Getting the last laugh in life

Good Day World!

There's an old English proverb that says, "He laughs best who laughs last."

What's better than getting the last laugh on a bully?

There are many other situations in life where we can get the last laugh in life.

Let's warm up with two quick examples:

Man gets the last laugh after exposing gold-digging woman

How to have the last laugh when dealing with life's bullies

Can you remember a time when you got the last laugh? Nothing is more satisfying.

I was watching the news recently and there was a story about UPS and FedEx packages being stolen from the front of people's houses.

The thief was even known to come back to places he already ripped off for a repeat performance. Then one homeowner got a great idea.

He carefully packed a load of shit into a large FedEx box rigged with a devise that propelled the poop when opened!
Sure enough the box was stolen.

I'm not sure if that thief ever came back - I kind of doubt it - but I'll bet he was shit-faced for awhile!!!

Now, that's getting the last laugh.

Time for me to walk on down the road...

Change Can Be A Contentious Subject For Conservatives

Good Day World!

In the normal course of history societies adapt to change, or they crumble like stale cookies.

Traditions are often barriers to change. 

Because a statue of a slave-holder/Confederate general has been in the middle of a town square for a 100 years doesn't mean it can't be relocated to accommodate those African-Americans that are offended by it today.

The fact is Caucasians have marginalized the rest of the races, from African-Americans to Native Americans, since they formed a new government after casting the British out of the colonies.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize that from the very start whites have talked about equality of man, but their actions have belied that claim.

Non-white Americans today are still fighting for equal rights throughout the old confederacy. Neo-Confederates seek to rewrite history.

Most conservatives mask their bias against other races and the LGBT community by claiming religious reasons for not tolerating them.

Quick example: The so-called bathroom law has thrust North Carolina into the center of a national debate over equality, privacy and religious freedom in the wake of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last year that legalized same-sex marriage.

A very wise man, Lao Tzu, once said;

"Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don't resist them; that only creats sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like."

Time for me to walk on down the road....

Bizarro World: The Election No One Wants To See

Good Day World!

Bizarro World is a fictional planet featured in DC Comics.

In popular culture it's come to mean a situation or setting which is weirdly inverted or opposite to expectations.

With that, I give you the 2016 Presidential Election which has to be the most bizarre one in our history.

You couldn't pick - but their party's perversely did - two more unpopular candidates than Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. How is that even possible?

How bizarre can it get when people say they like Trump because "he says it like it is." This in spite of the reality that he's seldom bothered with facts. 

Hillary Clinton represents the Democratic establishment that's at odds with millions of Americans. Bernie Sanders represents change, but Clinton's political clout is too well embedded in Washington circles, for him to effectively challenge her.

In this bizarro world there will be no winners after the election is over. 

The clash between the ideological segments of our society will continue.

The anger will only get worse with the regime change.

It's sad watching America spiral out of control with no hope of a hero/Superman to show up at the last minute and save us. If this were a comic book we could all escape this chaos and go back to the real world.

Time for me to walk on down the road...

Going 'Old School' On Ya, My Friend...

Good Day World!

It's just one of those days and I'm all nostalgic about the 60s and the weed culture back then. 

I first 'turned on" (modern translation: I got stoned) in 1966, and became a lifelong "head." (Stoner)

What an experience that first time. I was inside a friend's house in a darkened room decorated with cool psychedelic blacklight posters vibrating in an ultraviolet glow.

Jim Morrison's voice gripped us all as we listened to "The End."  There were three of us.
My friend Larry and I, and our host who shall go un-named here.

Met some bitchin people along the Cannabis highway. One of my favorite slang words from those days was "bogart," which meant don't hog something.

Which leads me to this iconic song:

DON"T BOGART ME

Don't bogart that joint, my friend
Pass it over to me.
Don't bogart that joint, my friend
Pass it over to me.

Roll another one
just like the other one.
This one's burnt to the end
Come on and be a friend.

Ro-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-oll another one
just like the other one
You've been hanging on to it
And I sure would like a hit.

By The Fraternity Of Man

Time for me to walk on down the road...

An Anniversary Date That I Could Do Without

Good Day World!

When I got out of the Army in March of 1971, I threw away my uniforms and medals. 

Then, I disappeared into the hinterlands of America for three years. I was angry a lot. Got into fights too easily. I was constantly looking over my shoulder in anticipation of something bad happening.

Fell in love and got married in August 1974. My wife soon found that she'd married a flawed man. A tortured soul. My nightmares haunted my wife's nights as she tried to comfort me when I woke screaming gibberish.

No one talked about Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome (PTSD) back in those days. My wife and children, as they came along, learned to walk on eggshells when I was around. 

Fast forward to the early 1990s when I was diagnosed with PTSD by the Veterans Administration. Got counseling. I was no longer able to work at my job as a newspaper editor and was awarded a 100% disability pension by the VA.

Today I still struggle with PTSD. I have discovered how to take care of myself, and to avoid situations that could trigger my temper, or fear.

Yet, there's still a certain time of the year (late April, May, and early June) when I'm most vulnerable. The doctors call this time an Anniversary date. 

It's usually associated with dramatic circumstances. In my case, surviving an ambush and seeing my best friend killed at the same time while we were in Cambodia.

I wish I could convey the horror of nightmares and daymares assaulting my senses for days, and sometimes weeks on end. 

I can only tell you the brain is a mystery. My anniversary date is upon me now...

Every hour is a challenge. Every noise a reason for an increased heartbeat. Darkness tries to wrap me up in a cocoon of misery. 

During this hell-spawned anniversary, the ghosts of war follow me throughout the day. Sometimes I see them, and can't make them go away. And, I die a little bit.

My redemption however is never far away because I have someone who loves me each and every day. My wife Shirley.

She shields me from the darkness whenever it gets too near. She is my loving companion throughout the year; for 41 years now. 

With love, anything can be overcome. Even PTSD.

Time for me to walk on down the road...

Struggling To Survive: 'Where Are You Now, My Son?'

Good Day World!

Few singers can speak to the human condition better than Joan Baez. 

I look at what's happening around the world right now, especially in Syria, and I can imagine Joan's beautiful voice telling these people's story today.

The following song is as valid now as when she wrote it in 1973.

Where Are You Now, My Son?

By Joan Baez

"It's walking to the battleground that always makes me cry

I've met so few folks in my time who weren't afraid to die

But dawn bleeds with people here and morning skies are red

As young girls load up bicycles with flowers for the dead

An aging woman picks along the craters and the rubble

A piece of cloth, a bit of shoe, a whole lifetime of trouble

A sobbing chant comes from her throat and splits the morning air

The single son she had last night is buried under her

They say that the war is done

Where are you now, my son?"

Related:

What You Should Know About the Syrian Refugee Controversy

Inside the Syrian Crisis: Social therapy in Jordan

Time for me to walk on down the road...

The Lizard King's Legacy: Strange Days Are Upon Us

Good Day World!

The world has never been stranger.

When Jim Morrison wrote Strange Days he was talking about the world in the 1970s.

The song really resonates in 2016. Strange things are happening in this presidential campaign. The world has never been stranger... 

STRANGE DAYS

Strange days have found us

Strange days have tracked us down

They're going to destroy

Our casual joys

We Shall go on playing

Or find a new town

Yeah!

Donald Trump Is The presumptive GOP Nominee For President

Strange eyes fill strange rooms

Voices will signal their tired end

The hostess is grinning

Her guests sleep from sinning

Hear me talk of sin

And you knows this is it

Yeah!

School project's graffiti sparks fears Zodiac Killer is back

Mad Scientist Invents Hoverbike  (Photo above)

Strange days have found us

And through their strange hours

We linger alone

Bodies confused

Memories misused

And we run from the day

To a strange night of stone

Yeah!

Time for me to walk on down the road...

When I Was Young Wednesday

Good Day World

Looking back when I was young in the 1950s (photo left):

I want to say it was a time of innocence, but that's not entirely true.
My memories are merely preceptions of a time when the world seemed new.

When The Animals came along with this song - When I Was Young - it became one of my personal anthems.

WHEN I WAS YOUNG

Smoked my first cigarette at ten

And for girls, I had a bad yen
Life meant so much more
When I was young
When I was young

When I was young, it was more important
Pain more painful, the laughter much louder, yeah
When I was young
When I was young

My faith was such much stronger then

I believed in my fellow men

I was really so much older then

When I was young

When I was young


Time for me to walk on down the road...

May 3rd: 'Whoa thought it was a nightmare...'

Good Day World!

On this day, May 3, 1970:

The Cambodian Campaign (also known as the Cambodian Incursion and the Cambodian Invasion) was a series of military operations conducted in eastern Cambodia during 1970 by the United States and the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam) during the Vietnam War.

I was one of those Americans (31st Eng. Battalion, 79th Engineers). This song by Creedence Clearwater Revival always reminds me of my time in that particular corner of hell.

RUN THROUGH THE JUNGLE

Whoa thought it was a nightmare

Lord it was true

The devil's on the loose

Better run through the jungle

Better run through the jungle

Better run through the jungle

Whoa don't look back to see

Thought I heard a rumblin'

Calling my name

two hundred million guns are loaded

Satan cries "take aim."

Time for me to walk on down the road...

Marvelous Monday: What A Wonderful World!

Good Day World!

Going through my mind this Monday morning...

"I see trees of green, red roses too
 I see them bloom for me and you
And I think to myself
What a wonderful world."
-Louis Armstrong


It is a wonderful world if we allow ourselves to see the good that's happening every day:

"I see friends shakin' hands
Sayin' "How do you do?"
They're really sayin'
"I love you."

The Red Hospital Wagons Bringing Smiles To Many

"I hear babies cry, I watch them grow
They'll learn much more than I'll ever know
And I think to myself
What a wonderful world."

Blind Boy Sees Mom For The First Time, And It’s Magical

Time for me to walk on down the road...

You Haven't Seen His Whole Act Yet

Good Day World!

It's no mystery why Donald Trump is popular; he's managed to mine the misery of the GOP's older white middle class men and turn it into votes thus far.

No one knows what Trump will do if he's actually elected president. That's because even Trump doesn't know what he'll do. 

How did a guy just as obnoxious as The Donald ever get elected as Maine's governor? Whoever voted for him is probably regretting their decision by now.

Governor Paul LaPage is the most racist, insensitive state governor in America. Is this what the voters expected when they elected him?

I have to wonder.

Read some of LaPage's comments:

 "The only thing that I've heard is if you take a plastic bottle and put it in the microwave and you heat it up, it gives off a chemical similar to estrogen. So the worst case is some women may have little beards."

That was LePage in 2011 dismissing concerns about the chemical BPA in plastic bottles.

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"The minute we start stifling our speech, we might as well go home, roll up our sleeves and get our guns out."

That was LePage fuming after he was barred last May from speaking at a state Appropriations Committee meeting.

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Maine State Sen. Troy Jackson "claims to be for the people, but he's the first one to give it to the people without providing Vaseline."

LePage said this in 2013 after Jackson gave the Democratic response to the governor's budget veto.

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"If you want a good education go to private schools. If you can't afford it, tough luck. You can go to the public school."

LePage said that in 2012 while discussing school choice during a talk at a local community college

FULL ARTICLE

Meanwhile, if you think LaPage has been the poster boy for bad taste and racism, stop and think about what Trump would be like. 

He's already further divided an uneasy country with his racist rhetoric in just the primaries.

Worse, we haven't seen his whole act yet.

Time for me to walk on down the road...