I titled it that way for a reason. There comes a moment in nearly every human life when each of us must confront our demons. Some identify the problem and get a shot at wellness, others pretend they have no demons and continue to remain sick and ultimately decline. There is no other way. I can not remember any problem in my life from blood clots to burst water mains in my front yard that didn't require recognition that something was wrong, a diagnosis or plan for resolving the issue, action, and follow up. That's how those problems get fixed including violent crime in America. In America, if we removed five cities from our violent crime rates- Chicago, Detroit, Baltimore, St. Louis, and New Orleans- we'd have a relatively safe world.  http://www.worldatlas.com/articles/most-dangerous-cities-in-the-world.html So what do those five cities have in common? What can we learn from them? They are led by democratic leadership, they have statistically large populations of ...

There was a time in my life when I would have proudly said I leaned democrat. Having grown up in a union town I watched the industrial robber barons destroy human lives and rape the environment to such an extent that my hometown is America's number one Superfund site. Killing thousands of miners making three dollars a day and leaving a toxic stew behind is reason enough to hate the greedy capitalistic and GOP aligned interests that got away with that. Those were my humble impressions as a child. So I get the democratic thinking of Butte, Montana. Over the subsequent 40 years, something inside of me changed. Maybe it was the strength of environmental protection. As a young man, regulating the nuclear industry was a big deal to me. I had visions of toxic waste rotting away- vivid childhood memories of what happened in Butte. Maybe it was the success of President Reagan on the heels of Jimmy Carter's failed leadership. I liked Reagan's moral code and his tenacity in breaking...

Wow. The woman who desperately wanted to lead America is blaming her election day loss on FBI Director, James Comey.  http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/clinton-blames-fbis-comey-for-her-defeat-in-call-with-donors/ar-AAkdFc9? For most of us, particularly those of us who take responsibility for our own actions, the answer is pretty simple. Hillary Clinton lost because of Hillary Clinton. Hillary Clinton blaming everyone but herself for her election day loss is not particularly unpredictable or newsworthy. Forget all of the scandals, the deleted emails and the destruction of evidence, her dereliction of duty and her lies about Benghazi. Forget her history of  poor performance and those non stop attack ads that littered our television sets. We know about those things. What is newsworthy and most telling is that at the ripe old age of 69, Hillary Clinton is blaming others for her loss. That level of unconsciousness, while not rare or unheard of, tells us a lot about wh...

It was Sept. 11, 2012. Less than 60 days before President Obama's re-election. The Libyan Embassy and the annex in Benghazi were under attack. The attack lasted about 8-9 hours. When the attack was over, Ambassador Chris Stevens and 3 of his countrymen lay dead. I have never been more ashamed of my country or more specifically- it's alleged leadership- than I was in the days following the attack. Not only did our Commander in Chief disappear that night (his whereabouts have never been disclosed) but we had military support available within a 3 hour arrival time. They had been alerted and were ready to go but they were never sent. I don't really care what we were doing in Benghazi. Perhaps we were smuggling arms or housing CIA spies and operatives. I don't care what shady shit we were up to. We violated the one rule that is encoded in our collective DNA. We let our comrades die at the hands of savages and we didn't move a muscle to help. The shame doesn't w...

From the beginning of time- the winners have been scripting history. They like it that way. They get to tell their version of events and the dead and vanquished lose their voices. The winners win, and the King, the Confederacy, the Mexicans, Custer and the Indians, the Japanese and the Germans, all go away. The winners are left to tell their version of history, manifest destiny style. In all likelihood, it has always been that way. That's certainly how it is in America. We have a wonderful group of owners. They are the winners. These are the people with the best education and more success than most of us can ever dream of. They are Goldman Sachs bankers, corporate attorneys, hedge fund managers, billionaires who own our 6 media companies. They are the chief executives of insurance companies, of the pharmaceutical cartel, big oil, and every other glitzy industry where billions are made. They employ lobbyists to make sure their brand of laws get passed. In short, these are our owne...

The cockroaches are scurrying around this week. There are 650,000 Hillary Clinton emails on Anthony Weiner's computer. The possibilities seem endless.  http://www.westernjournalism.com/fbi-found-650000-clinton-related-emails-on-computer-abedin-shared-with-weiner/ Will the 33,000 emails that Hillary scrubbed and acid burned be found? Will all those people, many of them Clinton insiders and lawyers that Comey gave immunity to, finally be exposed? Will Loretta Lynch and Comey and that faux investigation finally find the light of day? Will we find Benghazi emails? Demand letters from Hillary to middle eastern sheiks for donations to the Clinton foundation? Will they find Obama emails to Hillary? I'll tell you this much- I don't think I've composed 100,000 emails in my entire life. If Weiner somehow hijacked 650,00 emails from Hillary via Hillary's confidante- Huma Abedin- and preserved them- I cannot tell you the sheer delight that I would have to see the mo...

A couple of days ago I got a call from my old friend, Pat. Pat wanted to know why I wasn't writing about these two morons that are running for President. Honestly, they remind me of the last two morons. And the two before that. And so on. The democrats and their lap dog media must really be scared of losing. Every article in every mainstream media outlet is running Trump down- while ignoring Hillary's crimes. It smells of desperation. Even those fake polls. Actually I can boil this election down to one topic. That's all there is. The rest of this election is noise. More on that in a bit. I have a two part theory on why we get such horrible candidates every election cycle. It is actually pretty simple. Ego maniacs and power seekers run for office. Sometimes I think, they actually run for the money particularly in the rural areas. Candidates today do not run for office out of a sense of public service. In fact, the idea of running based on public service is a notion s...

I love Tucson, Arizona. The people are friendly, the Mexican food is authentic, housing is cheap and so is gas. (currently about 1.79 a gal.) The mountains around Tucson provide a gorgeous skyline just before sunrise and just after sunset. The mountains are littered with giant saguaro cactus poking up everywhere. Tombstone and Bisbee are close by. If you're ever in this neck of the woods, Bisbee is worth the drive. Very unique place. So in mid July, I sold my bungalow in Boise. It was going to be three weeks before my new home would be ready. That left me in the awkward position of being homeless for three weeks with nothing to do. I had narrowed the possibilities down to Saratoga, Del Mar, or Tucson. I love Saratoga Springs, NY. It is one of the coolest places in the U.S.- especially during the horse racing meet. But finding lodging anywhere near Saratoga or Del Mar (San Diego) is just insanely expensive. At over 200-300 bucks a day, three weeks in those places was going to run ...

James Comey offered another government whitewash on Jul. 5 when he declined to "pursue" the case against Hillary Clinton. That's what our government does best. They lie. And in a moment, I'll offer proof of a cover up by way of procedure. First of all I'd like to say-  James Comey was never a cop. He is a lawyer and a political appointee. The FBI's top cop? Let me explain. The best cops in this country aren't pussies and they sure as hell don't behave like compromised political prisoners. I detest people like Comey. I always have. They are nothing but political whores- unprincipled and always for sale. Oh sure they'll prosecute some minor league player who can't hurt them, but when real danger comes calling they try to find ways to circumvent the law. Doing the right thing is never selfless. These guys always think about themselves first. In fact,  they believe that's all that matters. They never put it on the line because they are coward...

First a little background.  My state run retirement system, which is in the top 10% in terms of funding, is on track to either lose 1% this year or break even. It's fiscal year ends Jun 30. Most state run retirement funds are based on actuarial returns of 8% annually. This is not net of a true inflation rate which is running right around 9%. The government's wholly fictitious Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) publications which include the monthly PPI and CPI manipulations are some of the finest accounting gimmickry ever produced. They do this to keep inflation "contained" and to keep cost of living increases for SSI down to next to nothing. State retirement systems love the BLS- they cite their ridiculous numbers every year while screwing plan particpants out of cost of living allowances. Last year my state system gave out nothing- unless you had been retired for at least 5 years. They gave those people 1%. They are bankers. They know their actuarial rates...

In January of this year, my friend Jon talked me into driving for the ride sharing service, Uber. Jon had made nearly 600 bucks in three days, half of which he made on New Year's Eve. That sounded like a pretty good deal to me. So I set about the task of trying to investigate Uber online. All I could find were a couple of cheer leading pieces telling me how lucrative Uber driving was. I suspected if people were making 50, 75, and 100k a year as some posts claimed- everyone would be driving for Uber. So I knew that was bullshit. I also found some disgruntled comments here and there. What I wasn't able to find was a comprehensive "pros and cons" type of piece written by an actual driver and not some company stooge or displaced taxi cab driver. For the record, I am a retired police officer from small town America. Driving people around in cars comes pretty natural to me, although in the case of Uber- it's the rider's choice to take a ride rather than my decisio...

A few years ago, I got a call from my first love. The one thing I always hated about her was her ability to white wash the truth. She is one of those people who will tell you how fantastic her life is while her house is burning down along with all of her possessions. Never, ever, would she disclose anything about herself or her life that was less than perfect. That kind of self deception is nauseating. I hated it back in college and while we were on that phone call, she began telling me about her perfect life- while throwing a few little barbs my way. I remember thinking how close I came to marrying this gal. Marriage would have been disastrous. For just as she edits every last scintilla of awkward truthfulness about her life- I am the polar opposite. I embrace the inconvenient truths about my life. I have no problem telling anyone my entire life story, the unedited and candid version, particularly if I think it will help them. I don't view my life as a series of events that I ...

My friend Jim at Conservatives on Fire abruptly quit blogging over a year ago. He offered no explanation. Jim had always been a great supporter of mine. I missed him and worried about him. Jim was a class act. He tried to be impartial and never used profanity while writing. I have never had that sort of restraint. Jim I think, was wiser than I- much sooner than I. Back in 2008, I had this idea that blogging would be an excellent way to reach out and unite people. I believed that people could circle the wagons and repair our country if we could all just agree that we had a problem. I realize now, at age 55, that I was an idiot. That the vast majority of people don't care. I can't even call them stupid because they might actually be the smart ones. Not caring might be the healthiest thing that the minions ever do for themselves. There is no saving America as we once knew it. Perhaps the best blog ever written on that topic is linked here.  http://www.freemansperspective.com...

An excellent essay. This lays out the thought process of every liberal I've ever known. My apologies for a little margin encroachment. The Modern Progressive's Insatiable Thirst for Tyranny By  Dr. Richard Ebeling What does freedom mean? What is the purpose of government? And what should be the government's relationship to each of us as individuals and as members of society as a whole? These issues recently came up during a dinner conversation with a new acquaintance with whom I'd not previously had such a discussion. The views that I expressed in the calm and friendly and enjoyable exchange are those usually labeled as classical liberal or libertarian. My dinner companion reasoned from what is the "modern" liberal or "progressive" point-of-view. Like myself, he has been a professor in higher education, and he is widely read and very knowledgeable. What became clear to both during the conversation and from reflecting on it afte...