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We are taught from childhood to be “tolerant”. Tolerance is a wholly different thing than “Acceptance.” Americans too often get confused when it comes to telling the difference.

Consider rat droppings in our food for instance:

The question is not whether Americans consume rat excrement (a small amount approved by the government) in our daily food but rather a matter of how much we are willing to accept. The same is true with other forms of human consumption. We are constantly fed a gluttonous diet of filth in an effort to slake our physical, moral and intellectual appetites. In too many cases, “tolerance” has become “acceptance.”

Most conscious Americans recognize that we are continuously fed perverted sex, filth, foulness and depravity via television, Internet, motion pictures, printed media, music lyrics, conversation and other public communication. But, it may surprise you to learn that many of the food products most Americans consume daily can contain rat droppings, maggots and insects and still be approved (accepted) by the Federal Drug Administration (FDA).

That’s right. The FDA allows, without penalty, certain minimum amounts of various foreign materials that we consume in many common foods. For instance, according to FDA bulletins, anything less than an average of 9 mg. of rodent excreta per kilogram (36 oz.) is allowed in wheat — a common ingredient in bread, cereals and the like. I don’t know exactly how much that is but it’s more than enough for me. I don’t want ANY rat droppings in my food. How about you?

The Feds dictate that we not only “tolerate” but “accept” their standards as the norm. Canned citrus fruit juices can contain 5 or more fly eggs and less than one maggot per 250 ml. – which is about 8 ounces or about the amount of liquid in a glass of orange juice. Turns your stomach right?

So it becomes a matter of how much filth in our daily lives are we willing to “accept” – not whether we will “tolerate” it. The same is true of other forms of muck that has stampeded into public and private life. We no longer argue whether we will “tolerate” filth thrust into our lives. It’s already here, but it becomes a matter of how much we are willing to “accept.”

The threshold of acceptance grows wider each passing year. Who would have thought a generation, or so, ago that we would even be discussing things as same-sex marriage, perverted sex, abortion on demand, foul language over the public airways, etc.? But our “acceptance” has grown little by little with each passing episode.

The level of acceptance has gone up in other areas as well. We once controlled immigration through our borders. No longer. And Congress is refusing to correct the problem. When will they? The Hispanic population has reached almost 15 percent of the national total and this doesn’t even count millions of illegals missed by the census. When will Congress balance the flow – when it reaches 25 percent of our population – 50 percent? When?

And how about taxes? Government waste and corruption climbs and so do our taxes. When do we reach a point that we are no longer willing to accept this? (See American Revolution, 1776).

Now consider filth in the public arena. Where does the right to speak, print, draw, act, etc., reach the point that it encroaches on the rest of America’s (children included) right to be shielded from such filth? We have already passed that threshold, but “Progressives” mark unfettered speech and action as an unlimited First Amendment right.

At one point in history, movies would not allow unmarried couples to be shown, EVEN fully clothed, in bed together. Fast-forward thirty years or so and observe what we see today – just about any sexual act, perverted or otherwise, is generally accepted. A few years ago, who would have ever imagined that we would hear lyrics over the airways and in public places that we find in “modern” rap, rock, hip-hop and other forms of music?

And look at what has happened to religion. We once were entitled to express our religions beliefs in public places. No more! We have accepted that the government has altered the Right OF Religious expression to an imagined Right FROM Religion. You can find ridicule of religion daily in letters to the editor, television shows, on the Internet and elsewhere.

We have reached a point in our moral history when it is “accepted” that other higher levels of debasement is expected as we “move forward” in our “Progressive” society. And many tell us that this is “good.” It frees the soul, they say, of human hang-ups that held society together for millennia. How much of this sort of moral rat droppings are we willing to accept?

Of course a little fertilizer can be a good thing when used properly. But too much in too many places will kill the crop. The crop in this case is our American civilization.

We seem content to raise the amount of filth allowed in our lives with each passing year.

It becomes a case, pure and simple, of just how much rat droppings are we willing to consume.

There would be no so-called labor shortage in America if we had not aborted future citizens by the millions.

When the monumental testament entitled, “The Rise and Fall of American Society” is written, and it is certain to be written some day, future generations might be surprised and disgusted at how badly we went wrong.

Few, if any, of us will be around, but it is interesting to speculate about what future historians might write about the demise of American Culture.

I suspect that they will begin to see the genesis of much of our problem was the mounting dependence on a strong, central Federal Government for the solution to every problem in life – problems that our forefathers solved for themselves. Problems that our forbearers traditionally forbade the government to get involved in. Failure to concoct solutions to problems that set us on the path toward losing our independence, therefore, our freedom and, consequently, our way of life.

Although future historians will blame many causes for our downfall, one highpoint in the history of our demise is certain to be the point at which Americans lost their reverence for life. Once we gave way to abortion on demand, it was just a small step toward the eventual concept that man has the right to judge and determine which lives are worthy of being lived. Euthanasia becomes common – first the abortion of unwanted babies followed by the killing off the infirmed and then the old. The selection of which fetus will live and which will die became the judgment solely of prospective parents – based not on reverence of life – but more often upon the perceived inconvenience of the parents. When this trend comes full circle, it will be shown that we lost forever our ability to think of life as sacrosanct. Life will have become “cheap” in America just as in other failed cultures.

It will be noted that a dramatic change in culture occurred when we eliminated the lives of future Americans and replaced those lost lives with un-aborted immigrants, illegal and otherwise, from foreign cultures. All because we needed more people to accomplish the tasks of everyday American life that would have been filled by individuals who did not make it past the abortionist’s sucking tubes. Hard to believe but it’s coming to fruition as we speak.

According to a 2004 study by the Alan Guttmacher Institute, there have been an estimated 50 million abortions performed in America since legalization took hold in 1973. Relatively few of these abortions had anything to do with fetal defects, rape, incest or danger to the mother.

The oldest of these individuals would be over 30 years of age today. These discarded folks would be establishing families of their own. And, each year, as more and more entered the labor force, the numbers would be more than ample to outweigh the supposed need for an equal number of immigrants or the necessity of exporting jobs to other lands.

These 50 million aborted souls would have been native born citizens, speak English, have established families and raised in the bosom of American culture instead of a foreign one. We would not be having this immigration discussion we are now consumed with. Neither would we be searching for teachers from the Philippines; doctors from India, nurses from Thailand, etc. We would already be served by native-born US citizens. Future generations will ponder how many potential doctors, world leaders, teachers, scientists, religious figures, etc. had their lives flushed shortly after conception. The number grows each passing year.

Interestingly, future readers of American history will take note that many (not all) of the very folks who supported the abortion of unborn babies, became the very same people who later decried that there were not enough native-born Americans to fill jobs and places in our society. Therefore, we must establish open US borders – making US Citizenship a God-given right for the whims of any of the world’s six billion inhabitants.

“How utterly unbelievable!” future generations will exclaim.

When our history is written, it will also be noted that many of these same Americans, who supported abortion as a human right were the “progressive” individuals condemning the saving of lives of victims in lands ruled by tyrants in Iraq, Afghanistan, etc. They could never understand the concept of meeting the enemy on foreign soil before even more terror erupted in our own land. The are same folks who failed to recognize the importance of human souls here and in other lands while simultaneously placing greater emphasis on woodpeckers, old trees and historical temperature changes.

Readers of history in the future are certain to proclaim: What were these people thinking?”

Sometimes I wonder if the Southland will lose its traditions and culture with the influx of newcomers. I shudder to think so, but evidence seems to indicate that rather than the South becoming more like America – the nation is becoming more like the South.

After the War Between the States and the ensuing so-called “Reconstruction” every attempt was made to bring the Southland into alignment with the rest of the nation. We were kept in abject poverty as punishment for our role in the war. Unlike Europe and Japan after World War II, we didn’t have a “Marshal Plan” or “Foreign Aid” to help us recover. During the 1930s, President Roosevelt was led to opine that the South was America’s foremost economic problem. But we prevailed.

It took several generations and during the last World War, the South experienced recovery, slowly at first, but it didn’t take long for things to kick into high gear. The so called Sun Belt became the darling of industry, banking and tourists.

The process was accelerated by Interstate highways, a more mobile society and air conditioning causing more folks from more northern climes to march our way. Much has been beneficial but there always remained the threat that Dixie would lose its uniqueness – its special flavor. But, in recent years, it has become apparent that America is adopting Southern Ways.

We can see the fingerprints of Southern culture on just about every facet of American life.

Let’s look at a few examples:

JOBS AND PEOPLE - Over half of the new jobs in recent decades have been created south of the Mason/Dixon Line. The population of the original Confederate states has grown twice as fast as the rest of the nation since 1970. Starting in the 1980s more black Americans moved back south than moved north — reversing a more than one-hundred-year trend.

PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS - Four of the last five US presidents have been Southerners. No president since 1932, with rare exception, was elected without carrying the Southland, or at least most of it. The national political leadership in both major parties has been disproportionably dominated by Southerners.

MUSIC – Country Music which boasts Dixie as its birthplace has become America’s music of choice. The Blues created by Southern blacks also claims Dixie as home. Place a dot on the hometown of country music stars on a map of America and the southern tail of Appalachia will be almost completely covered.

RELIGION – The South is home to the “Bible Belt” dubbed so because of the intense influence of religion in the Southern states. Most Southern protestant churches are growing while churches in many other portions of the nation are struggling. One of the fasted growing is the Southern Baptist denomination with 16 million members and they don’t even count children and others who have not been baptized. Neither does it account for the multitude of other “Baptist” denominations. Include additional Calvinistic branches to the mix, and, there can be little doubt that Southern Evangelicals have changed the face of national politics for decades.

NASCAR – Let’s not forget stockcar racing which had its origins in Southern moonshine running and has become a $3 billion American past-time – termed by some as the nation’s premier sport. Once considered a redneck enterprise, stockcar racing has become the sports darling for folks from every walk of life in every corner of America.

These are just a few examples of Southern influence on American life. Many others abound.

For the past fifty years or so, America has taken on the persona of the South, according to New York Times writer and editor, Peter Applebome, in his book, “Dixie Rising – How the South is Shaping American Values, Politics and Culture.” The New York City born writer moved south to cover the news for the Times and became entranced with Dixie – as do many others transplanted to the Southland.

In his book, he provides some of the views expressed above and poses the question: Why does the South wield such influence over the rest of the nation? He answers his own question, “…the South offers a sense of history, roots, place and community while the rest of the nation desperately searches for all four.”

He adds that the South has managed to maintain most of the old virtues while resisting new vices and, thusly, has imprinted the rest of the American society.

There are many reasons that America has taken on the countenance of the South but none more important than the basic aspects of Southern Culture formulated in our traditions of conservatism, religion and images of time and place.

The struggle to hold on to the basic facets of our Southern way of life is not over. With the influx of newcomers expected in the ensuing decades, will the Southland maintain it preeminence?

Only time will tell.

We have prevailed in the past. Let’s hope the future will be as kind.

I don’t know what the practice is today but when I was growing up, schoolteachers and principals always held the threat of my “Permanent Record” over my head like a hammer.

Whenever I misbehaved or even when they suspected that mere thoughts of misbehavior were rattling through my brain, they would threaten me with, “You know this will go on your Permanent Record”.

A student’s Permanent Record attained status with God’s Book of Life and students lived in fear we would be haunted through our lifetimes with what might be recorded within this grave document.

Only in high school did I begin to question the existence of a Permanent Record. But doubts were strong enough that they served to keep me in line throughout my public school education.

A lifetime has passed and I have yet to be confronted with my Permanent Record in any job interview, induction into the US Army, upon joining a new group or, for that matter, at any juncture in my life.

So, I have decided that it is time, once and for all, to settle this haunting question of Permanent Records.

Citing various Freedom of Information laws that did not exist when I was a student but which now guarantee Americans the right to access every private record from their dental records to their school Permanent Records, I have asked the Public School Administration in the town where I grew up to furnish me with a complete and accurate copy of my Permanent Record.

Truth is at hand. If indeed there is such a record, I will learn, at last, if my sins have been recorded for posterity.

Does my PR contain the misdeeds of my youth? Does it recite the times I brought firecrackers to school and set them off at recess? Does it relate my indiscretions regarding shared homework assignments, etc.?

I now await anxiously for a response to my request for a copy of my Permanent Record.

I will let you know if I do indeed get a copy of the dark secrets contained in my Permanent Record and perhaps, I will even share the contents with you.

In the annals of human events, it is time that the mystery of the Permanent Record be settled once and for all.

My sister and I were talking recently about obituaries – the FINAL Permanent Record.

Obituaries consume much of the conversation for people our age. It is one of the first things we look for in the newspaper. As we grow older, more and more of our acquaintances pass on and, of course, we want to know about it when they do.

My sister was lamenting the fact there would be little to record by way of activities from her life. This is not true of course because she has led a full and useful life in every way. Nonetheless, we began to comment on the things some families include in the obituaries of their loved ones.

We decided that we would forego having our families write grandiose obituaries and prepare our own well ahead of our demise.

For instance, we did not want any nicknames used as in “Foster (Happy Dude) Gilligan” passed away. Or “Mary (Great Big Mama) Smith Succumbs.”

We also decided that we did not want platitudes used. I don’t think I have ever read of a Catholic dying without the word “devout” utilized. And have you ever read of a golfer passing on without the notation that he/she was an “avid” golfer or a Baptist who was not a “life-long” Baptist?

Not for us, my sister and I want just the basic facts reported.

We want our obituaries to say just plainly that we died, where the funeral will be held if enough people can be corralled to hold one and that we were “devout” members of AARP, “life-long” members of AAA and, furthermore, we were “avid” card-carrying members of Blockbuster Video.

It seems that a large portion of “Modern” Civilization in general and American society in particular is obsessed with the task of transforming today’s culture into the secular/progressive model by turning everything historically considered to be “abnormal” into “normal.” And, therefore, “acceptable.”

For instance, since the beginning of civilization, marriage has been unquestionably defined as the bonding of one man and one woman as the basis of the family unit. However, the progressive folks are now instructing us that marriage means no such thing. Marriage, according to them, can exist between two people of the same sex. Where do we go from here? Will marriage become acceptable (normal) among two men and one woman, three women and one man, a whole group of people claiming common matrimony bonds among themselves? Their argument can justify all forms of bizarre marriages if we allow it. It’s ridiculous. The natural law of marriage will always be between one man and one woman. If the crazies want to form legal corporations, partnerships, etc., in which the “stockholders” enjoy the economic fruits of their effort, so be it. But leave traditional marriage alone.

And then there is this business of homosexuality. Homosexuality is anomalous. It’s not typical, therefore, it is a variance from the norm – an irregularity. It’s always been that way in civilized society. During most of the millennia of enlightened society, it was actually illegal to openly engage in homosexual acts. It still is in some societies. Most folks are free today to enjoy whatever same-sex activity turns them on. But homosexuality is atypical. And should be treated by society as such. If homosexuality is indeed a genetic matter then, homosexual individuals should be treated with the same love, respect and fairness that we treat others with genetic anomalies. But we must not convert it to “normal.”

Civilized standards once dictated that folks from various countries of the world stay on their side of the border and only cross over when all legal requirements have been met. No more! We have many “progressive” folks telling us that all countries should be “borderless.” So much for law and order! Welcome chaos. The US has pretty much succumbed to this open-borders silliness in recent years. How else do you account for 12 million (or more) illegal aliens running loose in our sovereign nation? And we don’t have the foggiest notion of who they are much less where they are. (They are not all at Wal-Mart). Now, we are being told that these illegal “Americans”, as some folks have taken to calling them, should be forgiven their trespasses and that “amnesty” must become the norm. They want us to just suck up and accept it. If we do tolerate unbridled immigration, our children will never know the America that we enjoyed.

Human sex was once dictated to be only engaged in by adults of different genders within the marriage bond. Normal sex today for most “modern” folks is acceptable when it is between consenting participants in a “meaningful” relationship – whatever that means. Even teenagers as young as 13 and 14 are being encouraged to engage in experimental sex during mandatory public school programs such as that experienced recently at a Colorado high school. According to the progressive crowd, very few boundaries exist for the engagement of sex. Marriage is certainly no longer a prerequisite for these “modern” people. Sexual activity, to them, appears to be that old hippie philosophy: “If it feels good, do it.” Society once regarded that sexual activity was to be engaged within marriage bonds only. Its purpose was primarily for the propagation of the human race. No more. It is now primarily considered as “recreational” activity — proper outside of marriage or cultural norms. Sorry, but that’s not good enough for a truly civilized culture. There have to be legitimate boundaries or we revert to the jungle.

Furthermore, modern civilization in the Western World has revolved around a Judeo-Christian concept of human behavior – the criminal is at fault and should be punished. No longer does this appear to many as the norm. Today, in the eyes of too many people, the criminal is no longer the guilty party. It’s Society’s fault! The rest of us, in their view, are guilty of not showing enough love, compassion, understanding, etc. to the criminal, therefore, he/she turned bad because we didn’t “talk or care enough.” Hogwash! Criminality is a conscious choice.

And regarding the education of our young folks, a large segment of society has deemed that learning to read, write and do long-division are no longer the primary focus of education. Instead, they insist that self-esteem (even unearned esteem) is the main task of education along with the indoctrination of “social consciousness.” Even mathematics has become a social function via so-called “radical math” in which problems revolve around social issues instead of mathematical literacy. For instance, math problems are now couched in the social aspects of society. Instead of problems involving pure mathematics such as: If a tomato weighs eight ounces and a peck of tomatoes weighs seven pounds how many tomatoes will it take to fill a peck basket? Now, we have problems such as this: If an undocumented worker can pick eight pecks of tomatoes an hour, how many hours will it take to enrich the greedy, capitalistic farmer, who is growing “wealthy” on the sweaty backs of Mexican workers?”

What once were private matters are now very public. Pregnancy outside of marriage was once shameful. Today, it’s accepted as the norm when as many as seventy percent of births among some groups occur outside the bounds of matrimony. Bastardy has become normal. My parents would have a hard time accepting public conversation of today: “Erectile dysfunction,” “feminine hygiene spray,” “condoms,” and so on. Immodesty is in vogue. And I’m fairly certain that my grandmother (maybe even my mother) never heard the vile, vulgar language in common usage today, not only in the movies and on television, but on the grounds of elementary schools all around the nation. We have debased civilized conversation and have made the abnormal normal. And that’s “first-rate” in the eyes of the misguided.

The secular/progressives herald all of this as “progress.” We must ponder how the history of the rise and fall of civilization will view it all.

I have always heard of so-called “Super Glue” but had no first-hand experience with it until recently. I now have a profound respect for the product’s effectiveness. I can even conceive of how the glue could improve political life in a number of ways. We all know people, especially some politicians, whose lips we would like to glue shut.

But back to my experience with this Godzilla adhesive. The inside handle strap had come loose from the door of my automobile. I tried several ways to reattach it but nothing worked. Then, I remembered that I had purchased a package of five small tubes of a product called “Superglue” and I decided to give it a try. It worked!

However, when I tried to separate my fingers, onto which a small portion of the glue had found its way, they were stuck together. I thought, “Well, this is no problem,” but the harder I tried to separate them the more they stuck in place, side-by-side. I tried rubbing alcohol, turpentine and paint thinner but to no avail. I finally pried each finger apart, inch-by-inch with a wooden dowel. But some of the gunky stuff was left on my now separated fingers. I didn’t learn until later that acetone, found in many fingernail polish removers, is about the only answer for super-glued fingers. I resorted to a fine-grit sandpaper to remove the remaining residue from my digits. It was several days before the rest of the glue finally wore off.

Believe me, folks, the stuff really works!

Just ask the college student whose fraternity brothers smeared Super Glue on his toilet seat. Can you imagine a visit to the Emergency Room with a commode lid attached to your posterior?

Which reminds me of the ordeal of an uncle of mine who lived over in Anderson. He was a smoker as were most adults fifty years ago in the Southland. As a two-pack-a-day smoker, he even smoked while doing the most mundane of things – including using the toilet.

According to my aunt, who never lied, he came home from work one day shortly after painters had finished painting the bathroom. Unbeknownst to him, they had poured their left-over, flammable lacquer thinner into the commode without flushing it. As my uncle sat, he flicked cigarette ashes into the bowl. Well, you know what happened – a small but explosive fire ensued. The “end” result was Uncle Walt vowed never again to smoke anywhere near the toilet.

Super Glue was discovered by accident during WWII when British scientists were working with new compounds to improve gun sights and came upon the miracle concoction which was ultimately trademarked as “Superglue.”

Nothing was done to utilize the substance until it was rediscovered again in the 1950s. In the second revelation, entrepreneurs realized the commercial adaptations and “Superglue” was born and became available to consumers around the world.

Along with all of the helpful uses of the substance, there have been corresponding mishaps. A woman in New Jersey reached for her eye drops and picked up a bottle of Super Glue by mistake. It took a trip to the ER to pry her eyelids apart.

Another woman in the state of Washington was bathing her dog when one of its little ears floated away. It seems a groomer, earlier in the day, had cut the pooch’s ear off by mistake while trimming the little doggie. The groomer had tried to glue the ear back on, and it held temporarily until the bath water loosened the sticky stuff.

In another mishap, an illegal, immigrant alien Super-glued himself to his legal-resident girlfriend because the immigration officials were coming to deport him. After a quick trip to the ER, the illegal was on a plane headed back to his country of origin.

I can’t give the complete details in a family newspaper but one irate wife found a horrible way to avenge her errant husband’s wandering and lustful ways. He will never forget THAT trip to the emergency room.

One chap in England decided to give up on the socialized medical system in his homeland by solving his immediate problem with Super Glue. His tooth cap had come off, but he was unable to see a dentist in his negotiation of the country’s socialized medical system. It was going to take months before he could be seen by a dentist. He took matters into his own hands by Super-gluing his dental cap back in place. “You can’t really taste it but you do have to be careful not to use too much, in case you glue your mouth shut,” he opined.

So much for Socialized Medicine but perhaps we have stumbled upon a possible solution for the circus going on in Washington.

Now, if we can figure out a way to get a drop or two on the lips of most politicians, it could result in a better world.

Just think: no more useless Congressional hearings; no more childish political posturing; no more slamming political opponents; no meaningless bantering, no whining and best of all – just plain Silence!

Sounds like a good plan to me!

Southern Observer
By John Brock

After the 1890 US census was published, historian Frederick Jackson Turner noted that nearly all Americans no longer lived on the frontier. Most of the United States had been claimed. He took to musing about how this would affect the nation and came up with his “Frontier Thesis”.

His reasoning was that America was founded and was sustained by the frontier, therefore, the frontier shaped America and not the other way around as many observers claimed. Turner concluded that the face, character, quality of life, etc., of America had been created by a, heretofore, unlimited frontier. For the entire European-based history of North America, whenever one’s fortune was in doubt, one merely moved westward toward free/cheap land and opportunity. But now the frontier had run out, Americans would have to look in a different direction for the fulfillment of their destinies. They had “mined” the frontier out and would now have to direct their exploitation elsewhere.

Turner concluded that Americans, now that the frontier was “used up”, would turn to government for their good fortune. They would exploit (“mine”) the US government. History has proved him correct.

Some observers scoffed and it took another 40 years before they became true believers of Turner’s prediction. By the 1930s Great Depression and the advent of Roosevelt’s “New Deal”, most Americans had started looking to government to fulfill their collective and individual desires. Previously, the “unfortunate” in the community were taken care of by families, church, the local community, etc., but with widespread economic depression abounding, the government accommodated by promising to take care of us all – eventually, from womb to tomb. A new federalism was born and has flourished almost unabated since.

It soon became not just the poor who were the beneficiaries of government largesse but everybody (including business and industry) as they all clamored to get their fair share at the public trough. Supply/demand or need no longer ultimately dictated costs, price supports, wages, interest rates, importation, etc. – government now did!

We were left with two very different philosophies still in contention today. One wants to expand American’s dependence on the federal government even more by creating new, bigger and “better” social programs and oversight. The other side wants to curb government dependence and allow Americans to keep more of the fruits of their own labors via tax reductions, less regulation, etc. This seems fair enough since families, today, who are working two jobs to get ahead, are paying as much as a whopping 40% of their gross income for taxes of one sort or another as well as supporting government regulatory programs.

Now that the Federal Government’s resources are being depleted, Americans have discovered new entities to “mine” – namely, corporate America. Another “golden goose?” Even Frederick Jackson Turner was not clever enough to predict this one. We are starting to mine big business, whose astuteness and financial risk through the years has given us jobs, industries and our wealth via the unique American system of Free Enterprise. Now, we want to kill that goose as well while taking its last golden egg. What then? Government cannot create wealth. Only individual human toil can do so. Government can only redistribute wealth and manipulate it until its house of cards comes tumbling down.

If you doubt that corporate America has been discovered as the new source of exploitation, just take a look at the multi-BILLION dollar lawsuits that have taken place and are taking place. The tobacco industry alone has provided mega-billions of dollars to governments and individuals with more to follow. How can an industry that for two generations has been regulated into disclosing on their packaging and in their ads: “hazardous to your health - can cause cancer, heart disease, birth defects, DEATH, etc.” be held accountable for people voluntarily using their product? Beats me but courts are awarding mega-dollars. Insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies and the health industry, including doctors, have been targets for years.

One can hardly pick up a magazine or newspaper without seeing a solicitation from a legal firm seeking participants in a class action suit against various industries.

Also at jeopardy for “free money” is the automobile industry. Big bucks have been awarded to parties injured by drunks and careless drivers, but, who pays for these awards? Not the drunks or the negligent, irresponsible drivers but the automobile manufacturer whose products, like tobacco, have been approved for sale to the public. This, of course, means that you and I will bear the burden with additional product costs and insurance. Who’s next? You can bet the alcohol industry has to be spending sleepless nights.

This wealth redistribution will continue as long as there are lawyers and greedy “victims” looking for a buck (I can’t wait until it’s the Lawyer’s turn to be exploited); the public will “mine” whatever target comes into their sights.

When we have tapped out all of the “mines” and the shaft is empty, what happens then? Well, the former purveyors of another failed economy, the communists, will have been proved right all along - we will have destroyed ourselves from within.

I fear there are not enough Americans left with the will to stop this foolishness.

Most conscientious Americans will grouse about it. Give lip service in objection to it but I don’t think we will do a damned thing to stop it – everybody greedily wants their share of the loot.

And that’s sad for our children and grandchildren who will be left with no goose; no egg just an empty nest.

Southern Observer
By John Brock

I have to admit to at least one non-Southern element in my life. Unlike most Southerners, I am “goal” oriented while most of my kinsmen are “process” directed. I enjoy getting the job done or getting to my destination. Most Southerners, while they may enjoy the goal, they enjoy the process equally. Their life is much more leisurely and comfortable than mine. I envy them.

A few can do both. Take my wife for instance:

As an artist she finds equal pleasure in the journey and the destination. She can go on a trip, undertake a task or paint a picture with equal enjoyment of both the journey and the destination. She enjoys the process as well as the goal.

Psychologists tell us that people live and work for different reasons. Some for utter enjoyment. Others work for money while many work for recognition but most work for a combination of both. Frankly, I work just to get through!

I love finishing a task.

Because I am a goal-oriented person, while my wife is a process directed person, she enjoys life better than I do. She enjoys the journey. I, on the other hand, enjoy getting to my destination.

Several years ago, this came into sharp focus when we drove to the West Coast and back. It was a trip of over 7,500 highway miles of sheer pleasure for her but an ordeal for me. She was enjoying the trip. I was working hard at getting halfway and then anxiously looking forward to turning around and heading home. Oh, I enjoyed the trip and saw many interesting things along the way, but not like my wife did. She marveled at every moment - every sight along the way. I could think only of how many miles we had covered today and how close that put us to getting back home. Sense of place is something I do share with other Southerners – we all like to go home again.

My wife, on the other hand, enjoys stopping and smelling the roses. I wish I could.

She says the next time we take a long trip; we’re going on a tour bus. I suppose she is right to insist that this will be the only way I might relax on a trip.

We have been to Europe a number of times. I enjoyed it except for the flying. I am glad we went but do I want to go back? I don’t think so. I feel about another trip out of the country exactly how I feel about coon hunting. I’ve already been.

My wife can enjoy several processes at the same time. She can talk on the phone, fold the laundry and watch television simultaneously. She amazes me how she can wrap Christmas presents, watch television and carry on a conversation concurrently. I have to do one task at a time because it is impossible for me to share my concentration among several projects. During the past Christmas season, she tried to enlist my help in wrapping presents while carrying on a conversation with me. I just couldn’t do it. I have to do one or the other separately — not at the same time.

I finally figured out how to get out of doing things more fitting for an artist than for someone like me. Whenever I didn’t want to do a particular task, I would do a sloppy job (which wasn’t hard) and soon, very soon, she insisted on doing the whole thing herself. I found that the same principle applies to dishwashing, cooking, house-cleaning, etc. And besides, she enjoys the process so much I don’t feel guilty. I do not like to rob her of her pleasures in life.

After I retired, I thought it only fair that since I didn’t have to get up and go to work each day, I should help out around the house. I tried. Honestly, I really tried but I just could not enjoy the process. I was a man on a mission - that mission was to get through - to reach my goal. Consequently, my wife complained that I was doing my tasks too hurriedly and therefore, too sloppily. I just have not been able to enjoy the process of housework. My wife on the other hand can make an adventure out of just about anything. She is definitely a process-oriented person

So, we have made a deal. She enjoys the process and I enjoy her finished efforts.

My wife is away this week and will not be reading this column, so, let’s don’t tell her our little secret. After all, we wouldn’t want to destroy her next process adventure. Thanks.
—

Southern Observer
By John Brock

I have always feared it would someday come to pass. Now, it’s actually happened — the inmates are in charge of the asylum. Very little in the news surprises me these days. Idiots seem to garner all of the coverage. Here are but a few examples gleaned from the pages of recent media offerings:

APES HUMAN?
At a time in history when the “personhood” of an unborn child is being devalued, a group of animal rights nuts are seeking laws to provide for the “personhood” of apes. You heard me correctly. Austrian animal activists want chimps to be declared persons to protect the rights of monkeys all around the globe. As Europe goes, can the US be far behind?

The animal rights crazies want a 26-year-old male chimpanzee legally declared “a person.” As such he would be entitled to “basic rights” ordinarily assigned to authentic humans. A judge has ruled against the first petition but the case is being appealed. In the meantime, Spain’s parliament is considering a national law that would extend “fundamental moral and legal” rights to apes. I suppose snakes, camels and sheep are next on the humanization roster.

Then what? Intermarriage with humans? Voting rights? Where will it all lead? Who can tell? Only a few years ago, most Americans thought the right for folks of the same sex to be married beyond comprehension. But, even that’s legal in a few states today. Human/monkey nuptials in the offing? Who will get custody of “Cheetah” if they divorce? Do animals have a right to abortion?

ON-SCREEN SMOKING
Smoking by actors on movie screens has come under attack by the Motion Picture Association of America which dictates movie ratings. Gone are the days of Bogey and Becall with smokes hanging from their lips. On-screen smoking will earn a film a more restricted rating (N-13 for nicotine?) because the movie moguls want to protect our young folks from the evils of smoking.

This might be a good cause but the elimination of cigarettes on the screen still leaves adulterous sex, abortion, explicit sexual promiscuity, drug activity, and let’s don’t forget the ever-present alcoholic drink on the silver screen. All of these practices will remain intact. But smoking? No-sir-ree. The movie crazies are at it again.

TERM “MASTER” VERBOTEN
Some building contractors and real estate folks have decided that the term “Master Bedroom or Suite” is too “politically incorrect” for describing the main bedroom and the term “Owner’s Suite” is coming into vogue.

It seems that the word “master” has bad vibes for women and some black Americans. My, my, another word that must be eliminated from the English language to accommodate political correctness. Absurd? You bet.

What’s next? Can we no longer use the words: Mastermind, master key, Master of Arts degree, master of ceremonies, or masterpiece? Come on. Give us a break. Words are words and we shouldn’t tamper with perfectly descriptive, traditional terms.

TARGETING LAWNMOWERS
If you have driven down the highway with an eighteen-wheeler belching clouds of black smoke in your face, then you just might be outraged that the Environmental Protection Agency is going after the pollution created by your lawnmower even as the behemoths continue spewing their black sin along our highways.

The federal agency has declared that any walk-behind or riding lawnmower of less than 25 horsepower must be equipped with catalytic converters just like your automobile. This will make home mowers more expensive because catalytic converters are laced with precious metals costing hundreds if not thousands of dollars per ounce. The catalytic-equipped mowers will also be less efficient while the trucking juggernauts continue down the Interstate unabated. Nutty? You’d better believe it. But that’s the rationale today of the politically correct – the eighteen-wheeler might be transporting a gorilla to its nuptials with a real human primate, therefore, it’s OK.

$60,000 MATTRESS
Baby Boomers are adding a new twist to the price of a “good night’s sleep.” New ultra-deluxe bedding costing more than a college education, a luxury automobile or a starter home is being scooped up by boomers with more money than brains.

A Swedish bed company has launched a new mattress product called “Vividus,” which is Latin for “full of life,” that will retail for $59,750. The bedding is made of latex, memory foam, silk, cashmere, lamb’s wool and horse hair. Horse hair! I thought that went out with Duncan Fife sofas.

The company has sold only a dozen of the high-priced mattresses. Wonder why. Could it possibly be that most folks are getting a good night’s sleep on a mattress costing only a few hundred dollars. As I said, the inmates are in charge of the asylum.

These are only a few of the insane shenanigans of the devout brainless. But idiotic ideas will always be with us as long as there is a substantial portion of the world’s population willing to be suckered into any wacky notion.

It’s official. Citadel graduates can now become “Alumni Forever.”

The college has joined a number of schools providing for alumni, or at least their cremated ashes, to be forever enshrined on campus. The school has announced plans to build a columbarium in the lower part of the college’s bell tower. For those of you, like I, who are unschooled in the parlance of stashing ashes of the deceased, a columbarium is a niche for a funeral urn containing the remains of the cremated dead. The Citadel will make available 400 “niches” for those wanting to give a whole new meaning to the term “Student Body.”

No purchase price has been announced but the new ashes-to-ashes depository will be dedicated in November at the school’s appropriately named, “Homecoming.” In making the announcement last week, The Citadel joins numerous other colleges and universities that also offer an opportunity for a final “Homecoming.”

Once upon a time in the South, when a person died, the remains were taken to the funeral parlor for “preparation” and then returned home to rest in state in the (ironically termed) “living room” where family members mourned for a day or two. The departed was then taken to the church and burial was likely in the cemetery next to the church – “just as God intended,” my grandmother would declare. A few private family cemeteries were maintained.

The only time you ever heard of someone being cremated was when an illegal liquor still inadvertently blew up or when a fireworks factory exploded.

But now, colleges and universities have found a new money source from the dead and their families by providing final resting places for the departed loved ones on the campus of their Alma Mater. Wonder how long it will take for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) to sue to offer the same opportunity to non-graduates based on “equal protection under the law?” Do corpses have civil rights?

At more and more institutions, alumni can find their eternal resting places in the same environment where they first experienced keg parties, panty raids and other fraternity/sorority frivolities. And the college walks away with a few bucks to help run the store.

Some of these final resting places take the form of cemeteries but more and more pre-dead alumni are opting for “Memorial Gardens” where the deceased’s ashes can be stored. It seems that laws governing burials are not as stringent for ashes as for whole bodies.

This kind of homecoming is not exactly what I had in mind when I left college. If it catches on, we can surely become “Alumni Forever” just as those Alma Mater songs exalt.

Official at colleges say it’s a trend driven by baby boomers, who are seeking a greater sense of meaning and connection in their lives. The director of alumni relations at one college, explains, “People today are moving around the country all the time. They may have no sense of home, but they have fond memories of college and a sense of belonging there.”

“Homecoming Eternal” is even being practiced clandestinely. Duke University officials report that small mounds of ashes have mysteriously appeared in formal gardens on campus during the dark of night. The Blue Devil made ‘em do it, I suppose.

If you are contemplating a final resting place at your old school, it’s going to cost you, of course. University of Virginia, alumni can purchase a $1,400 vault in the campus columbarium. It can run into the thousands at some universities.

Now that the practice has caught on in South Carolina you can rest assured, if there is a buck to be made, other schools will follow suit.

Can’t you just imagine “homecoming” at Clemson as they get into the alumni planting business. They already have a prime appropriately named burial spot. They call it “Death Valley”.

Who knows? A brand new rivalry may develop with the University of South Carolina Gamecocks to see which school can plant the most alumni in the stadium end-zone at half time.

I can’t wait for the premier edition of “US News & World Report” designating the “Best Colleges to be Buried at.” Or “The 10 Best Colleges to be Caught Dead in.” Opportunities for advancement of the new custom are limitless. Just imaging college advertisements hawking: “We not only want to be your first college choice – we want to be your last one, too”.

And how about those Clemson jerseys emblazoned with, “Grandpa was buried at Death Valley and all I got was this lousy Tiger T-Shirt.”

The promotional possibilities are unlimited.