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Living Amongst the Hoople Heads- The Sunday Collage

 What exactly is a hoople head? I first heard the term in the wonderful "Deadwood" series and what follows is a perfectly good definition of that term.  Hoople head  referred to the people that made the hoops that went around wooden barrels . The job took little skill and very little intelligence...thus "hoople head " meant an unskilled, low intelligence laborer. I should also note that hooped barrels are long gone. But the hoople heads remain. I was once a hoople head myself. It was demonstrated to me on a car lot sometime in 1986. I had spent nearly an entire day struggling with a sales gal to have the retail price of a car I was interested in simply reduced to the high retail price for that car as listed in a N.A.D.A. book which back then- was some closely guarded secret. After six hours or so, they finally reduced the price. They even gave me a low book price for my trade in. Feeling triumphant, I signed the documents. I did not see the inflated interest rate un

First, We Abandoned Virtue- The Sunday Collage

This post was first published in September, 2014. Sorry for the delay today. Late night, didn't get home until 2 a.m. A couple of weeks ago, I was reading some interesting stuff about societies and how they eventually crumble and implode. More than a few people have postulated that the first things to go wanting are values, morals, and integrity. This was first proposed by Socrates and then expanded on by Plato as they spoke of virtue as moral excellence. How are people supposed to understand the importance of virtue if your society doesn't teach it and your leaders don't possess it? Not only do we lack any type of "leadership by example" but when was the last time you actually heard anyone, anywhere, describe a President or a  Congressman as honest?  If all you ever see is this current day "dog eat dog mentality" from your leaders doesn't that become the standard? If you look outside politics, you see greedy corporate pirates such as the Koch B

I Couldn't Attend the Funeral- But I Sent a Nice Letter of Approval

 I was lost and now I am found. A month or so ago, I was messing around with my control panel and managed to lose everything on my computer before re-installing it. This is what happens when you barely have enough know how to turn your computer on and then attempt to change all the settings. Anyhow, what was lost is now found. After an ample amount of work and cursing. In the comments, I saw an old friend ask if I was still around. To MM and my 3 other readers, yes, and while I have achieved a level of writer's block that has me wondering if I should have even bothered to restore the settings on my laptop- I am still here looking for new subject matter. This morning I was perusing the old town's newspaper when I came across the obituary of a former colleague of mine. I am so used to feeling a sense of loss every time one of my old friends die- that I have never felt an opposite emotion. A bit of glee when an old enemy left this earthly coil. Now I've never gone looking for

The "Keeping Time" Has Arrived- The Sunday Collage

 Mrs. Elizabeth Powel asked Benjamin Franklin the question. What do we have, a republic or a monarchy? Franklin answered, "A republic if you can keep it." Probably historically true.  In a republic, the power to govern is held by the people or their elected representatives. By consent. We have checks and balances for those representatives, and we have a rule of law. That theory was meant to keep an oppressive government at bay. To keep them from acquiring too much power In a democracy, the people directly make every decision. There are no representatives. Democracies often devolve into mob rule democracies. Like the one we have now. A republic is meant to protect the minority from the oppression of the majority. A rule of law is what keeps it civil. A minority member's interests are protected. Until the mob takes over. Now we can debate who, what, when, and how we have lost our republic. We can even debate whether we still have one or not. On paper, we might have a republ

The Killing of Craig Robertson- The Sunday Collage

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"Anger is brief insanity." Mom attributed the quote to Hemingway. Having been on the receiving end of mom's wrath more than a few times, that phrase has always made sense. Craig Robertson, age 75, died in Provo, Utah on August, 9, 2023. He was killed by an FBI tactical team for making threats. He was an Air Force veteran, welding inspector, and wood worker. He had been married twice and widowed twice. He had three children.  He was not in the best of health and walked with a cane. He loved guns and was a member of the NRA. Robertson was no fan of the democratic party. To be fair, Robertson had made several threats regarding Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, and Attorney General Merrick Garland, among others. These were descriptive threats wherein Robertson went into great detail about how he would accomplish the killings of those individuals. We must assume that he actually made those threats on social media, since he never

The United States- The World's Biggest Banana Republic

 This week was one for the ages. The Michigan State Police confirmed that hundreds of thousands of illegal ballots, a conspiracy in the swing states, was not only caught on video and investigated- Michigan did nothing and the FBI did nothing. This video amazingly coincides with the 3 a.m. miraculous election of Joe Biden in 2020 who was losing and then suddenly pulled a Presidency out of a hat. Via the Gateway Pundit, you will likely not see this anywhere mainstream.  https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/08/now-we-have-proof-tgp-exclusive-massive-2020/ The Biden family was paid over 20 million dollars by Chinese, Russian, Ukrainian and Kazakhstan nationals while Joe was the VP. Funny now that Biden and the democrats have been sponsoring the Ukrainian war with US tax dollars after receiving bribes in the millions. This while Obama was President. What did he know?  https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/foreigners-paid-more-than-20-million-to-biden-family-associates-bank-records-5453849 The J

Living the Mediocre Dream- The Sunday Collage

 Every once in a while, the question of "What would have been your dream job?" comes up. The last time I think- was during a game of trivial pursuit- now almost 20 years ago.  "A defensive cornerback or safety in the NFL" was always my answer. There were only a few things stopping me from attaining my dream. A commitment or plan to study and work hard, my lack of speed, strength, and leaping ability. Hell, we moved twice during high school. I didn't even play football my junior or senior years. But I got a taste of greatness. Once.  So it was, I was relegated to mediocrity. A mediocre college, a mediocre trade school, a mediocre career as a lawman. I was alright with mediocre. In hindsight, I might not have even deserved mediocre. I had no desire to conquer the world, skim hard working bank accounts like an investment banker. I had no money to buy or develop real estate or pirate the business world with some monopolized invention. I had no clue what those things