WORDS HAVE CHANGED OVER THE YEARS

As a writer I love words. I love to arrange them and situate them in ways to sell, entertain, convince, and otherwise encourage my readers to see my point. Many words can be beautiful just standing alone. Words like “enchanting” or “heavenly” or even the word “beautiful.” These words really need no definition. They define themselves.

Of course there are words that have the opposite meaning and effect. Words like “vulgar” or “ugly.” They also define themselves.

Our language has evolved over the last few years often changing the meaning or the emphasis of some words. Some words have become signals that should cause the reader to be concerned.

I am going to go over some.

Have you ever gone furniture shopping? If you shop at a store with the word “interiors” in the name, be very, very careful. I have found that the word “interiors” rarely means inexpensive.

Here’s another of my recent favorites, “healthy” as in foods. For some unknown reason that has come to mean carrots. Rarely if ever do you see healthy applied to meat. One would get the feeling that anything other than vegetables is unhealthy. As for me vegetables are the food that my food eats.

One of the most descriptive words on my list is “upscale.” Have you ever seen a “downscale” restaurant? I have probably eaten in some but they don’t advertise that way. Upscale means that a three dollar hamburger is going to cost ten dollars. Too often it’s the same hamburger only with the designation “upscale.” That brings the price up.

I still remember when a cup of coffee was just a cup of coffee. Now it has hundreds of names and descriptions along with hundreds of different prices. If I wanted a chocolate milkshake, I would go to an ice cream shop.

Kermit the Frog of the Muppets sings “It’s not easy being green.” I certainly agree. Let us consider the word “green.” It used to be one of my favorite words. To me it meant trees, grass, oh and money. Not anymore. Now it means all things environmental. It means driving electric cars. It means sorting your garbage. It means buying into all of the cockamamie ideas of environmental wackos regardless of the facts of the situation. Like Kermit says, it’s not easy being green.

How about “natural” or “organic?” I saw a sign in the meat market that advertised organic salmon. What, pray tell, would be non-organic salmon? Oh, that must be the salmon sitting beside it that was several dollars less per pound. Whatever. If you want to pay more for a designation, be my guest.

Now for some words that I just don’t understand. It seems we have changed the meaning to suit some agenda.

Be real cautious of “processed” cheese. Some advertisers would have you believe it is better for you to eat non-processed cheese.  Here’s my question. How does milk become cheese if it is not processed? I don’t think it happens by itself.

Do you like sweet corn? Do you realize that all sweet corn is “genetically modified?” Now there’s a scary phrase. The sweet corn that we eat has come from a long line of modifications to improve its palatability and its acceptance as a human food. In fact many of the foods we eat today have been crossbred and altered to make them tastier, more stable, and more easily shippable. Somebody has been messing with their genes. How else do you think you can get tomatoes in the middle of winter?

There are many more questionable words but I hope you get my point. It is up to us to buy into or reject wild claims. As for me, I think I’ll go get me a down-scale hamburger with genetically modified tomato and pig out.

Ron Scarbro

THE COUNTRY YOU SAVE MAY WELL BE YOUR OWN

Did you hear the latest from North Korea? It seems that their defense minister, Hyon Yong-choi, went to sleep during an address by the “dear leader,” Kim Jong-un, or as we like to call him, Little Kim. Well, Little Kim was upset to say the least. The minister’s punishment? Why a firing squad of course. But no, not just any firing squad. This squad killed him with an anti-aircraft gun. To all those morons who think they are being mistreated in this country, why not try North Korea? You may find that things are not so bad here after all. I never cease to be amazed by the inhumane treatment some in power use on their underlings. You and I know that this is not going to end well for Little Kim. He will get his and it is going to be fitting and hideous. The sooner the better.

Hillary is on the campaign trail. She says she is on a listening tour. Since her announcement that she was running she has answered a total of eight questions from the media. After all, how can you listen if you spend all your time talking and answering questions? If I had as much to hide as Hillary does, I wouldn’t want to answer questions either. The reality of this situation is that eventually she will have to come clean. Even her most loyal fans in the “mainstream” media will have to get the truth from her. If she thinks she can hide, she is sadly mistaken. Cheaters and e-mail destroyers never prosper.

Speaking of cheaters and e-mail destroyers. Tom Brady of the New England Patriots has been suspended for four games for deflating footballs to make them easier to grip and throw. This is, of course, against league rules. If he and his team were smart, they would let this matter drop. But no. They have decided to fight the suspension. The Patriots are serial cheaters and the last thing they need is closer scrutiny of their actions. Deflated footballs will be the least of their problems. Leave well enough alone. You probably will not like what comes next.

Since the Ferguson mess, stirred up by slimeball politicians and race baiters with their anti-police rhetoric, how many cops do you suppose have been killed or injured in the performance of their duties? How many cops have refused to stop possible lawbreakers because of the ramification of doing so? How many innocent citizens have been killed or injured because these lawbreakers were not stopped in their tracks? I know if I were a cop I would think twice before I would risk my life and my career attempting to stop criminals. Let’s face it. If the cops are even questioned they are probably toast. Their careers are probably done. At best they will have to find a new place to live.

Then we have the race baiter-in-chief, Barack Obama, issuing an edict that police departments cannot use military type equipment for their safety and security. The claim is that it upsets rioters and thugs. They are offended by the display. What Obama is actually saying is that the riots we are experiencing are the fault of the police not the thugs. They would all just go home if only the police wouldn’t defend themselves with heavy equipment and shields. If a cop gets hit by flying rocks or bricks, too bad. At least the rioter wasn’t offended.

Anti-police rhetoric is as seriously misguided as are those who preach it. All of this nonsense will be unwound soon as we elect a new President, as long as we elect the right one. Choose wisely, my friends. The country you save may well be your own.

Ron Scarbro

TEXAS TWO...ISIS ZERO

It appears that ISIS has claimed credit for the very amateurish terrorist attack in Texas. What they are saying is that they sent these two morons out in the great state of Texas with the intention of a mass killing. They fell a bit short. They were able, with all their arms and body armor, to barely wound one security officer before an off duty traffic cop with only his service revolver, mowed them down and hastened their introduction to their seventy-two virgins. This is what is meant by the phrase “Don’t mess with Texas.”

The event which drew the ire of the terrorists was evidently a contest to draw cartoons of the prophet Mohammed. The radical Islamist terrorists don’t take too kindly to that sort of activity. You see that is an expression of free speech and radical Muslims hate free speech. Their response is of course to kill everyone who practices it.

Well it didn’t work out too well for them. All they succeeded in doing was to alert all police agencies in this country to be especially aware when free speech events occur. Oh, and dying horrible deaths at the hand of a traffic cop.

So, exactly what was accomplished by the “free speech” event that seemingly caused this would-be attack? I am a die hard advocate of free speech. I also understand that freedom is sometimes messy. Freedom means allowing someone to say things that are repugnant to you. But, was this event really necessary?

Did they have the right to have the event? Absolutely. Was it smart? Probably not. Picking at scabs is rarely smart. One good result though is that two morons have been eliminated from the gene pool and no further concern needs to be shown for them. Eventually people that stupid meet with a bad end. The question is was the event intended to create the very reaction that it did?

Personally I don’t see the need to upset anyone especially because of their religion. That having been said, I also don’t see any need to change our lifestyle in an effort not to offend anyone else or their religion. In America you have the right to be as obnoxious as you wish. You can make a complete fool of yourself as long as you aren’t blocking traffic or interfering with normal commerce. If drawing silly pictures is what you like to do, then by all means the law allows you to draw those pictures. If those pictures are offensive to a particular group of people, they will just have to suck it up. We don’t practice Sharia law here and we never will. And if these two wannabe terrorists are the best ISIS can do, they better stay away from here.

If living in a free society is too tough for any group, regardless of their doctrine, there is a boat leaving every day. Don’t let the door hit you in the rear on your way out.

Now just a brief word to the serially offended. No one can offend you without your permission. I personally could be offended on a daily basis but I don’t care. I live with it because someone’s opinion of me is none of my business. It is possible that in my writings someone may take exception to something I have said. They have every right by our laws to sit down and write their own opinion.

And now this word to radical terrorists and wannabe terrorists. Don’t bring a knife to a gunfight. Not just in Texas but anywhere in this great country. It isn’t going to end well for you.

Ron Scarbro

AMERICA IS GETTING FED UP

Like most of you I have been watching the events in Baltimore. Once again we have a young black man dead for some unexplained reason. He was under arrest and being transported to jail when, somehow, he sustained a life ending injury.

The rumors are flying. Some say he was a known drug dealer who was arrested when he tried to run from police. Some say he was roughed up by those same police. Today we are hearing from a prisoner who was also in the police van that the victim, Freddie Gray, injured himself during the ride to the police station. A doctor has said that he could have suffered a seizure or some such event and thrown himself into the van injuring himself. Regardless of the reason, he is dead and no real details have been released.

The citizens of Baltimore don’t seem to care what the reason might be though. They are just mad. And they have been taking out their anger on their own city, burning, looting, and causing general mayhem. Many legitimate businesses which have been serving those same citizens have been destroyed.

Today we are going to examine just what and who these people are mad at.

These thugs are not mad because of Freddie Gray. He is just a handy excuse. I think these rioters and looters are really just mad at themselves. Maybe they are mad because they are of a minority race living in a white society? Maybe they are mad because their self respect and pride has been taken away from them by the very good intentioned programs meant to help them? It is much easier to blame someone else for your problems than to blame yourself. Slavery ended centuries ago and yet many black people still blame that for their problems.

Here’s a hard truth. To find the problems in the black community they only have to look into a mirror. Generational welfare recipients who continue to produce babies without fathers are basically selling themselves into modern slavery. Those who live in public housing, receive food stamps, subsidized health care, free cell phones, and all manner of freebies, become wards of the government. They trade their self respect for the freebies. I read recently that the average welfare recipient's take, with all of their goodies, was approximately $50,000 per year. That’s not bad pay. But what does it cost those who receive it? I say it costs them their pride. It takes away incentive. To live on the dole means you don’t produce anything. It means you don’t accomplish anything.

How many of the protestors who are destroying Baltimore have a father figure at home? The mother seen striking her young son and trying to take him home is reported to be a single mother of six children. Where are any of those fathers? It is clear that one of the main problems is the breakdown of the traditional family unit. I read recently that over 70% of black children are born to single mothers. The fathers are just sperm donors. As the number of children increases, the welfare check grows larger. This is a recipe for disaster and we are seeing it in the major cities of America.

If the citizens of Baltimore and Ferguson and other major cities think they are helping their cause by their violent demonstrations, they are sadly mistaken. They only hurt themselves. Black leadership from the President on down is causing more problems by blaming police. The cops are not the problem, the criminals are. America is getting fed up.

Ron Scarbro