Clint's Codex

Made in the USA: Spoiled brats

2007-10-22T17:15:16Z

Last year, Craig R. Smith posted this essay. I think it's worth repeating as we head into the holiday season.

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Posted: November 20, 2006
1:00 a.m. Eastern

The other day I was reading Newsweek magazine and came across some poll data I found rather hard to believe. It must be true given the source, right? The same magazine that employs Michael (Qurans in the toilets at Gitmo) Isikoff. Here I promised myself this week I would be nice and I start off in this way. Oh what a mean man I am.

The Newsweek poll alleges that 67 percent of Americans are unhappy with the direction the country is headed and 69 percent of the country is unhappy with the performance of the president. In essence 2/3s of the citizenry just ain't happy and want a change.

So being the knuckle dragger I am, I starting thinking, ''What we are so unhappy about?''

Is it that we have electricity and running water 24 hours a day, 7 days a week? Is our unhappiness the result of having air conditioning in the summer and heating in the winter? Could it be that 95.4 percent of these unhappy folks have a job? Maybe it is the ability to walk into a grocery store at any time and see more food in moments than Darfur has seen in the last year?

Maybe it is the ability to drive from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean without having to present identification papers as we move through each state? Or possibly the hundreds of clean and safe motels we would find along the way that can provide temporary shelter? I guess having thousands of restaurants with varying cuisine from around the world is just not good enough. Or could it be that when we wreck our car, emergency workers show up and provide services to help all involved. Whether you are rich or poor they treat your wounds and even, if necessary, send a helicopter to take you to the hospital.

Perhaps you are one of the 70 percent of Americans who own a home, you may be upset with knowing that in the unfortunate case of having a fire, a group of trained firefighters will appear in moments and use top notch equipment to extinguish the flames thus saving you, your family and your belongings. Or if, while at home watching one of your many flat screen TVs, a burglar or prowler intrudes; an officer equipped with a gun and a bullet-proof vest will come to defend you and your family against attack or loss. This all in the backdrop of a neighborhood free of bombs or militias raping and pillaging the residents. Neighborhoods where 90 percent of teenagers own cell phones and computers.

How about the complete religious, social and political freedoms we enjoy that are the envy of everyone in the world? Maybe that is what has 67 percent of you folks unhappy.

Fact is, we are the largest group of ungrateful, spoiled brats the world has ever seen. No wonder the world loves the U.S. yet has a great disdain for its citizens. They see us for what we are. The most blessed people in the world who do nothing but complain about what we don't have and what we hate about the country instead of thanking the good Lord we live here.

I know, I know. What about the president who took us into war and has no plan to get us out? The president who has a measly 31 percent approval rating? Is this the same president who guided the nation in the dark days after 9/11? The president that cut taxes to bring an economy out of recession? Could this be the same guy who has been called every name in the book for succeeding in keeping all the spoiled brats safe from terrorist attacks? The commander in chief of an all-volunteer army that is out there defending you and me?

Make no mistake about it. The troops in Iraq and Afghanistan have volunteered to serve, and in many cases have died for your freedom. There is currently no draft in this country. They didn't have to go. They are able to refuse to go and end up with either a ''general'' discharge, an ''other than honorable'' discharge or, worst case scenario, a ''dishonorable'' discharge after a few days in the brig.

So why then the flat out discontentment in the minds of 69 percent of Americans? Say what you want but I blame it on the media. If it bleeds it leads and they specialize in bad news. Everybody will watch a car crash with blood and guts. How many will watch kids selling lemonade at the corner? The media knows this and media outlets are for-profit corporations. They offer what sells. Just ask why they are going to allow a murderer like O.J. Simpson to write a book and do a TV special about how he didn't kill his wife but if he did … insane!

Stop buying the negative venom you are fed everyday by the media. Shut off the TV, burn Newsweek, and use the New York Times for the bottom of your bird cage. Then start being grateful for all we have as a country. There is exponentially more good than bad.

I close with one of my favorite quotes from B.C. Forbes in 1953:

''What have Americans to be thankful for? More than any other people on the earth, we enjoy complete religious freedom, political freedom, social freedom. Our liberties are sacredly safeguarded by the Constitution of the United States, 'the most wonderful work ever struck off at a given time by the brain and purpose of man.' Yes, we Americans of today have been bequeathed a noble heritage. Let us pray that we may hand it down unsullied to our children and theirs.''

I suggest this Thanksgiving we sit back and count our blessings for all we have. If we don't, what we have will be taken away. Then we will have to explain to future generations why we squandered such blessing and abundance. If we are not careful this generation will be known as the ''greediest and most ungrateful generation.'' A far cry from the proud Americans of the ''greatest generation'' who left us an untarnished legacy.

Baking Cookies

2006-08-07T14:33:30Z

Just spent a weekend up in Ridgecrest, where it was a nice, "cool" weekend... I think the high was about 102. Visited with the fam, saw Roger B. and John F. out at the park, fightin' shinai.. that's all that's left of a group of about 20 that used to be out there ever weekend, rain or shine. Kinda sad. Picked up some planks to make shelves out of. And Dad gave me a bunch of tools to replace the ones I lost in the various basement floods we endured back in NY. Thanks, Daddio.

That'll come in handy as the wife, moondancerxyn, broke her car whilst we were up there. Or rather, her car broke. Weirdest thing I've seen go bad in a car in a long time.. the push rod connecting her lock cylinder and the ignition switch snapped. So, you can turn the key in the lock all you want, it's not going to do anything. I had to dismantle the steering column and lower dash to get access to the ignition switch, which we now manipulate manually to start and stop the car. Nothing quite like hotwiring your own car. :)

So, speaking of cars and Ridgecrest, next time we're up there, I am so going to do this...
I Don't Know if This Is Depressing or Delicious

BEDFORD, N.H. (AP) — Blistering heat was just what Sandi Fontaine needed to bake cookies for her co-workers — on the dash of her Toyota Rav4.

With temperatures soaring, Fontaine placed two trays of cookie dough on the dashboard, shut the doors and retreated inside to her air conditioned office.

"My husband wanted me to run some errands this morning," said Fontaine. "I said, 'I can't. I'm baking cookies."'

Fontaine first tested her dashboard oven three years ago. She said the only requirement is for the outside temperature to be at least 95 degrees, so it will rise to about 200 degrees in the car.

"When you open the door to that car," she said, "it's like, oh my God. It's a wonderful smell."

The True Gentleman

2006-08-02T03:06:03Z

“The True Gentleman is the man whose conduct proceeds from good will and an acute sense of propriety, and whose self-control is equal to all emergencies; who does not make the poor man conscious of his poverty, the obscure man of his obscurity, or any man of his inferiority or deformity; who is himself humbled if necessity compels him to humble another; who does not flatter wealth, cringe before power, or boast of his own possessions or achievements; who speaks with frankness but always with sincerity and sympathy; whose deed follows his word; who thinks of the rights and feelings of others, rather than his own; and who appears well in any company, a man with whom honor is sacred and virtue safe.”

- John Walter Wayland (Virginia 1899)

DragonLance - The Movie

2006-07-03T18:23:38Z

Ugh, I'm actually posting. But this is too exciting not too...

http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?category=3&id=36865

Dragons Take Wing In Movie

Cindi Rice, co-executive producer of the upcoming animated fantasy movie Dragons of Autumn Twilight, told SCI FI Wire that the film will remain true to the book by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, the first in their Dragonlance Chronicles series. "I'm extremely proud of the creative team I brought together," Rice said in an interview. "George Strayton has written a very cool script while staying true to Margaret's and Tracy's vision. Will Meugniot is simply an animation genius, and he's helping us create a very innovative and complex film. It is a joy to work with both of them."

Helmed by Meugniot (the animated X-Men TV series) and written by Strayton (Cleopatra 2525, Xena: Warrior Princess), the movie will feature the voices of Xena star Lucy Lawless and Michael Rosenbaum (TV's Smallville).

The Dragonlance saga was developed from the venerable Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game series and evolved into a series of books, originally created by Hickman.

Rice said that the Dragons movie is in the final stages of preproduction. "We've already recorded 90 percent of the voices, and we'll be finalizing the animatic [animated storyboard] next month," she said. She added that the movie would combine traditional 2-D animation and computer-generated 3-D elements.

It's taken 20 years to go from book to movie, and script development began in March 2005. "I've been waiting a long time to see Dragonlance made into a movie," Rice said. If the movie is successful, Rice said that she hopes to make other movies based on the books. Dragons of Autumn Twilight will be released worldwide by Paramount in the fall of 2007. —Carol Pinchefsky