Hey, y'all!
Dub Dubberly here with a quick tidbitty roundup of some of the stuff rattling around in my brain.
Thought #1
How bout that Greece? I don't mean that stuff from the pig we got cookin' in our meat pit, I mean that country over there near that Middlerainian Sea. I think they're being drove to the broke house, and somehow that's causing my 401k retirement plan at work to slide towards the ditch.
So is them Greeks spending too much while owing too much? Probably. But I do know that what they call austerity, starving people out, don't always work too good. Seems to me you gots to grow your way to success. If you cut off your leg, than you can't walk so good.
Take a look at World War One. We won that good, and we made them Germans pay big time money to make up for the damage they did. They got poor and cornered, angry and vicious, and it allowed the ground for the Nazis to build their evil on.
Take a look at World War Two. Yeah, we beat them Nazis big time, but then we done one of the smartest things we ever done. Instead of spanking 'em financially, we gave them the Marshall plan, and helped them build back their economies, with democracy and capitalism and Coca-Cola and blue jeans and stuff. And now both Germany and Japan are strong democracies, contributing to the stability of the world. And we keep getting some pretty good beer, too.
So I want Greece to be responsible, but I don't want to inspire no more Nazis and the like. It's a tough balancing act. I may not have the palavering skills necessary to do it, but I hope we don't get someone like Trump in there, insulting Greeks like the way he did Mexicans.
Thought #2
Yeah, I love the South. I love my heritage. It's true. My great great Grandfather fought for the Confederacy. He had some wrongheaded ideas about who was a proper person and who wasn't, but even with that, he had some good traits. He was good to his family. He loved his home state of Alabama (our family didn't move to Texas until the 1890s). He whittled wooden toys and gave them to all the children, slave and free alike.
So am I proud of my ancestors? You betcha bottom dollar! But I'm smart enough to know they weren't perfect. They were fighting for something that kept people enslaved, that didn't think everybody was equal in God's eye. I don't care what year it is - that's just plain wrong.
So I think the Confederate flag, the one adopted and promoted in the fifties and sixties as a way to tell the world that we would not integrate, that we still believed in racial hatred and segregation - that flag has to go. I see the pain it causes Franny, and my best friend, John, and I say no, I don't want to fly it, display it or see it.
Yeah, we should not forget the Civil War, or that it was fought by people who were good and bad, some our family and friends. And we should not whitewash what happened, but that includes the plain truth that it was fought by the South not to keep men free, but to keep some men enslaved.
Thought #3
All this stuff on Facebook is causing some people to be pissy with each other. I just found out there's something on it that allows you to be friends with someone, but to "unfollow" them. I'm not sure what that means, but it don't sound good. Yeah, there are some people posting stuff I don't like, but unless they are mean and/or racist, I got a high threshold for tolerance. It makes me wonder, though, if there ain't some people posing as my friends who have actually "unfollowed" me. Well, what the heck can I do? I gots to speak my mind, y'all. What's the point of talkin' if you can't say what's on your heart?
Thought #4
Stop using the Bible as a club! It ain't meant to hurt, divide and condemn! It's meant to love, redeem and care! Jesus didn't make the ultimate sacrifice for us just so we can refuse to make each other cakes. Sometimes, people are so big at using the Bible to justify their own prejudices and hatreds, they just use quotes out of context and warp them to their own purposes, and they is just getting so lost in the trees that they can't see the forest. Love God, love your neighbor. How that fits in with condemning people who just love each other is beyond me.
Thought #5
My friend, Billy Ray Bob, works at our shop, and our employer is so small he felt like he didn't need to offer health insurance, and up until recently, Billy Ray Bob couldn't get his own health insurance because he had a pre-existing condition (diabetic). Well, thanks to Obamacare, he was able to get a policy, and a pretty good subsidy. He had a heart attack last month, and he said he would have ignored the symptoms if he hadn't had insurance. But because he had it, he got the treatment he needed, and he didn't have to go to the ER as a free case and make everybody else pay for it. My buddy is alive today because he had Obamacare. I remember that when some of my other buddies start foaming at the mouth about it. I can't see anything wrong with giving more people access to decent health care. Honestly, I just wish it covered everybody. Nobody deserves to be left out.
Well, the shop beckons. I'm putting in some overtime to pay for Franny and me's vow renewals honeymoon. Who knew Branson could be so expensive?
Bye, y'all!
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