Second Amendment Right

 ... and "the right of the people to keep and bear Drones,  shall not be infringed"...

According to a New York Times article the man that crashed the drone into the White House fesses up that he had been drinking and apparently lost control of his device. Whew, you can just imagine the flap if it had been an Amazon delivery that had gone astray.

Je Suis Dick and Jane

Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting Victims

A reminder that a problem continues to exist here in the United States, Je Suis Dick and Jane, every year 10,000 children are injured or killed by gun shots. Most of these shootings are not attributable to a religious ideology or to quench an exercise of freedom of expression.

Just looking back over the last fifteen years and noting only cases where ten or more individuals have died in a single school shooting incident here is the short list:

• April 20, 1999 - Columbine High School - 15 Dead, 21 Injured

• March 21, 2005 - Red Lake Indian Reservation - 10 Dead, 7 Injured

• April 16, 2007 - Virginia Tech - 33 Dead, 25 Injured

• December 14, 2012 - Sandy Hook Elementary School - 28 Dead, 2 Injured

Where is the indignation, where is the protest? N'êtes-vous pas Dick et Jane?

The Dowager Speaks

I had the grand idea tonight that I wanted to be the Dowager of our little family… upon further investigation I found that I am disqualified on so many fronts. What a pity!

The Dowager Speaks:

“One can't go to pieces at the death of every foreigner. We'd all be in a constant state of collapse whenever we opened a newspaper.”

“Nothing succeeds like excess”.

“What is a weekend?”

“It's the job of grandmothers to interfere!”

And finally….

[after all Robert's evening-dress shirts have gone missing, he is forced to come down to dinner in a black tie and white shirt, much to the horror of the ladies]

Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham: [glancing at Robert, while flustered] Do you think I might have a drink?

Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham: [looking more closely at Robert] Oh, I'm so sorry. I thought you were a waiter.

"Never such innocence again."

MCMXIV  ~  By Philip Larkin

I think that every year since mankind began has had its own challenges. Some of those challenges were ignored, some were acted upon. Yet every year old challenges spawn with new ones creating even larger challenges.

Time moves forward but man sometimes stays in the dark ages. Some can't be prodded or bullied or even paid into action. Their hearts and minds remain unmoving and closed.

There will never be the perfect society only the quest for one. Yes, there will always be those who despite the hardness of the task before them will take it up and hoist it to their shoulders.

The price for this honorable act is always paid for with the loss of innocence.

2015 Another Year Ahead

For me the year ended and began in the most delicious way. Sometimes just getting away for only a few days can clear the mind of cobwebs and improve your vision. I recently got back from a quick five day Caribbean cruise with my family.

While there were times I kicked up my heels up so high I thought I might die, I am actually invigorated. Two days back home and I already have accomplished a great deal. I am ready to plunge back into my writing, get items checked off my to-do list and make time for more fun before 2015 is over with.

I can only claim five of these kids as mine but the whole bunch is Grade A-1. Thanks for letting me share your little holiday with you.

If these kids are a sample of young America today I think our future will be in good hands. They will have a big job ahead of them but I really do think they are up to the task.

Carpe Diem! 

Age saw two quiet children

Go loving by at twilight,

He knew not whether homeward,

Or outward from the village,

Or (chimes were ringing) churchward,

He waited, (they were strangers)

Till they were out of hearing

To bid them both be happy.

"Be happy, happy, happy,

And seize the day of pleasure."

The age-long theme is Age's. 

Twas Age imposed on poems

Their gather-roses burden

To warn against the danger

That overtaken lovers

From being overflooded

With happiness should have it.

And yet not know they have it.

But bid life seize the present?

It lives less in the present

Than in the future always,

And less in both together

Than in the past.The present

Is too much for the senses,

Too crowding, too confusing-

Too present to imagine. 

                                             ~By Robert Frost