Can’t believe my girl is almost 11. She’s so healthy. I’m praying for many more years

if i look back, i am lost
Claire Keane

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@carlindad
Can’t believe my girl is almost 11. She’s so healthy. I’m praying for many more years
Monday night football doesn't get much better than this (at Stag Tobacconists at Metro Center)
@lfdcigars @cigaraficmag @stagtobacconist we've got em. #cigaroftheyear (at Stag Tobacconists at Metro Center)
Thankful for goof friends, good family and especially the grace of Jesus.
Santa wanted me to sit on his knee. I politely declined. #usmc #toysfortots (at Harley-Davidson of Scottsdale)
@caocigars @stagtobacconist @cavecreekroadhouse enjoying the #caoamazon (at Roadhouse)
Cowboys!!!
THE CIRCUS IS OVER
The circus in Philadelphia is over, and by now the tents are down, the donkeys are loaded, and the DNC freak-show has been dispersed throughout the nation. I found there to be absolutely nothing remarkable about the convention last night. The speech given by Chelsea was predictable, and yet another sad attempt to put a crocodile into a nun’s habit.
And speaking of Hillary…
All I can say is, it was a pretty good performance. That Hillary Clinton could keep from bursting into hysterical laughter as she defended her integrity, tried to relate her sense of magnanimity, and made her promises to America, well, it certainly should earn her some sort of performing arts award. Alas, enough of the American public was sufficiently stupid enough to vote for Bill Clinton twice, George W. Bush twice, and Barrack Obama twice. There are a lot of boot-licking DNC sycophants surrounding Hillary. Anything is possible. In the event that America’s future includes a Hillary Clinton Presidency, I suppose all we can do is hope that she was more forthright with the American public last night than she has been with Congress and the FBI in the past. (Haha! What a stupid thing for me to write, huh?) Is it just me, or is Hillary starting to look a lot like Pol Pot?
IF YOU CAN’T SELL THE STEAK, THEN SELL THE SIZZLE
In the words of P. T. Barnum, “there’s a sucker born every minute,” and as the DNC-circus opened for its second performance in Philly, it was clear the organizers gave weight to Barnum’s famous quote. A highly polished video profile on Bill Clinton began the show and was a clear attempt on the part of the DNC to establish a romanticized version of Bill’s legacy – one fully scrubbed of all the harm he and his policies did to the nation and the people around him during his eight-year Presidency. And as the convention has received significant criticism over the absence of American flags being voluntarily displayed by attendees, during the video introduction, the organizers apparently took the opportunity to hand out vertical signs that read, “America.” Too little too late, I say, along with the act itself being overtly Machiavellian.
In regards to the former President’s speech, Bill Clinton is never less than charismatic when addressing an audience and clearly at home in front of a camera. How much better it would have served the world if he had taken up acting instead of politics. By now he would likely be in possession of several Oscars, and the United States would have been spared eight years of his selfish undermining of the nation’s economy and national security. As Bill went on preaching to the choir, he made certain to push all the right emotional buttons common to the political left, and I’m sure that Bill’s efforts to humanize Hillary and to make her selfish pursuits and ambitions sound as though they were somehow magnanimous were effective upon the uninformed, as well as the willfully ignorant Democratic sycophants. But for those of us who have been watching Hillary for these past two decades, the only thing missing from Bill’s speech was the recorded laugh track. Summary: A real cock-and-bull story if I have ever heard one, and right up there on the BS-meter with the story of George H. W. Bush and the little red Studebaker.
For those who did not catch the circus in Philly last night, I offer these observations: Actress and Democratic shill, Meryl Streep made an appearance. So full of DNC fervor was Ms. Streep that I was waiting for her to break into an impersonation of a braying jackass. And speaking of shill and shrill, Streep then introduced a video production featuring the popular tune, This is My Fight Song, a typical Clinton-type Hollywood-esque production, with all the right celebrity faces to stump for Hillary and Hollywood’s beloved socialist agenda. (Darkly comical, is it not, how artists are generally the greatest critics of elitism until they become successful?) The talented Alicia Keys also contributed to the DNC circus, giving what I thought was not one of her better performances, and in what was a far more dramatic stage production then what should be necessary for a political event. It became clear to me during Keys’ performance that what was happening before my eyes at the DNC convention was a carefully crafted attempt on the part of the Democrats to beguile the hearts and minds of women – and then in a perfectly timed moment (and as if she were springing out of a giant cake) came Hillary, via satellite, beaming psychotic smile and all, and surround by little girls, with an emotion-invoking message of her leading the way for any of them to one day ascend to the Presidency.
But what I believe is the most important observation that I made while watching the DNC’s convention last night was the large number of empty chairs in the auditorium - even as Alicia Keys played on. Hmm… what does this mean?
Those captivated by last night’s performance, and whose support for Hillary has either been subsequently reaffirmed or newly established, will be doing so not through the intellect, but by an emotional and egoistic response and are now added to the list of victims of Democratic demagoguery. “Give them bread and circus” said the corrupt Roman senators. And the show must go on.
A knife of sarcasm. Funny but too truthful to make one laugh out loud.
IF HILLARY WAS A MAN
What if Hillary was born a man? Based upon what I have read about Hillary’s ascension to political power, as well as the many conversations on politics I have had this past year, it seems to me that, should Hillary have been born a man and followed a similar course in her public life, she would have then been considered by the women and men around her as a self-serving, social-climbing, narcissistic a-hole, willing to stomp on the face of any man or woman alive if stomping on that face gave her a leg up towards her goals. Sad as it is, I have come to believe that it is because Hillary was born a woman that so many women and men plan to vote for her for the US Presidency in November. Seriously. For this election, that’s the ultimate qualifier in the minds of many Democratic voters. Her sex. Welcome to reality. But obviously, the majority of Democrats aren’t out there screaming on a street corner, “Hey! Hillary was born a woman and that’s why you need to vote for her!” No. They have a cover story – a political charade. But since we know that the primary reason most Hillary supporters are voting for Hillary is because she is not man, is it still worth examining the Democrats’ cover story and justifications? I think so. Perhaps then, those of us who vote based upon more than what genitals one was born with can reason with these myopic voters before it’s too late.
First, what most women and men in support of Hillary agree upon as being the plausible reasons for her widespread popularity and the fanatical following she enjoys is that she is regarded as being the archetypical self-made woman, pursuing her own self-interests while juggling both motherhood and a philandering husband. Hillary has been seen as the woman playing dirty hardball in a world of dirty men - breaking through the glass ceiling and climbing to nearly the top of a heap piled high with profligate oath-breakers, and still finding time to say to women and minorities all the things they want to hear, and sometimes in just the right contrived accent. Secondly, Hillary supporters cite her “experience.” And as her good fortune would have it, the Grim Reaper did take New York’s Tip O’Neil just in time for Hillary’s needing a seat in the US Senate – a seat that enabled her to vote for a raise in pay for the position of Secretary of State prior to her taking that office. (From what I understand, that was illegal.) Thirdly, Hillary supporters find further appeal in the way that she presents herself to the public. I’m not sure if the beaming psychotic smile and relentless affirmative head-nodding is part of that appeal, but she has certainly proven herself to the Democratic mainstream a loyalist, and the quintessential progressive, which, and in the case of the latter, at this time appears to be best described as a strategically vague version of European socialism combined with old fashioned war-for-profit imperialism. So scratch the surface just a bit, and we find that Hillary is a pretty average left-leaning American politician – nothing remarkable, just one of many beetles burrowing through a massive heap of DC dung. But there’s still that whole being born a woman thing. So let’s look a little closer at Ms. Clinton.
The Presidential Administration of William Jefferson Clinton was born into, and ended in, scandal, a myriad of accusations of corruption and wrongdoing, impeachment hearings and censure. To name a few notable scandals: the Rose Law Firm, Whitewater, the strange death of Clinton-friend, Vincent Foster and the whole Monica Lewinski thing. The actions of Clinton appointees and Clinton policies caused harm to a great number of people while they occupied the office. Do you remember the needless and unfounded attack on (and destruction of) a religious group in Waco, Texas by the federal government (under Clinton appointee Janet Reno)? Or the needless and unprovoked bombing of civilian targets during US military action against former-ally, Serbia (under Clinton appointee General Wesley Clark)? During it all there was also the strange death of Commerce Secretary Ron Brown, the questions regarding campaign donations from ultra-wealthy foreigners, and accusations of unprecedented toleration of Chinese espionage. Looking back, it would appear as though the self-proclaimed, “co-president” Hillary was there and in the middle of it all. Very quickly after leaving office, Bill and Hillary Clinton together amassed an enviable fortune – placing them in that top 1% we hear so much about these days. And whereas Bill settled into the luxury afforded by ex-Presidency, such as spending time playing golf with George H. W. Bush, Hillary continued to pursue her own political self-interests. Interesting. There IS more to Hillary’s story than just the ‘average’ scandal-laden American politician!
A quick summary will make the point: Hillary’s own path to the US Presidency, like her husband’s, is so far strewn with a myriad of accusations of corruption, wrongdoing and violations of US national security. Seriously – anyone born a man and who followed Hillary’s same path would be having a hard time convincing the media and the voting public (especially Democrats) of their being above reproach, right? Well, not exactly. You see, as the little darling of the political left, Bill Clinton was forgiven his ‘sins’ by both the socialist-leaning segment of the Democratic-voting public, and the socialists who dominate the corporate media. (That Bill! What a scamp!) But what is unexpected, is that, as the far-less charismatic member of the American socialists’ Clinton-dream-team, and despite her likely being seen even by her most loyal supporters as overtly power-mad, as well as far less magnanimous and far more self-serving than her husband (whether they admit it or not), Hillary has still managed to receive forgiveness for her many ‘sins’ and maintained a formidable degree of support.
So if its not a matter of her character, and its not a matter of her position on the issues, and its not a matter of her restraint, or lack thereof, in the use of political power, then its obviously the whole gender thing!
As far as I know, political figures in both the Democratic and Republican parties have always been surrounded, and served by, loyal, boot-licking sycophants – the type of men and women who wouldn’t say, “poop” if their mouths were full of it. But for mainstream Democrats to carry on this charade, that is, to say that they are voting for Hillary for any other reason than her being a woman, now just leaves the rest of us understanding that, this particular portion of the US population is either really stupid, or thinks that the rest of us are really stupid. I suppose that it should not come as a surprise. Remembering that it was, at least in part, the same group of Americans who supported Barrack Obama based upon his skin color that now support Hillary because of her gender, we should not be shocked that they are just as eager to cast their votes based upon this equally superficial qualifier. This is just one of those disappointing facets of basic human nature. To be fair (and to further prove my point on human nature) it should be stated that it was the mirror image of the Democrats’ loyal, boot-licking sycophants on the Republican side that was the cause for America’s being subjected to two terms of ‘W’. (It is remarkable to me how much the party-line Republicans and Democrats have in common.) There is an important lesson to be learned in this though, and that is through this demonstration of irrational bias, the Democrats have exposed the presence of the same racist and sexist attitudes within the ranks of the political left that they constantly accuse the political right of harboring. (This is a psychological phenomenon referred to as projection.)
Once again, and in that same spirit of fairness, it must be stated that I do not believe that all who vote Democratic are incapable of determining a person of good character from a person of poor character. I state this because, even though they are somehow blinded by the inherent dishonesty, slavery and ultimate tyranny that is socialism, there was a significant number of Democrats who supported Bernie Sanders over Hillary Clinton. And while I have no sympathy for the socialists’ cause, I can understand the frustration they must be feeling for the way they were treated by their political party, and in the end, their candidate, too.
Note that, through this rant I have used words like, “most” and “majority” in reference to Hillary’s supporters, and while continuing to maintain an effort towards fairness, it should be stated that I believe there is, and sadly so, a contingent of Hillary’s supporters who are NOT supporting her based solely upon her being a woman, and that this contingent is fully aware of her questionable past, her questionable associations, her questionable actions, her questionable tactics and her questionable intentions. This contingent of supporters I am referring to (and I am not trying to be funny here) is the equivalent to Russia’s bloodthirsty Bolsheviks – with these supporters of Hillary being bent on a collectivist world empire. These Hillary supporters are anti-free enterprise statists and social-engineers desiring absolute control over the masses – and in anticipation of launching their own high-tech versions of the Red Terror and the Great Purge, they are awaiting their own version of Stalin – with high hopes that it might be found in Hillary. They await a cold-blooded, heavy-handed tyrant and whether this awaited Stalin-to-be is in a male or female body is irrelevant to them. Scary.
In my opinion, if Hillary had been born a man, a significant portion of the women and men who support her now would regard her as one who would never get their vote for any office, let alone the Presidency. So what do we – the responsible and civic-minded-types – do about this situation? There is but one course of action: We need to remind these misguided souls that as Americans most of us share the common interest of living in liberty, peace and prosperity, and that, while there are many women who are supremely qualified to hold the office of the presidency and represent the common interests of all Americans, based upon Hillary’s past, present and foreseeable future actions, she is not one of them.
You ever heard a raccoon in a roof?
It was mid day on June 7, 2016. Andy and I were preparing to pull down ceiling tiles from a back bedroom. When suddenly Andy stops “shhh do you hear that” he says. I look at him and say “no I don’t hear anything”. He shrugged it off and goes back to work. Later that same day as the team and I are clearing cobwebs and ridding an old church of spiders, Andy walks back into the room after running to the house previously mentioned to get his water. “So there’s a raccoon in the blue room” he say with such calmness I don’t know whether to take him seriously or not. We all proceed to have the same basic reaction to a statement like his “Uuuuuh what!?” I made the executive decision to go and get JD the kind horse farmer next door. I briskly walk down to where I knew JD would be by the horse corral. “Uh hey JD I don’t want to bother you but there is a raccoon situation up at the house”. “A raccoon? Really? I’ll go get a pop gun!” He says in the most endearing country droll. We head back to the house with Andy and the pop gun in tow. Andy and I decide to stay in the living room not loving the idea of watching a raccoon death. “There is definitely more than one raccoon in this roof…I’m seeing about five or six!” Andy and I turn to each other not able to control the bout of laughter that follows. Not one but six raccoons living inconspicuously over our heads whilst we worked in this house the past two days. We hear a loud pop and then a bang and then a second pop. “There’s one!” JD yells back our way. This cycle goes on for another ten minutes or so. “Do you want a box for the *shiver* bodies?” I yelled back towards JD. “Ya that’d be great!” I lined a box we had lying around with a large black trash bag and hand it to JD when he comes out of the room. I choose to ignore the blood splatter on his shirt, and decide to leave the house for some fresh air and to avoid seeing anything gruesome. A while later we head back into the house with the whole team. “I don’t want to look but I can’t help it I gotta look” I say as I make my way to the back bedroom. I slowly open the door and the scene that lays before me is straight out of a horror film. Blood covers half of the mattress that has been up against the back wall. There is blood on three walls. If you have ever seen dried human blood…well you’ve basically seen raccoon blood because it looks pretty gosh dang similar. Horrified by what is in front of me I make my way back down the hallway. “Nope nope nope noooo no no no!” Everyone has a look at the room with similar reactions to the horror that lies behind the door. Well it’s a day later I’m still slightly traumatized, but I will wrap it up with this, if you’re ever removing ceiling tiles from a room and you hear scratching, call JD.
Not your Average Mission
“What are you going to be doing?”
I’ve been asked this question countless times over the past 10 months that I have been preparing for my trip. I never really had an answer, because I didn’t know. All I had been told, before training was that our team would be partnering with local nonprofits and churches to help throughout the community.
But at training this week, I got my answer. And it’s going to be a hard concept for a lot of you to grasp. This week we were told to let go of the concept of producing results. To lose our Americanized view that we need to see positive change during our time abroad. We were asked to stop asking the question,“what will I do?” And start asking the question, “how will I live?”
During training we were introduced to seven types of poverty: spiritual, physical, emotional, mental, educational, financial, and relational. When we choose to look at other areas rather than money, we realize that poverty can affect all of us. Any area of our lives that we feel like we are lacking can be a form of poverty.
Using this mindset the next six months my team and I are expect to go into the communities and adapt to the way of life. We are to ask about their customs, attempt to speak their language, and treat them with respect. The purpose of my trip is to learn to treat people with dignity no matter their circumstances.
Now let me tell you a bit about what we’ve been up to!
My team is special is in so many different ways. There is 6 of us including myself: Halsey, Taylor, Abbie, T, and Andy. We are getting along great and are already unusually comfortable around each other. Starting Friday in Fort Wayne, IN we piled in a 15 passenger van, (with a few dislodged seats) and began our road trip to New Mexico. As of tonight (5/30) we are finally on the reservation.
It’s places like this that really make me stop and appreciate God’s creation. You can see for miles! There are mountains, deserts, and beautiful sunsets. ( I can’t even do it justice so I included some pictures!) You can see more stars than you ever thought existed. One day on the reservation and I’m already obsessed. We even started to learn Navajo!
Tomorrow we will begin helping with vacation bible school. We will also be preparing the church for when the short term mission teams will arrive on Friday!
Please continue to pray for my team and I as we proceed on this great adventure God has created for us!
That is so well written!!
Saying goodbye is hard
It’s really hard! I knew I was going to cry, I knew I would be sad, but nothing could prepare me for saying goodbye to my mom. I know it’s not really goodbye, it’s see ya later but my goodness 6 months is a LONG see ya later!
So now I sit here alone at a hotel for a few more hours. I’ll go down stairs, drink a cup or two of coffee and try not to think about how much I’m going to miss my mom. In just a few hours I’ll go back to the airport and meet members of my team and we will begin this 6 month adventure of a lifetime.
Prayer request: Today’s prayer request is not for me really it’s for my mom. I’m praying that she, like me, will use these 6 months to find a new adventure of her own.
So this is my little girl. Praying for you and knowing that God is going to work everything to His glory and good
@casafuentelv great smoke!! #opusx #superbelicoso (at The Hideaway Grill)
Excellent stick from @cruxcigars PB5 Thanks to @todsters2 for supplying!! (at Stag Tobacco)
Sometimes you find community other times community finds you. (at Westgate Entertainment District)
If someone would have said to me six months ago that I would one day be sitting and smoking cigars at a biker bar with my lifelong friend Ken, I would have told you you were full of shit. (at The Hideaway Grill)