Welcome

Welcome to my blog http://www.skegley.blogspot.com/ . CAVEAT LECTOR- Let the reader beware. This is a Christian Conservative blog. It is not meant to offend anyone. Please feel free to ignore this blog, but also feel free to browse and comment on my posts! You may also scroll down to respond to any post.

For Christian American readers of this blog:


I wish to incite all Christians to rise up and take back the United States of America with all of God's manifold blessings. We want the free allowance of the Bible and prayers allowed again in schools, halls of justice, and all governing bodies. We don't seek a theocracy until Jesus returns to earth because all men are weak and power corrupts the very best of them.
We want to be a kinder and gentler people without slavery or condescension to any.

The world seems to be in a time of discontent among the populace. Christians should not fear. God is Love, shown best through Jesus Christ. God is still in control. All Glory to our Creator and to our God!


A favorite quote from my good friend, Jack Plymale, which I appreciate:

"Wars are planned by old men,in council rooms apart. They plan for greater armament, they map the battle chart, but: where sightless eyes stare out, beyond life's vanished joys, I've noticed,somehow, all the dead and mamed are hardly more than boys(Grantland Rice per our mutual friend, Sarah Rapp)."

Thanks Jack!

I must admit that I do not check authenticity of my posts. If anyone can tell me of a non-biased arbitrator, I will attempt to do so more regularly. I know of no such arbitrator for the internet.











Monday, January 18, 2016

Politics, basketball and the middle finger ... Thx (KSR) Kentucky Sports Radio by Matt Jones ... a little off-color for this site!


Rick, Rand and the Middle Finger

Pics from Twitter accounts of @byronbellamy and @AaronKatersky
Pics from Twitter accounts of @byronbellamy (Rick) and @AaronKatersky (Rand)
It’s been a precipitous fall and a bitter winter for two Kentucky icons, Rick Pitino and Rand Paul.
KSR Nation needs no reminder about the Louisville coach’s troubles and traumas.  (OK, I know you love it: Here are my takes on Escort-Gate.)
Rand’s fall has been even sharper and more dizzying.  As recently as October 2014, the seminal Time magazine published a cover story proclaiming that Kentucky’s junior Senator was “The Most Interesting Man in Politics.”  Many soothsayers of conventional wisdom agreed, and declared Paul a top-tier presidential candidate as the 2016 Republican caucuses and primaries approached.  With the Grand Old Party skewing far too elderly and bleach-white, Paul seemed to have positioned himself uniquely well to energize pro-pot, anti-war Millennials, as well as minority voters craving criminal justice reform.
Then Trump happened. And the Tea Party army revealed itself not as Paul-style libertarians, but rather as a mixed bag of regular folks angry and resentful toward the Establishment that Rand had been nurturing to appear more electable.
Then Paris happened.  And Paul’s isolationist pronouncements and ACLU-style civil liberties “stands with Rand” detached him from a GOP base that was increasingly fearful and looking for a stronger voice to lead the war on terrorism.
Worst of all, Rand’s seemingly-clever strategy to triangulate and expand his father’s ideologically-rigid coalition by positioning himself as the champion of arch-conservative social causes, failed to convince many sincere evangelical voters, and simultaneously undermined his libertarian base:  While Ron Paul secured more than 21% of the 2012 Iowa caucus vote; Rand’s current tally is struggling to rise above the 5% line.
If that weren’t enough, on Friday, Rand Paul “won” recognition from the Washington Post as having “the worst week in Washington.”  His poll numbers plummeting, Paul was excluded from the main stage GOP presidential debate, and instead of joining the “kiddie table” undercard forum, he publicly complained and groused and boycotted his party’s showcase.  Worse yet, after seeming to escape a serious 2016 Democratic Senate challenger when former Auditor Adam Edelen demurred, Paul learned this week that popular Lexington Mayor Jim Gray was seriously considering a bid.  Indeed, such a race might be tough to resist for the moderate, respected businessman — considering the continuing beatings Paul is expected to take in Iowa, New Hampshire, and especially in the March 5 Kentucky presidential caucuses that Rand begged his party to schedule so that he could run for both offices simultaneously.  Meanwhile, the “money bombs” that had fueled Paul’s surprise 2010 Senate victory may be a lot less explosive considering the disenchantment of his father’s Rolodex.
So, Paul pulled a Pitino.
Like the Cards Coach who vented his frustrations after an agonizing UK loss by flipping the bird at a rowdy Rupp Arena crowd, the junior Senator from Kentucky, in an interview with ABC Radio, extended his middle finger to the media — literally — on behalf of “99 percent of my supporters” for being shut out of the debate.
As a scholar of the salute (OK, I just looked it up on the ultra-reliable Wikipedia), I can report that the middle finger gesture has been around for millennia. Used in ancient Greece and Rome, the finger represents the phallus (surprise!), and was delivered as a sign of insult or disrespect.  By late 19th century America, the gesture became part and parcel of pop culture, with a message roughly translated as “f___ you” or “f___ off” or “go f___ yourself.”  (Snopes here debunks the counter-theory that the salute was derived by English archers at the Battle of Agincourt, declaring “Pluck You!”)
In drawing renewed national attention to the middle finger, Pitino and Paul may have eloquently, if not elegantly, captured the political and sports zeitgeist.  As I elaborated last month, we tend to no longer view our sports or political opponents as competitive rivals:
We hate them.  They are the enemy.  F__ them!
Just scroll down and review the comments section below or on any online e-mag — a significant percentage of written screeds are simply rhetorical extensions of the middle finger: at columnists, public figures or often other commenters.  Indeed, the Trump campaign has emerged as the bird-flipping blog comments section writ large: featuring bilious demagoguery about “the other” and fact-challenged conspiracy theories, all punctuated by venomous ad hominem personal attacks.
Gallons of virtual ink have been spilled trying to explain today’s public mood and how it’s flipped all political conventions upside down, benefiting unlikely, anger-fueled frontrunners such as Trump, Ted Cruz and Bernie Sanders.  I’m most persuaded by a recent Thomas Friedman column, quoting my law school classmate, Dov Seidman, who argues that the 24/7 news construct, amplified by social media, has heightened our nation’s moral arousal and moral outrage dramatically:
“People everywhere seem to be morally aroused,” said Seidman. “The philosopher David Hume argued that ‘the moral imagination diminishes with distance.’ It would follow that the opposite is also true: As distance decreases, the moral imagination increases. Now that we have no distance — it’s like we’re all in a crowded theater, making everything personal — we are experiencing the aspirations, hopes, frustrations, plights of others in direct and visceral ways.”
Seidman concludes with hope that societal leaders can channel this moral outrage into “deep and honest conversations” about reform and change. I’m less sanguine.  But I do have optimism that when the 2016 presidential campaign concludes, and the U of L scandal is resolved, we’ll have much more constructive outlets over which to vent our moral outrage.
I’m even more hopeful that a Paul/Gray race — between two very smart guys with polar-opposite ideologies and perspectives on the value of public service — can offer Kentucky voters a meaningful opportunity to deliver a clear verdict on the role of government in their lives and for their communities.  And that’s something that might allow all of us to rest our middle fingers…for at least the time being.

Thomas Jefferson ... Thx Paul C!

    THOMAS Jefferson 


       This is amazing. There are two parts. Be
       sure to read the 2nd part (in RED). 
       Thomas Jefferson was a very remarkable man who
       started learning very early in life and never
       stopped.

       At 5, began studying under his cousin's
       tutor.

       At 9, studied Latin, Greek and
       French.

       At 14, studied classical literature and
       additional languages.

       At 16, entered the College of William and Mary.
       Also could write in Greek with one hand while writing the
       same in Latin with the other.

       At 19, studied Law for 5 years starting under
       George Wythe.

       At 23, started his own law practice.

       At 25, was elected to the Virginia House of
       Burgesses.

       At 31, wrote the widely circulated "Summary
       View of the Rights of British America? And retired from his law practice. 

       At 32, was a Delegate to the Second Continental
       Congress.

       At 33, wrote the Declaration of Independence.

       At 33, took three years to revise Virginia's
       legal code and wrote a Public Education bill and a statute for Religious Freedom.

       At 36, was elected the second Governor of
       Virginia succeeding Patrick Henry.

       At 40, served in Congress for two
       years.

       At 41, was the American minister to France and
       negotiated commercial treaties with European nations along with Ben Franklin and John Adams.

       At 46, served as the first Secretary of State
       under George Washington.

       At 53, served as Vice President and was elected
       president of the American Philosophical
       Society.

       At 55, drafted the Kentucky Resolutions and
       became the active head of Republican
       Party.

       At 57, was elected the third president of the
       United States.

       At 60, obtained the Louisiana Purchase doubling
       the nation's size.

       At 61, was elected to a second term as
       President.

       At 65, retired to Monticello.

       At 80, helped President Monroe shape the Monroe
       Doctrine.

       At 81, almost single-handedly created the
       University of Virginia and served as its first
       President.

       At 83, died on the 50th anniversary of the
       Signing of the Declaration of Independence along with John Adams.

       Thomas Jefferson knew because he himself
       studied the previous failed attempts at Government. He understood actual history, the nature of God, his laws and the nature of man. That happens to be way more than what
       most understand today. Jefferson really knew his stuff. A voice from the past to lead us in the
       future:

       John F. Kennedy held a dinner in the white
       House for a group of the brightest minds in the nation at that time. He made this statement: "This is perhaps the assembly of the most intelligence ever to gather at one
       time in the White House with the exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone." 

       "When we get piled upon one another in large
       cities, as in Europe, we shall become as corrupt as Europe."
       -- Thomas Jefferson

       "The democracy will cease to exist when you
       take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not."
       -- Thomas Jefferson

       "It is incumbent on every generation to pay its
       own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world."
       -- Thomas Jefferson

       "I predict future happiness for Americans if
       they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them."
       -- Thomas Jefferson

       "My reading of history convinces me that most
       bad government results from too much government."
       --
       Thomas Jefferson

       "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of
       arms."
       -- Thomas Jefferson

       "The strongest reason for the people to retain
       the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in
       government."
       -- Thomas Jefferson

       "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from
       time to time with the blood of patriots and
       tyrants."
       -- Thomas Jefferson

       "To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes
       the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical."
       -- Thomas Jefferson

       Thomas Jefferson said in 1802:

       "I believe that banking institutions are more
       dangerous to our liberties than standing armies.

       If the American people ever allow private banks
       to control the issue of their currency, first by
       inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people of all property - until their children wake-up homeless on
       the continent their fathers conquered."

       I wish we could get this out to every
       American! I'm doing my part. So Please do
       yours.  

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