duane_kc

Hope it's a good one, and that there are many more in the future!

Ravenclaw 81
Gryffindor 78
Hufflepuff 71
Slytherin 61

Okay, usually weird dreams are just something I expect with this screwed-up mind of mine, but this one I can't shake, nor can I figure out why it's got me so damn depressed today.

I'm walking into what I recognize as the tiny town/neighborhood I grew up in, (Tecumseh, KS, for those that know it,) and there's a Civil War reenactment going on. The Confederates are losing, badly; I look closer and there are no Union troops, just dying Confederate soldiers. This seems significant for some reason. ( Read more... )

I've been thinking about this subject a lot over the last couple of weeks. America has become a culture over the course of my life where bullying has become the accepted norm...and I'm tired of it.

I know what it's like to be the victim of a schoolyard bully; I was in judo lessons in *first grade* for self-defense. Funny; the bullying stopped when the simple fact was made known in the school. I've never had to use those skills but once, and that was a bully in high school.

I know what it's like to be abused by someone in a position of power. My fifth grade teacher was the kind of utter bastard I'd like to see run through a chipper/shredder these days...and his brother, the corrupt former police chief of my home town was just as bad. Never laid a finger on me, but I spent that entire year *terrified*; and worse, my parents didn't believe it until they experienced it first-hand. Had the son-of-a-bitch not been tenured, his teaching career would have ended the day he mistook Mom for one of his students and slapped her ass to get her in the classroom. Two years later, Dad paid him a personal visit to explain why my little sister wouldn't be in his classroom, after he found out about the bastard's habit of giving all the little girls "birthday spankings".

My original Cub Scout pack decided they weren't going to give me my earned awards. Why? Because I didn't attend their church. Dad reported them to the BSA Council and *started a competing pack*, just to put a stop to that.

Seeing the kind of thuggishness the TSA is perpetrating these days in the name of "security" makes me sick to my stomach. We don't have to go through this kind of utter crap to enter a hospital, or a state or Federal courthouse, or the fucking halls of Congress; Hell, the White House tours don't even have this kind of "security", so why the *fuck* should I put up with it to get on a plane? They aren't doing this for any nebulous "security"; they're doing it because they're on a power trip, plain and simple. The next step, if they're not stopped, will be mandatory strip-searches and issuing paper coveralls and booties to every aircraft passenger, because, after all, that's the only way to be *absolutely* sure no one smuggles anything aboard the flight.

So, that's it. I have had enough. In the words of Benjamin Franklin, "They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." Mom and Dad raised me better. I will not allow myself, or others, to be bullied any more, have I the power to stop it. "I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man." as Thomas Jefferson said. Simply put, I will not stand for bullying of any sort, anywhere, any longer.

I plan on writing my Congresscritters tonight regarding the TSA's excesses; and until they are reined in, I flatly refuse to fly anywhere, period. I will not be treated as a criminal before I'm tried and convicted in a court of law, and pay money for the privilege.

Amber, if you're reading this, let me know and I will come get you and yours this weekend. You don't have to put up with your situation if I can help in any way.

The Second American Revolution starts here. Bullies can change their ways or get the fuck out of mine. I will not tolerate it any more, anywhere I can make a difference. Who's with me?

Did you know that Back To The Future will be playing this weekend in theaters in KC? Y'know, in case you want something to do this weekend...

http://www.amctheatres.com/bttf/

Now with extra cut tag! ( Read more... )

Folks, this is all I have to say about the whole crossposting thing: LJ is now in bed with Facebook. Do you really think that means they give a *damn* about anyone's privacy any more?

Of course not.

Were it not for the fact that all or most of *you* are still here, I'd move to Dreamwidth.

And I don't have a Facebook or Twitter account at all, so all of you are safe from me doing anything stupid with your entries and comments.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100716/ap_en_tv/us_roy_rogers_auction

Becky, you'll be glad to know that the original sheet music for "Happy Trails", that they estimated would go for $500...fetched $27,000 more than the original estimate.

Not only am I home OK, but I have power back! Yay!

Home from St. Louis, damp but still moving.