RECCE ROOM

From the Examiner : ----- Most large companies these days do not look at employees as people. HR folks try to distance themselves, lest they get "too close" to someone for fear of showing favoritism. Management folks try to distance themselves, just in case they ever have to let someone go. The average length of tenure on a job is just a shade over 2 years. That means for every person that holds a job 30 years, there are at least 12 other jobs that were held for a year or less. Of course, a lot more goes into this calculation than 30-year jobs, or 1-year jobs. Still, the point is the same, tenure is not increasing. Given these facts, it is easy to see why larger corporations give off the feeling of impersonality. If you work for one of these companies, you know the feeling. A well-balanced employee does not hold this against a company, they use it to their advantage. Let's look at things another way: suppose you have a pen. This pen is nothing special, it is ...

I predict Obama will lose the election and blame it on being too concerned with people affected by hurricane Sandy. .

I don't know if I'm best described as a very conservative person with a strong streak of libertarian values, or if I am a strongly libertarian person with a solid streak of conservatism. Either way, it is what it is and I am what I am. Many of my friends ask me why I did not vote for Mitt Romney this year. It's a fair question. I think Obama is Satan incarnate when it comes to politics. The man is more socialist than Hitler, Zedong, Marx, Castro and Chavez. Obama has single - handedly set the United States back twenty years with respects to fiscal and social issues. The man is a failure on every front... unless you measure success in terms of the destruction of the capitalistic representative republic that the US was created to be. So why not vote for Romney? Is he that bad? In a word: YES. There is no difference Romney is every bit as bad as Obama. I cannot say worse, because from where I stand ,my values with regards to the direction of the country are 180 degree...

I agree with my liberal friends: Mitt Romney is a really poor choice to be President. I agree with my conservative friends: Barack Obama is a total failure as a President and needs to be fired. I agree with my friends of Liberty: Gary Johnson is the best choice for President! .

In my professional career, I've driven over 1,000,000 miles in my business travels. During that time, the only incident was being rear-ended whilst stopped at a red light. My employer pays me, in part, to travel. I am a professional driver. Here is the first of a few hints, based on logic, rules of the road, and courtesy: Situation: In a parking lot, when you are driving down an aisle, and you see a car backing out. Alternately, on a road, where cars are parked at a diagonal angle along the side. What I've seen people do: - Accelerate. - Try to ram the vehicle backing out. - Ignore the vehicle backing out. - Honk the horn at the car backing out. - Come to a stop and allow them to back out. The correct answer: The law, in most places, states that the vehicle backing out must yield to the vehicle that is traveling forward. However, it is often difficult for the person who is backing the vehicle out to actually see the traffic - particularly when that person is dri...

OK, I have given a brief review of Lake Winnepesaukah before. Here it is . This year, on their Facebook page, I noticed they were open in October - something they had never done when I was a child. The owners and management redecorate for the Halloween season and "rename" it: Lake WinnepeSPOOKah My son decided he wanted to go there for his birthday. Incidentally, his birthday is today (Oct. 29), but since the last day it would be open was last Saturday, October 27, that day would just have to do. And it did! First, they change the park hours to 6:00 pm to 11:00 pm. We had the kids take a nap, and dressed warmly with the weather in the low 50's and breezy. I ordered tickets online - they were $20 each. Show me another amusement park where a family of four can get in for under $100. They encouraged customers to dress up in Halloween costumes. We didn't, but about 1/3 of the attendees did. Almost all of the employees did, too. A few rides were changed, to b...

OK - perhaps the best note ever left on a damaged car. Has to be fake, but still worth the read (WARNING - adult language). .

Gary Johnson, Presidential candidate representing the Libertarian party, has garnered the endorsement of the Chattanooga Times Free Press. A few of the statements that stand out to me: Romney may be less eager to tax, spend, attack personal freedoms and disregard the constitutional limits on government than his Democratic opponent, President Barack Obama, but only slightly.  ... To the extent that Romney offers an alternative to Obama, the difference is in degree, not in kind.  ... Some may argue that voting for a minor party candidate is a waste of a vote. While Johnson won't win on Nov. 6, the more votes Johnson receives, the more the Republican and Democratic parties are forced to consider adopting his policies. ... Others claim that it is wise to vote for the lesser of two evils. The problem with that, however, is that voting for evil only leads to more evil. A vote is an affirmation that a candidate is on the right track, but Barack Obama and Mit...

Tuesday morning, I had the privilege of listening to a local radio talk show. The host was stating that Obama had won the final debate convincingly. He made known his thought that Obama got more media accolades. This is a conservative talk show host (though he supports Romney... not sure what gives here). I suggest a different way of thinking: winning a debate is not about getting more media accolades, it is about getting more votes. The talk show host admitted that Romney's strategy probably picked up more votes for him than he lost to Obama. Way I see it, that is the way Romney won. That's what I based it on when I said Romney won. As a side note: Romney did not distance himself  from Obama on foreign policy because, at his core, there is not much difference between him and the President. .

 Some thoughts my brother recently shared with me: Here's a great, great SCAM you can pull on people, and they never see it coming (not before, not during, and not after you pulled the scam on them)... You give them Option #1 or Option #2, when really both options provide the same outcome. But it's a wonderfully successful scam because then people BELIEVE they are actually making a conscious choice in favor of the option they "want". But in reality, they were just fooled into selecting the same thing with a different label on the outside packaging. Rename Option #1 to Romney, and Option #2 to Obama. You now understand why I voted 3rd party this year. Had any of the other Republican candidates been nominated, I'd have voted for him/her.  .

Came across this graph the other day . Sums up a lot of stuff very well. If you read the chart carefully, you see why myself and others refer to President Obama as being Socialist. But, you ask, what about contender Mitt Romney, the GOP nominee for President? Coming up soon! .

Jesus called us to do many things. Most importantly, He said we are to love God and love others. Some out there live to confront others when they perceive wrongdoing. They point to scripture as their "instruction" to do so. This is an error of the greatest magnitude. This is misrepresentation of scripture - Satan's biggest tool! I talked about same in part one of this mini-series. Let's get a little deeper here. By going simply. God's will for us is not constant confrontation but to live at peace and only confront if necessary. This is demonstrated in Romans 12. I'll put the spotlight on Romans 12:18, but this will link to the entire chapter, as it is all relevant. Romans 12:18 - If possible, to the best of your ability, live at peace with all people.  The entire chapter is devoted to living in peace with our fellow man. It is not Christian to go around, pretending (or actually feeling) constant offense so that we may move from confrontation ...

Came across this graph the other day . Sums up a lot of stuff very well. If you read the chart carefully, you see why myself and others refer to President Obama as being Socialist. But, you ask, what about contender Mitt Romney, the GOP nominee for President? Basic differences Differences between Liberals and Socialists: only in the category of Government ownership of business. Differences between Liberals and American Conservatives: only four categories - a) demands for high taxes, b) disrespect of private property, c) government control of business, and d) demands for quotas in business based on race or class. Apply to Mitt Romney A) Demands for high taxes So, if Romney were an American Conservative, based on this chart, he would not demand high taxes. But, as part of Romneycare, he did increase taxes - though he hid behind the term "fees" (just like Obama said with Obamacare). Currently, Romney wants to increase taxes on "the rich." So the...

I watched the 3rd party debate last night. Very interesting stuff. I will not give a detailed blow-by-blow, but here are some thoughts on the candidates and what they said: Jill Stein (Green Party) She sounds a bit whiny. Still, she espouses some ideas I am in favor of - term limits for Congress, limits on corporate spending on elections, and eliminate NDAA and the Patriot Act - but to be fair, all four of these candidates and their respective parties dislike NDAA and the Patriot Act.  Where I part with Stein and the Green party is they are pro-abortion big time, and really anti-gun. She also wants an updated "New Deal" - which helped us go down the road to where we are now. Like a little bit of Socialism and a little bit of Libertarianism... whichever suits their agenda best at the moment. This lack of consistency is why I'd refrain from casting a vote for the Green Party. Virgil Goode (Constitution Party) Guy sounds like an actor trying to act southern. Still,...

Liberal organizations and people are showing up in record numbers for Mitt Romney. This is partly because of the total failure that is the Obama Presidency. However, the main part is the total liberal that Mitt Romney is himself. The Tennessean endorses Romney This is a total leftist rag of a newspaper. They never endorse anything short of complete socialism. Well, at least that streak stays intact. Al Gore endorses Romney At least for his stance on the fiction of climate change. Douglas Wilder endorses Romney Wilder, former Governor of VA and former mayor of Richmond, is a leftist stalwart. Among other things, his is a member of Mayors Against Illegal Guns (an anti-gun group, despite the name), and he is a huge pro-Choice supporter. Then again, so is Romney. Lee Iacocca endorses Romney Another dyed-in-the-wool leftist. Iacocca, like the rest on this list, did not suddenly become conservative. Far from it... Go out there, look at it on google and in other places. The left...

I am a long-time fan of the Blackberry platform. I seek functionality in my working phone over glitz and glamor, and Blackberry provides just that. At the heart of the matter is my texting (3000+ per month) and emailing (20+ per day) needs. Having buttons to type on is of the greatest advantage. For years, I had a Blackberry Curve, but this past summer, I obtained a Blackberry Torch. It has several upgrades over the Curve, most notably was internet browsing ability and a touch screen (taking a page out of the Droid and iPhone playbooks). The Torch is not too big - no bigger than a Curve, except maybe a bit thicker. It is heavier, but that is to be expected with a slide-open design. The larger screen is worth the trade. It makes doing things like Twitter and Facebook much easier. Speaking of Facebook, the number 1 complaint I had of the Curve was that as you scrolled through Facebook posts, you could not stop mid-post on longer pictures and entries. You had to look at the first pa...

Mitt Romney leads by a deciding 2-0 in the debates. He has to really lose this bad for President Obama to pull even. PS - to ensure fairness, I'll tell you that I voted for Gary Johnson last Friday. I have no dog in this fight.  Question 1: Libya Mitt Romney is first. He thanks every applicable party, as he has done in the prior two debates. He sums up some of the turmoil in the middle east as a whole. Romney congratulates Obama on the Bin Laden kill, but states we cannot kill our way out of this. He speaks of strong negotiation, and cultural shift. Obama does not thank anybody, but starts taking credit for all the good from the get-go. He looks overly focused, as he was in the prior debate. He starts explaining away Libya. He goes back to taking credit for the Bin Laden kill, but says that Romney's strategy is all over the map. Correct on that point. Romney goes back at Obama with basic strategy points, and fires back with holding the Muslim world responsible for rej...

Something my mom used to say: "One man's candy is another man's raisins." Still not quite sure what it means. She would use it when others might use the phrase "one man's trash is another man's treasure." .

Here's a little note for those of you who plan to vote for Obama this fall. Did you know that the President is just like President Bush? When it comes to policies, there is a striking resemblance. This comes as news, because most who were voting for Obama in 2008 did so because they wanted something different than the previous administration. Obama has let you down, my friends, and here's a short list of how (certainly not all-inclusive): 1. War. Bush started the wars. Obama has continued them. Both. 2. Uncontrolled deficit spending. Obama criticized Bush for adding to the national debt. Then Obama signed bills which added more debt in four years than had been accumulated in the previous 225 years combined. 3. Health Care Bush had Medicare part D (which most Democrats hated), Obama has Obamacare. 4. Appointments Ben Bernanke anyone? 5. TARP Bush started it. Obama continued it. 6. Stimulus package. Same as TARP - Bush started it, Obama continued it. This them...

I early voted today. 45-minute line in the early afternoon. Pops tells me it was the same where he voted... but since he has a legitimate physical handicap, they moved him to the front of the line. Here's how I voted, in order of how they appeared on my ballot (as best as I can remember): Gary Johnson, President. (Libertarian Party) Mark Clayton, US Senate. (D) Diane Black, US Congress. (R) Susan Lynn, State Representative. (R) Ed Hagerty, Mayor. (R) For allowing retailers to sell liquor. For a referendum giving Mt. Juliet residents a recall process. Some notes: First time I've ever pushed the button for a D in the main election. Mark Clayton is far more conservative than Bob Corker. He is a TEA-Party guy who infiltrated the Democrat primary and won. I voted for Ed Hagerty for mayor, but would be about equally happy with his main opponent, Jim Bradshaw. Both men have served Mt. Juliet for several years. Both voted to allow HCP holders to carry in parks here. Bot...

As a continuation of my conversation with my brother from yesterday's post on attachment parenting and the problems it creates for children, let's talk about the root problems. Specifically, the things that I like to call "unintended consequences." It is often easy to spot the child whose parents believe the attachment parenting lies. This is the child that either cannot handle any emotions or situations that happen outside the realm of what they want, or the child that bullies others so frequently and fervently because they know that there is no punishment looming on the horizon. These attachment parents are so focused on themselves, that they do not see the harm they are causing in two major ways: 1. The child will later need therapy as he will not learn that life is full of consequences. Only later, once he reaches a fully cognitive state (usually in the early teens for most people), will he begin to learn that there are rewards and consequences in life. On...

President Obama is Socialist. That is not the same as being Liberal. For starters, a Liberal wants freedom to do the things that he/she wants - so long as those things do not encumber upon another human being. One thing that many liberals espouse, and that is a tenet of modern liberalism, is the use of marijuana. Pot is a recreation drug that although illegal to use in most places for most reasons. However, there are few if any negative side effects known to be associated with the use of pot. Question 3: Is Obama in favor of marijuana? Answer: NO! Obama put in force a mandate for Federal crackdown on legal medical marijuana businesses. You'd think that if he were in favor of marijuana use (and he should be considering how much HE used as a youth!), then he would lighten the load, not bring the mandibles of the Federal government to bite down on the small-potatoes medical marijuana industry. One thing is clear: Obama wants to restrict pot use as much as possible.   .

From an attachment parenting website: Instilling fear in children serves no purpose and creates feelings of shame and humiliation. Fear has been shown to lead to an increased risk of future antisocial behavior including crime and substance abuse Studies show that spanking and other physical discipline techniques can create ongoing behavioral and emotional problems While I agree with the notion of not instilling fear, these attachment parenting bozos take the idea to extremes. They go out of their way to avoid their child from ever feeling fear. And that is not healthy. Fear and pain are the two most powerful motivators out there. For a mind that is not fully developed, these basic instincts can serve as the only possible motivators in many instances. My brother and I were talking of this a few days ago. The subject came up when we witnessed a young boy on a small bicycle. The boy kept wanting to ride out into the street. The boy's...

President Obama is not Liberal. He is Socialist, but there is a definite difference. Socialism has no more room for Liberalism than it does for Conservatism. Socialism is on a different plane altogether. One of the tenets of liberalism is to be for common people as opposed to Big Business. However, President Obama has been in favor of Big Business since Day 1. Question 2: Is Obama in favor of Big Business? Answer: YES! He supported TARP (welfare for Big Business), the bailouts, and more. Obama has simply got a different set of Big Businesses that he is the lap dog for than President Bush had or than Mitt Romney will have if he is elected. One thing is clear: President Obama is definitely in favor of Big Business. .

A VOTE FOR ROMNEY IS A VOTE FOR OBAMA There. I said it. It is true. A vote for Romney is a vote for Obama.  No, this is not some trick I pull because I am voting for Gary Johnson and I hear and read over and over the lie that "a vote for Johnson is a vote for Obama." I understand the "logic" in that statement. I have simply raised the ante. Unless and until someone can prove to me how Romney will do anything different than Obama, my statement stands: A VOTE FOR ROMNEY IS A VOTE FOR OBAMA. Abortion - they are the same . Taxes - no difference . Anti-gun - check for both men .  Supreme Court nominations? The same. Romney has changed now? No he hasn't .  Foreign policy? Obama messes things up in the middle east, Romney with China. Tit-for-tat. Government welfare for big business? Only difference is which businesses. So: A Vote for Romney is a vote for Obama.  Get used to it. It is a fact. you cannot prove otherwise, and Mittens sure won...

After the absolutely horrible response by President Obama and Mitt Romney on the gun control question last night... My prediction... We won't be able to buy guns or ammo at reasonable prices for three more years. .

Wrapping up from the debate last night, as a gun owner, here are some of my thoughts. Neither of these men is a friend to gun owners. Let's go over what is being said, what the candidates themselves said, and what is truth.  Transcript of the debate. What is being said - Romney camp.  Romney is anti-gun. However, Republicans who are ready for "anybodybutObama" are touting him as having "evolved" in his views on guns. Some even believe the propaganda being spread that Romney actually did stuff in favor of gun owners in Massachusetts. Sadly, none of these arguments holds water. The NRA falls into this sad crowd with this release . Let's look at some facts. Romney signed an "assault weapons" ban (AWB) in Massachusetts. This ban limits freedoms. The incremental limiting of freedoms is the way tyrants take all freedoms away. This is what is not acceptable. There are some who say the 2004 AWB in Massachusetts had provisions that favored gun ow...

Last week, I did a series of questions on Mitt Romney. This week, it is on President Obama. These questions are geared towards true liberals. Because, the way I see it, Obama does not espouse true liberal causes. Obama is Socialist, which is certainly not the same as being Liberal. Question 1: Same-Sex Marriage. It is truly a human rights issue when one considers whether the government should sanction marriage between individuals. Of course, several major religions (mine included) do not condone homosexual marriage. Government and Religion, however, must fulfill different roles in our lives. That is to say, what is correct religiously may not be something government needs to meddle in, and vice-versa. Obama has flip-flopped on the issue several times: When he originally ran for President, Mr. Obama said he was against same sex marriage. This year, Obama said he supports same-sex marriage. When he first ran for state legislature, he was in favor of same-sex marriage. Later, ...

President Obama vs. Mitt Romney, round 2. First question - jobs for new college graduates.  Romney looks engaged here - much like the last debate. Might be a long night for Obama. The President is in the background blinking uncontrollably. President Obama does not thank people the way that Romney did. He looks overly focused. He lies about creating 5 million jobs. He lies by inferring that he is going to divert money from the war - we all know Obama is really pro-war. Obama's answers do not answer the question. He bunny-trails down to his talking points. The moderator immediately redirects an accusatory question toward Romney. Romney is really focused. He ties his 5-point plan in really well to his answer. Romney also uses the opportunity to counterstrike on the bankrupt statement. Obama presumes Romney's position on the bankrupt statement. Obama makes a half-hearted attempt to tie Romney into President Bush's administration. Obama is running the 2008 campaign agai...

Seems that a lot of Republicans are giving Vice President Joe Biden a hard time regarding his behavior at the Vice Presidential Debate last week. Republicans are throwing around claims that Biden interrupted Ryan too much, or that Biden was laughing too much, or that his facial expressions and demeanor were demeaning toward Representative Ryan. Fact is, a lot of that same body language and non-verbal communication was what Mitt Romney used in his debate trouncing of Barrack Obama just two weeks ago. I feel that from a debate standpoint, Ryan lost, but the margin was much closer than the margin between Obama and Romney. .

I have seen this a lot on the internet: Appleseed folks, well-intentioned as they might be, erroneously passing along the false statement that Appleseed is a "run what you brung" event. Nothing could be further from the truth. Appleseed teaches marksmanship - particularly as it would be used in sportive competitions like NRA Highpower. They teach "field positions" that increase accuracy. Appleseed does not teach sound training or gunfighting tactics or doctrine. In fact, many of the field positions rely on techniques that are counter-intuitive to orthodox self-defense-with-a-rifle concepts. Back to the MYTH of "run what you brung" ( Myth #2 ) - first, let's cover why this statement is false : At Appleseed, the "AQT" is shot more often than any other training device or scenario. The AQT is an amalgam of US Marine Corps known-distance  (USMC-KD) shooting and NRA Highpower (NRA-HP) shooting with a few rules modifications. Both influential c...