My Nominee For The Supreme Court

With the thought that it might be refreshing to see someone with REAL experience in the nitty-gritty of the law sitting on the highest bench in the land....turn around....see with new eyes..

He was born into a tough neighborhood in Washington, D.C., the only child of two schoolteachers. The family moved to south-central Los Angeles when he was a young boy.

Life in the inner city was difficult and dangerous. He saw friends fall to the violence and apathy of the streets. He said that he was one of the few kids in his neighborhood who did not end up "dead or in jail." He said he was able to escape due to his family and his education.

He graduated at the top of his class from Dorsey High School in the Crenshaw area of Los Angeles. He then went on to the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), where he majored in political science and helped pay for classes by digging ditches and loading trucks.

Although, at first, the law had not been his goal, he decided to apply to law school at UCLA and was accepted. He supported himself by working as a substitute teacher while he earned his law degree.

In 1973, he moved to Memphis, Tennessee, to work with legal services there and was later employed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). He became the city's first African American prosecutor in the city and then moved to the Public Defender's office as director.

By 1978, he left public law and opened his own law office. Twelve years later, in 1990, he returned to the public service, when he was elected judge of Division 9, State Criminal Courts, for Shelby County.

He began to make a modest name for himself with his efforts to help kids stay out of trouble and his methods of alternative sentencing. He was known for spending personal time following up on his cases in criminal court, especially those that involved young people. For his work with inner city kids, he was honored at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and given the Olender Foundation's Advocate for Justice Award.

He came into the national spotlight when, in 1998, he was appointed judge on the reopened case of the late James Earl Ray, who had been convicted and sentenced to 99 years in prison for the 1968 assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. Ray always maintained he had not been alone in the killing.

Although he was assigned to preside over the reopened case, he was later removed from the case by the Criminal Court of Appeals, which felt that he had demonstrated bias on the bench. After Ray died on April 23, 1998, the case was closed for a second time. This judge, believing that the full details of King's assassination need to be brought to light, said later that he felt the case should not have been closed after Ray's death.


An example of one ruling:This Shelby County (Tennessee) Court Judge, to the utter astonishment of the defendant, was going to let the victim come to the defendant's house and take something as restitution for his crime. He wasn't going to jail, but he was being punished.
" Why are you doing this?" he asked the judge.
"Now you know how it feels," the judge answered.  

Later the judge said he could have sentenced the defendant to jail, but "what would he learn?" The defendant had broken into a woman's house and stolen valuables.
Some victims have taken such things as a color television or stereo under the watchful eye of deputies who go along.

That case was not unusual. Known for his unorthodox sentencing, he often allowed victims to go to thieves' homes to take something of equal value to what had been stolen. As part of his alternative sentencing, he had also required other defendants to write on the "Autobiography of Malcom X."



While he was presiding over the Ray case, he appeared on "Nightline," a late-night, nationwide talk show. During that interview he was noticed by another man in a very different industry who offered him a very different position....


I now present to you my choice for Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States of America....The Honorable Judge Joseph Brown...

Too Long At The Fair

Senator Robert Byrd' is dead after 56+ in Congress.

Robert Byrd, the senior senator from West Virginia, whom admirers praised for his historical knowledge, mastery of procedural rules, and outspokenness. The Senate's senior Democrat referred to as the "conscience of the Senate."

But, before we all wax poetic about the long distinguished career of this man let's take a closer look....


Senator Byrd, showed his true colors when, at the age of 83, he was asked, by then Fox News Sunday morning talk show host Tony Snow, about the state of race relations in America, he warned, "There are white niggers. I've seen a lot of white niggers in my time. I'm going to use that word. We just need to work together to make our country a better country, and I'd just as soon quit talking about it so much." .

Robert Byrd was a member of the nation's most notorious hate group, the KKK. And he was not just a passive member. According to news accounts and biographical information, Sen. Byrd was a "Kleagle" -- an official recruiter who signed up members for $10 a head. He said he joined because it "offered excitement" and because the Klan was an "effective force" in "promoting traditional American values."

He allegedly ended his ties with the group in 1943. He may have stopped paying dues, but he continued to pay homage to the KKK. Republicans in West Virginia discovered a letter Sen. Byrd had written to the Imperial Wizard of the KKK three years after he says he abandoned the group. He wrote: "The Klan is needed today as never before and I am anxious to see its rebirth here in West Virginia" and "in every state in the Union."

Robert Byrd later filibustered the landmark 1964 Civil Rights Act -- supported by a majority of, Republicans -- for more than 14 hours. He also opposed the nominations of the Supreme Court's two black justices, liberal Thurgood Marshall and conservative Clarence Thomas. He even accused Justice Thomas of "injecting racism" into the Senate hearings.

Meanwhile, author Graham Smith discovered another letter Sen. Byrd wrote after he quit the KKK, this time attacking desegregation of the armed forces.

Byrd vowed never to fight "with a Negro by my side. Rather I should die a thousand times, and see Old Glory trampled in the dirt never to rise again, than to see this beloved land of ours become degraded by race mongrels, a throwback to the blackest specimen from the wilds."

The ‘CONSCIENCE OF THE SENATE” who opposed civil rights and black justices" was given a pass on this because he was a Democrat. The Maxine Waters, Jesse Jacksons, and Al Sharptons of our world who see racism in every corner of American life would have been howling continually over Sen. Byrd's fulminations if he had been a Republican.

Senator Robert Byrd was THE KING when it came to bringing home the pork. This was his top priority and it had not changed in a half-century. He shoveled it non-stop into his home state of West Virginia.

Conveniently he chaired the Senate Appropriations Committee a post that gave him the most satisfaction with its power of the purse — a post he gave up only last year as his health declined.

Byrd once promised to be West Virginia's billion-dollar industry," and he kept his word.

West Virginia is liberally sprinkled with…. the Robert C. Byrd Bridge, the Robert C. Byrd High School and the Robert C. Byrd Center for Legislative Studies, where academics can research how Congress came to give West Virginia six technology centers, two community centers, about two dozen additional projects named for Robert C. Byrd. Also there are the Robert C. Byrd Highway, the Robert C. Byrd Appalachian Highway System, the Robert C. Byrd Expressway, Robert C. Byrd Freeway, and the Robert C. Byrd Drive.

In his memoirs Byrd lists hundreds of his earmarks in detail, along with stories of moving Navy and Coast Guard offices to his landlocked state. Oh…. he moved the Bureau of the Public Debt to West Virginia, too.

Byrd was named "West Virginian of the 20th Century,"

But even after Byrd's half-century of pork shoveling — new prisons, new labs, new subsidies for fish farms, dairies and steelmakers — West Virginia is still an impoverished state, ranked 49th in per-capita gross state product

The culture of porkbarrel spending that he exemplified in the history of West Virginia should persuade all of us that there are better ways to achieve prosperity than becoming a "ward of the federal government" dependent on career politicians like Senator Byrd.

In speaking about the dangers of power, James Madison warned, "I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations."

Americans have been subjected to a gradual takeover by our legislators. Allowing our so-called "representatives" to stay and stay and stay and stay and stay only increases their sense of entitlement and decreases our liberty.

Bread and circuses ….
Good bye Senator Byrd….

The Borg By Any Other Name

We are THE BORG. Lower your shields and surrender your ships.
We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own.
Your culture will adapt to service us.

Resistance is futile.

The crew of STAR TREK THE NEXT GENERATION had a number of encounters with the Borg. The Borg are the most fearsome and relentless force in the galaxy.

An enormous ship that is shaped like a cube contains a massive society of cybernetic beings abducted and assimilated from thousands of species.

The Borg Collective is intent on spreading its influence throughout the entire universe. They consume technologies and populations without conscience. They destroy any that resist.

Once assimilated, individuals have a number of implants placed within them to connect and absorb them into the Borg collective. Once this is done, all species lose their sense of self, and become part of the hive mind. The assimilated retain no personal memories and lose their names.

The Borg are unrelenting. Because they are completely programmed on the One Truth they do not have the capacity to contemplate the possibility of different approaches or beliefs. They cannot be reasoned with….there is no negotiation. The desire to negotiate is seen as a sign of weakness.

For the Borg, the only options open to another race is to accept ‘assimilation’ or face destruction. In their extremist ideology, the adversary only offers to talk when he is vulnerable, and that vulnerability invites instant attack.


Whenever Captain Picard attempted to reason with the Borg he was ignored and the war continued. The Borg collective is programmed to continue their conquest until every species has either been assimilated or destroyed.

This is an existential, never ending battle against an enemy that is not content with simply running one planet. They want it all.

The Borg do not care about their casualties and are completely indifferent to the losses they incur. There are no tears shed for the fallen. They are driven by the hive mind to fall for the collective….and those in line to take their place are legion.

Everything in life is Star Trek.

Yes, I am a TREKKIE!

I was hooked from the very first episode of the very first STAR TREK in 1966.

I watched it in re-runs, I owned ALL the novels, I could recite dialog from the episodes and refer to each episode by its STARDATE.

I have loved all the spin -offs(I know how to insult in KLINGON.."PATAK"), all the movies, and I stood with the rest of the audience in the theater and applauded the most recent Star Trek film.

If one had been available to me I would have attended a STAR TREK convention...I might even have worn a costume...Uhura I think...classic short skirt and high boots (my legs were MUCH better 30+ years ago).

I secretly think of the hood of my car as "The Saucer Section".

With that information in mind I now share my aquired wisdom of Life Lessons from Classic Star Trek:


All alien species, including humans, have the right to” life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”. (Except if you feed on our emotions or use your cloaking device inappropriately)

Everyone has a role to play. McCoy is the doctor, Scotty is the chief engineer, Uhura is the communications specialist. Your role on the ship is important and necessary. (Unless you wear a red shirt....then you're screwed)

ALWAYS answer a distress call! (like when a wounded silicon based life form needs bandaging)

If you screw up, take the responsibility to fix it. ( When history gets disrupted and the Nazis win World War II you have to let Joan Collins, who you love, walk out into the street and get hit by a car.)

Complex minds need the simplicity of play. (And if the game can’t be won, change the rules.)

Panic in a crisis gets you nowhere. . (But, if needed, the Kirk two-handed ‘hammer blow’ always works.)

Examine, understand, and accept the unknown. (But keep your PHASER set on STUN and it still might ultimately end with, ‘He’s dead, Jim.’)

Close friends can become family and family is everything. (Even when they undergo a brain transfer.)

Any computer can be destroyed by exploiting a logic error in its prime directive. It will then self-destruct. (True fact!)

And, you are never too old to learn something from The Next Generation.

LIVE LONG AND PROSPER!!

I Am Thinking About....Idiom Origins

Armed to the teeth
This is a pirate phrase originating in Port Royal Jamaica in the 1600's. Having only single shot black powder weapons and cutlasses, they would carry many of these weapons at once to keep up the fight.
In addition they carried a knife in their teeth for maximum arms capability.


Bouched up (spelling has become BOTCHED UP):
Sir Thomas Bouch designed a bridge that was built at the Tay estuary at Dundee in Scotland. It was supposed to be the greatest structure built in Victorian England. The building of the Tay rail bridge culminated in him being knighted. The Tay bridge was nearly two miles long, consisting of 85 spans and at the time (1879) was the longest bridge in the world.
One stormy night, only 19 months after the bridge was declared safe by the Board of Trade and opened to traffic in the summer of 1878, the wind caused some of its spans to collapse. A train and 6 carriages and 75 souls were lost that night ranking it as the worst accident caused by structural failure in the history of England. Sir Thomas Bouch died only 10 months after the failure.

Clean bill of health
This widely used term has its origins in the "Bill of Health", a document issued to a ship showing that the port it sailed from suffered from no epidemic or infection at the time of departure.


Dead as a door nail
Nails were once hand tooled and costly. When an aging cabin or barn was torn down the valuable nails would be salvaged so they could be reused in later construction.
When building a door however, carpenters often drove the nail through then bent it over the other end so it couldn't work its way out during the repeated opening and closing of the door. When it came time to salvage the building, these door nails were considered useless, or "dead" because of the way they were bent.


Dressed to the nines
Common lore has it that a tailor making a high quality suit uses more fabric. The best suits are made from nine yards of fabric. This may seem like a lot but a proper suit does indeed take nine yards of fabric. This is because a good suit has all the fabric cut in the same direction with the warp, or long strands of thread, parallel with the vertical line of the suit. This causes a great amount of waste in suit making, but if you want to go "dressed to the nines", you must pay for such waste.


Worth his salt
Today salt is inexpensive and universally available, but that wasn't always the case. Salt has been a valuable commodity in many cultures throughout history.
Because of salt's high value, it was used as a method of exchange. Roman soldiers received a salt allowance as part of their pay. In fact the word "salary" is derived from the Latin "salarium" meaning "of salt".
To say that someone is "worth his salt" is to say they have earned their pay.

Square meal
British war ships in the 1700s including the HMS Victory did not have the best of living conditions. A sailors breakfast and lunch were sparse meals consisting of little more than bread and a beverage. But the third meal of the day included meat and was served on a square tray. Eating a substantial meal on board a ship required a tray to carry it all. Hence a "square meal" was the most substantial meal served.

Sleep tight
Before box springs were in use, old bed frames used rope pulled tightly between the frame rails to support a mattress. If the rope became loose, the mattress would sag making for uncomfortable sleeping. Tightening the ropes would help one get a good night sleep.


Reading the riot act
Reading the riot act" used to be a literal event. Bobbies in Britain used to read a prescribed proclamation, known as the Riot Act, before they could break up or arrest a crowd. The Riot Act is used in a fashion similar to the Miranda Rights in the US.
The Bobbies would approach the crowd, read the Riot Act aloud, and then disperse or arrest them.

Fathers Who Are Husbands Make ALL The Difference

What is the ULTIMATE anti-poverty weapon for kids? …A wedding ring on Dad’s finger!

“The principal cause of child poverty in the U.S. is the absence of married fathers in the home,” Robert Rector, senior research fellow in domestic policy studies at The Heritage Foundation, “Marriage is a powerful weapon in fighting poverty. Being married has the same effect in reducing poverty as adding five to six years to a parent’s education level.”

There are severe social costs of record-high births outside marriage – and of homes without fathers.

The statistics are staggering … four of every 10 babies overall are born to unmarried women. But, MORE than HALF the Hispanic births and SEVEN of every 10 births for black women involve NO MARRIAGE .

Marriage matters!

About two of every three poor children live in single-parent households. Yet if poor single moms married the fathers of their children, nearly two out of three would be lifted out of poverty.

Despite the media line, teen pregnancy plays only a small part: In 2008, the most recent year for which data is available, babies born to girls under 18 accounted for 130,000, or 7.5 percent, of the total 1.72 million out-of-wedlock births.

“It’s not as simple as young men “manning up” and becoming the lawfully wedded husbands of their girlfriends, live-in or otherwise. These unmarried mothers tend to be in their 20s, without much income or education. They come to depend on public assistance; many learn how to work the welfare system.”

A child raised in a home where Dad is married to Mom is much less likely :
to live in poverty….. get arrested as a juvenile…… be suspended or expelled from school…. be treated for emotional or behavioral problems….. or drop out before completing high school.

And the evidence suggests that, on average, children who live with their biological mother and father do better than those who live in step families or with cohabiting partners."

Perhaps, given these facts, policies that strengthen marriage for those who choose it and that discourage unintended births outside of marriage might just be sensible goals.

Maybe, government could start by providing facts on the role of healthy marriages in reducing poverty and improving the well-being of children. Young people could be taught skills for selecting a wife or husband. The importance of developing a stable marital relationship before bringing children into the world could be emphasized.

A program promoting a notion of ‘fatherhood’ that doesn’t involve the father being married or in the home does not cut it!

SO…to all the DADS in my family, and PARTICULARLY to my very much married sons and my son-in-law..I love and respect you. You are all doing an AWESOME job! God Bless each and every one of you….I know your kids will do the same throughout their lives!!

I Am Thinking About....ODD FACTS

Workers in an ant colony only live for about 45-60 days, but a colony's queen can live up to 20 years( BIG GOVERNMENT)

Wearing headphones for just an hour will increase the bacteria in your ear by 700 times.
(OH MY GOD!)

The largest employer in the world is the Indian railway system, employing over a million people!
(I figured it was the American IRS)

The Mona Lisa has no eyebrows. It was the fashion in Renaissance Florence to shave them off.
(Whoopie Goldberg..Renaissance Woman!)


It's illegal to drink beer out of a bucket while you're sitting on a curb in St. Louis!
(The fact that there needed to be a law made to curtail this activity says a great deal)

A group of geese on the ground is a gaggle, a group of geese in the air is a skein!
(What happened to FLOCK?)

If you counted 24 hours a day, it would take 31,688 years to reach one trillion!
(National debt information)

A 'jiffy' is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second!
(new setting on the microwave)

Porcupines float in water! (Just so ya know)

The worlds oldest piece of chewing gum is over 9000 years old.
(and it is stuck under all my students desks)

More Monopoly money is printed in a year, than real money printed throughout the world!
(More National debt information)

In Bangladesh, kids as young as 15 can be jailed for cheating on their finals!
(YES!!!!)

There are more plastic flamingos in the U.S, than real ones!
(I live in Florida..I have 2 of them)

Rice paper does not have any rice in it!
(False advertising..sue for fraud)

Most dust particles in your house are made from dead skin!
(AGHHHHHH!)

Men are 6 times more likely to be struck by lightning than women
(hmmmmmmm)

A fetus develops fingerprints at eighteen weeks!
(let’s discuss personhood now)

The Nobel Peace Prize medal depicts three NAKED men joined together with their arms on each other's shoulders. ( Close your eyes....now picture...Jimmy Carter, Yasser Arafat, Barak Obama...)

Turn Around......AVATAR

What do BROKEN ARROW (Jimmy Stewart 1950), DANCES WITH WOLVES, THE LAST SAMURAI, and AVATAR have in common? THE SAME PLOT!!!

Damaged soldier(Jeffords/Dunbar/Algren/Sully) from an exploitive culture (AMERICAN), travels to enemy territory(Apache, Sioux, Japan, Pandora), falls in love with an ENEMY WOMAN(Sonseeahray, Stands With a Fist, Taka, Neytiri), learns that her culture is WAY better than his because they worship the natural environment (which never has any nasty technology of the times). He bonds with THE PEOPLE(Apache/ Sioux/ Japanese/ Pandorans) and becomes, in effect, their leader. He then rejects his (racist/exploitive/ murderous) culture (American), and ultimately lives in( peace/harmony/oneness )with nature (after he kills off his own people but no worries because they are (evil/racist/exploitive) AMERICANS.

AVATAR and BRAVEHEART?

I Am Thinking About...THE IRRITATIONS OF LIFE

-People who MUTE the TV and walk out of the room WITH THE REMOTE!

-When people say "It's always in the last place you look". Of course it is….DUH!

-People who ask "Can I ask you a question?" Has ANYONE EVER said NO?

-When something is "new and improved". If it is new, then it did not EXIST before now. . If it is improved….what was WRONG with it?

-Service people who say “WHAT CAN I GET YOU GUYS?” To a group of WOMEN!

-EVEN WORSE ..when YOU GUYS is put into the plural possessive as in “How were YOU GUYS’S (es) drinks?”

-People who live in Florida during the summer complaining about how hot and humid it is……IT’S FLORIDA FOR GOD’S SAKE! What ELSE is it going to be?

-People who talk to me FOR A LONG TIME about people I DO NOT KNOW!

-People who tell me IN DETAIL the plots of movies and TV shows I have not seen and now NEVER WILL!.

-People who give opinions on books and laws THEY HAVE NOT READ, shows THEY HAVE NEVER SEEN, and radio THEY HAVE NEVER LISTENED TO.

-People on cell phones ALL THE TIME! Who are they talking to?

-People who hold up a finger to indicate that I AM SUPPOSED TO PAUSE IN MY CONVERSATION while they check THE CELL PHONE!

-Older people who have solidly immutable opinions on technology THEY HAVE NEVER USED! Examples:

MY MOTHER, GOD BLESS HER, who says NOBODY COMMUNICATES OR SENDS PICTURES, but when reminded that if she had A COMPUTER, she could have email, and pictures, and videos, and a FACEBOOK ACCOUNT….says THAT’S HOW THEY STEAL YOUR IDENTITY!

My MOTHER, GOD BLESS HER, who keeps the remote for her CADILLAC separate from her car keys because THAT IS WHAT THE MANUAL SAID TO DO….which means she NEVER USES IT so I have to stand waiting,( IN THE FLORIDA SUMMER AFRICA HOT HUMIDITY) while she uses her key to open the driver door and then UNLOCK the passenger side!

Did I just say something about Florida being hot?........sigh...

READ THIS! (WARNING..PARADIGM SHIFT AHEAD!)

SEE WITH NEW EYES!

“I am not now, nor ever have been in favor of bringing about in any way the social or political equality of the white and black races. I am not now nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of Negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor of intermarriages with white people. There is a physical difference between the white and the black races which will forever forbid the two races living together on social or political equality. There must be a position of superior and inferior, and I am in favor of assigning the superior position to the white man."…. Abraham Lincoln from a speech delivered in Charleston, Illinois in 1858.

I grew up in Illinois. It never entered my mind to question that Abraham Lincoln was the greatest president in history. He was the Great Emancipator. He had a national holiday and a monument in Washington, D.C. in tribute to his heroism and martyrdom. He was legend….

But....what if? What if most everything we know about Lincoln is false?

What if Lincoln was a calculating politician with a much broader agenda...a president who waged the single bloodiest war in American history in order to accomplish that agenda?

What if the sixteenth president was a man whose entire political career was devoted to transforming the American form of government ( limited in scope and highly decentralized) to a highly centralized state?

Author, Thomas DiLorenzo, an economist, through detailed and meticulous research, shows a different Abraham Lincoln. He reveals that Lincoln's main interest was not in eliminating slavery but in advancing “mercantilism, inflationism, and government spending: the "American system" (taxpayer subsidies for railroads and corporations and infrastructure improvements) of Henry Clay".

According to DiLorenzo, “ the high tariff pushed by Northern industries, at the expense of Southern agriculture, was the main cause of the sectional conflict. Further, Lincoln's goal in preventing Southern secession was the consolidation of federal power and the collection of revenue, not the elimination of slavery.”

Did you know….. in THE NORTH, Lincoln:
- launched a military invasion without the consent of Congress;
- suspended habeas corpus;
-imprisoned thousands of Northern citizens without trial for merely opposing his policies;
- censored all telegraph communication and imprisoned dozens of opposition newspaper publishers;
- nationalized the railroads;
- used Federal troops to interfere with elections;
-confiscated firearms;
- deported an opposition member of Congress after he opposed Lincoln’s income tax proposal during a Democratic Party rally in Ohio.
- had Southern men executed and imprisoned for refusing to take a loyalty oath to the Lincoln government.
-“ declared all secessionists and peace advocates to be ‘traitors’ who were undeserving of the protection of federal laws. This definition also applied to virtually anyone in the North who opposed Lincoln on matters of policy….”

He was a strong believer in the Hamiltonian political tradition, which sought a highly centralized governmental system. This centralized system would plan economic development with corporate subsidies financed by protectionist tariffs and would have the power to print money through a nationalized bank.

The South, with its independent states, its resistance to the national government, and its reliance on unrestricted free trade was in the way of this goal. In order to proceed Lincoln subverted the Constitution, trampled states' rights, and launched a devastating Civil War, the effects of which are still with us today.

DiLorenzo observes, “ that any study of the American state should begin no earlier than 1865. That’s because Lincoln’s policies virtually wiped out the previous 70 years of America’s highly decentralized, limited government existence.”

DiLorenzo uses extensive footnotes in his book to back his claims. There is also a chapter discussing the long history of the right of secession in America. Lincoln’s assertion that no such right ever existed and that the federal government created the states is thoroughly discounted.

Abraham Lincoln’s war led to 620,000 deaths and the destruction of 40 percent of the American economy to centralize power in Washington. The independence of the states was sacrificed to the supremacy of the federal government, which continues as an issue of prime concern today.

THE REAL LINCOLN: A New Look At Abraham Lincoln, His Agenda, and an Unnecessary War was, for me, a despairing read. I found myself resistant at first. But then I became angry. I think this man, his party, and his policies hurt us badly as a nation. I will never see Abraham Lincoln, The Civil War, or American history in the same way. Eye scale peeling.... always an exceedingly painful process.....

Turn Around....look at MEDUSA

MEDUSA RISING by LBC..The Seeker

I centered my life around you,
did SO many things to make you happy.

I was constantly concerned with where you were, what you were doing... what you were thinking.

Always wanted to talk to you … called you often.

You were not around,
So I went through your belongings
(to search for something – anything).

I followed you without your knowledge.
Is that BOLD enough?

You got tired of me,
But I did not tire of you…

I followed you when you were out with HER.
I watched your home from across the street,
drove by many times each day …

I need to be needed!
I WILL be wanted!

She had long flowing red hair....appeared intelligent and fun ..WAS she?

I KNOW you loved me deeply …
kept calling and calling … leaving messages.
You YELLED at me to “stop the f…king calls!

I do NOT take “NO” for an answer …
went to your work … texted you over and over … peeked in your window at night …
I will FORCE this confrontation…

"Stalking" is.. such a strong word.

MAKE EYE CONTACT WITH ME!

I will slither around you.
You WILL see me for ALL eternity.
You will fear me as a TERRIBLE weapon!
I poison....petrify anyone I love.

LOOK AT ME! ....I changed my hair for you…..

Turn and Look...at The Pledge of Allegiance

See with new eyes...

The author of the Pledge was Francis Bellamy, a Baptist minister and self identified Christian Socialist from Boston. Francis Bellamy served as vice president in charge of education for the "Society of Christian Socialists".

This national organization advocated "income taxation, central banking, nationalized education, nationalization of industry, and other features of socialism. Its advocates held that agriculture and handicraft, and small shop keeping, were the only admissible occupations. Trade and speculation were superfluous, injurious, and evil. Factories and large-scale industries were a wicked invention of the "Jewish spirit"; they produced only bad goods which were foisted on buyers by the large stores and by other monstrosities of modern trade to the detriment of purchasers."

Edward Bellamy, his cousin, was the author of a socialist utopian fantasy called LOOKING BACKWARD, published in 1888.

The novel’s main character, Julian West, falls asleep in 1887 and wakes up in the year 2000. He finds, much to his happy surprise, that all industry is state owned. All are employed by the state from the ages of 21 to 45 (retirement age). Everyone earns the same.

According to Francis, one goal of the Pledge of Allegiance was to help make his cousin’s novel a reality in America.

Francis went on to say that the "true reason for allegiance to the Flag" was to instill in American school children that the states were "never sovereign and that the union created the states, not the other way around." Also, America had too much liberty and not enough equality.

Never mind, that in all of the American founding documents, the citizens of the states are declared sovereign over the federal government. The sovereign states delegated a FEW enumerated powers to the central government, AS THEIR AGENT, while maintaining sovereignty for themselves.

This troubled Francis Bellamy. The first step on the road to his socialist utopia was a consolidated state. The Jeffersonian philosophy of federalism and states’ rights had to be eliminated.

The Pledge of Allegiance was written to be a vow of allegiance to the state. Francis said he got the idea from the "loyalty oaths" Southerners were forced to make during the "Civil War" and during Reconstruction. Adult male civilians in the South were forced to take a loyalty oath to the federal government or be shot.

The Pledge of Allegiance was first published in the September 1892 issue of The Youth’s Companion, "the Reader’s Digest of its day..

Francis and cousin Edward felt that the public schools must be used to teach obedience to the state, and the National Education Association was quite ready to assist them in this endeavor.

A "National Public School Celebration" was planned in 1892, on behalf of the Pledge of Allegiance. It was a huge campaign and involved government schools and politicians throughout the country. "The government schools were promoted, along with the Pledge, while private schools, especially parochial ones, were criticized."

Students recited the Pledge with their arms outstretched, palms up, "similar to how Roman citizens were required to hail Caesar, and not too different from the way in which Nazi soldiers saluted Hitler." This form of salute did not change until around 1950(after WWII for obvious reasons).

Also, questions about the "under God" wording might now be seen in a different light. Since the Pledge is an oath of allegiance to the central state, the "under God" language can be seen as serving to deify the state.

The PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE was NEVER intended to uphold the ideals of the American founders. It was meant to establish the ideals of two, late nineteenth-century, avowed socialists.