant Ones, “Go for it.” They voted for him to be their great leader.

     The One, came into power and immediately hired Radical Ones to set his policy. Like ants on a hill, they went about changing the greatest country in the world to remove freedoms from the Ignorant Ones. The One’s lyrical speech hypnotized the Congressional Ones, and Senate Ones to vote for radical laws. All of the new laws took from the Ignorant Ones and lined the pockets of the Smart Ones. The One chastised bankers for giving themselves raises for giving the American Dream to the Ignorant Ones. He called them Fat Cats, except the banks that he kept for himself. Those banks he called “Smart Ones.”

     The USA was the most powerful country in the world, and Lesser Countries looked up to the USA. They were insanely jealous of the USA’s freedom and success. The Smart Ones said, “War is bad.” The Lesser Countries said, “Three cheers for the USA, they finally got it.” Obama said, “We must weaken the most powerful country so everyone will love us.” We need to destroy all of our nuclear weapons, and let the Lesser Countries develop their own. That way the Lesser Countries can annihilate our allies.

     The Smart Ones created new policies that destroyed jobs. The Ignorant Ones became more dependent on the Smart Ones to give them aid. The aid came from taxing the Ignorant Ones. The Ignorant Ones became slaves to the Smart Ones, and bowed before them.

     That is the story of how the Smart Ones changed the greatest country in the world into the least respected, and least powerful. The Ignorant Ones in all the Lesser Countries were happy because the Ignorant Ones in the USA were the same as in the Lesser Countries. The Ignorant Ones in the USA were sad.

     In the end, the Smart Ones lived happily ever after, while the Ignorant Ones, their Ignorant Children, their Ignorant Grandchildren, and their Ignorant Great Grandchildren worked their asses off wearily ever after.

Filed under: Cartoons, Conservative, economy, Election, family, liberals, politics, Satire, Society | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments »

Nice Kitty

Posted on 03/03/2010 by Grumpa Joe

     CATS! People either hate ’em or love ’em. They are probably the most mis-understood animal on earth. I happen to be a middle of the roader cat person. I love to kid Peggy about what I would do to her cats if she were not looking, but in reality, I wouldn’t hurt a single allergy inciting strand of  fur on their bodies. They are the most popular pet in the country.

     Just for fun, I Googled “cat phrases,” I was shocked. There is a cat phrase for every thing in the book.  Phrases are listed under the following categories: lolcat, funny cat, cat chat, cat quotes, cat sayings, cat idioms, cat poem, and cat proverbs.  I finally found the one I wanted which is “fat cat,”  under idioms. President Obama used that phrase to refer to certain Bankers who he forced to take TARP money. It seems the President is upset with the amount of money these bankers awarded themselves in bonuses.

     There is one bank, however, located in Chicago, that has the President’s favor. Why? It seems the CEO is a big Obama fund raiser. It was my belief that this kind of behaviour would be revised under the guise of “change, and hopium.” Some things never change.

Filed under: Cartoons, Conservative, economy, Election, Government, liberals, Motivation, politics | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Strings Attached

Posted on 02/03/2010 by Grumpa Joe

    Hope and Change are the hallmark campaign slogans that excited the country. So were all the promises. Most of which can never be kept. Consider the promise, not to have any lobbyists in the administration. Even I loved that one. The government is loaded with big money interests trying to buy favors. That system is exactly what the voters believed would change. It has not. Instead of lobbyists who work for capitalistic interests, we have thirty something czars on the payroll. Obama hired all of them to change the country by infiltrating and revising the procedures of the bureaucracy. How is this any different from a bunch of former government employees who know how to use the Washington ropes?

    The inside lobbyists (czars) are affecting non-capitalistic type policy. So, instead of affecting what business favors a company can get, they are affecting the liberties we enjoy. They promote ideas like manmade global warming, and propose policies to tax the polluters and give the money to third world countries. What is that all about? What about the idea, that the country becomes less dependent on foreign oil? The insider lobbyists defeat any move toward drilling that affects the environment. Instead, they push for nuclear power without any regard for how to deal with waste. Never mind that the waste remains lethal for twenty thousand years. I guess we will have to wait for the Chinese to find a way to neutralize the waste.  Also being affected are gun control, freedom of speech, your paycheck, the car you drive, health care, and more. There is a minimum of thirty-two insider lobbyists working overtime to get favors from the system. This excludes all the campaign donors like Soros who like to push the president’s buttons.

     Yesterday, I read a news item about George Soros. He thinks Obama screwed up. Soros actually condones the takeover of the banking system, and he is angry with BO for missing the opportunity. He invested a lot of money to get the boy elected, and he expects a return.

Filed under: Cartoons, Conservative, economy, Election, Government, liberals, Manufacturing, politics, Satire, Society | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

« Previous Page — Next Page »