I don’t know what is going to come out of my fingers, so today I’m going to the Boneyard to let loose what thoughts I might have so I can rest easily tonight when I finally head to bed.
It’s been a rough going with one of my nephews losing his wife to a heart attack, trying to keep gas in our second car that our teenage daughter takes great pleasure in running the tank dry, and Mary’s upcoming knee replacement surgery which everybody from friends to doctors say is one of the most painful operations there can be.
Then there is the matter that no matter how hard I work to do top stories, it now appears you and many others have a tough time finding the Website (www.sportspaper.org) where they appear.
Of course, if you have read this you found it.
I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop on our foreign policy. I took foreign policy classes in college a hundred years ago and am extremely interested in how difficult it is to maintain relationships with others around the world. I’m not fond of our President’s indecisiveness and what I perceive as weakness in him, and not only on the foreign front, but also in domestic policy, and his inability to articulate whom he really is, despite his ability to persuade people on the campaign trail to vote for him.
As I write this Monday, the world is holding its collective breath, awaiting what we will do in reaction to Syria again, apparently, using gas to kill off its citizens. The red line our President drew in the sand a long time ago has been crossed at least twice and he has yet to respond decisively.
So the world awaits. Will he order a missile strike? Will he attempt a raid to grab the stock pail of gas Syria is rumored to have?
Me, I would have reacted a long time ago. I know most of us do not want us to get involved in another war, especially one that has so many conflicting dramas to it as this one. You absolutely don’t put boots in this one. There are so many warring parties that we would not know who is friend or foe. Mostly like all of them are foes.
But for the largest and most powerful force on Earth to sit by while over 100,000 get killed and millions others displaced is wrong. We should have taken a more forceful political role a long time ago.
I believe that our President is a pleaser. He doesn’t like to be disliked so he will accommodate or negotiate away his principles to stay on the good side, and when you do that you start giving away the farm so you can maintain friendships.
He needs to be tougher. I don’t think he’s capable of it. So I wait along with the rest of you to see what will happen, if anything.
I would have gone after the Syrian air force a long time ago. We needed to neutralize that and to blow away their stockpile of missiles and isolate their stockpile of gas. Then if I had a wish, I would erect a 200-foot high, 100-foot thick iron wall around the country and let them go at it. Keep out everybody and just let the Syrian people figure it all out, or die trying
Since I can’t do walls, neutralizing the Syrian air power would be a safe way to make the fight fair. I’m afraid, though, that no matter what action or inaction we do, there is no acceptable outcome for our foreign policy. Religion plays too great a part in all of this, and much of the religion in the Middle East is not what is common in this country. So whatever religious sect ends up winning, we will likely be losers.
As for Egypt, as long as the Muslim Brotherhood is downsized and kept at bay, it’s likely we come out winners. But if the Brotherhood ever gets hold of power again, it doesn’t look good for us or for Israel.
And forget the backlash against us backing off a freely elected government. We just can’t allow the Brotherhood to gain another foothold that will lead to a Muslin controlled country. The people there voted the Brotherhood in office because they didn’t want anybody associated with Hosi Mubarak holding office. And the Brotherhood was well organized, and had waited for decades to get the chance to gain office. They got it and were on their way to putting a tight hold on freedom when the military said enough was enough.
So much for George W Bush’s aim to bring democracy to the Middle East. It’s almost impossible to bring democracy to those who have never experienced it, at least as we know it.
I was watching House Hunters on TV last night and a young couple had a budget of $1.7 million to find a house. I could not believe, first of all, that a young 20-some couple would have access to that much money, and, second, that they were so picky over little things at the three houses they were shown.
Mary and I were thinking there are millions of people in this country that would be satisfied with a house that just had a roof and this couple was so bratty and so spoiled that I finally had to give up and walk out of the room.
I’m reading a book that goes into depth about people who die and somehow come back alive (out of body experience) and report what they have seen on the “other side.” I’m fascinated about what life is like after our life here ends. And, from what I have read over the years, I have a pretty good clue to what it is like.
What I’m afraid of is there are things I have said and done that I’m not too proud of, and once again have come to the conclusion I’m going to be in for a rough time when I get my life review.
So from here on out I’m going to make a concerted effort to be a lot better so that maybe I’ll just get a small slap on my wrist instead of a full punch in the stomach.
Well, the football season is upon us. That means for me the Seattle Times Guest Guesser and a chance once again to finish among the top 100,000 or so (give or take a few hundred thousand one way or the other) and a chance to get out and see local high school games. I think it’s about time one of our teams makes it to a state title game, but to be honest I don’t see that happening this year.
But that’s all right. It’s nice to get out in the crisp autumn air once again and be able to relive my youth when I played football. We almost always lost, but it was fun to experience the fear of that first hit and then cowboy up and get tough, albeit usually with tears in my eyes.
What I remember most from those days is getting the ball (I was a quarterback), turning around and getting killed by about five or six defensive players. I don’t think I ever completed a pass. I could throw the football a country mile, but there was nobody fast enough to get under it.
So it goes.
Be well pal.
Be careful out there.
Have a great day.
You are loved.