Grab Bag Perspective:

Allegedly, a guy named Ken Huber wrote this to the Editorial section of his local paper. Sources can’t seem to verify the origin of this piece, but it doesn’t really matter. While not every assertion he makes holds truth, it’s this guy’s perspective that has us nodding.

Has American become the land of the double standard?

Lets see: if we lie to the Congress, it’s a felony and if the Congress lies to us its just politics; if we dislike a black person, we’re racist and if a black person dislikes whites, its their 1st Amendment right; the government spends millions to rehabilitate criminals and they do almost nothing for the victims; in public schools you can teach that homosexuality is OK, but you better not use the word God in the process; you can kill an unborn child, but it is wrong to execute a mass murderer; we don’t burn books in America, we now rewrite them; we got rid of communist and socialist threats by renaming them progressive; we are unable to close our border with Mexico, but have no problem protecting the 38th parallel in Korea; if you protest against President Obama’s policies you’re a terrorist, but if you burned an American flag or George Bush in effigy it was your 1st Amendment right.

You can have pornography on TV or the internet, but you better not put a nativity scene in a public park during Christmas; we have eliminated all criminals in America, they are now called sick people; we can use a human fetus for medical research, but it is wrong to use an animal.

We take money from those who work hard for it and give it to those who don’t want to work; we all support eh Constitution, but only when it supports our political ideology; we still have freedom of speech, but only if we are being politically correct; parenting has been replaced with Ritalin and video games; the land of opportunity is now the land of hand outs; the similarity between Hurricane Katrina and the gulf oil spill is that neither president did anything to help.

And how do we handle a major crisis today? The government appoints a committee to determine who’s at fault, then threatens them, passes a law, raises our taxes; tells us the problem is solved so they can get back to their reelection campaign.

What has happened to the land of the free and home of the brave?

-Ken Huber
Tawas City

Grab Bag Help Tips:

A few household tips to keep in your back pocket:

1. Remove wax hardened on wood furniture by softening with a hair dryer, wiping with a paper towel and removing residue with a mild vinegar and water solution.

2. Removing challenging stains from carpet brings this suggestion: Ivory bar soap is a miracle-worker. It will remove furniture polish, red wine, tomato sauce, and grape jelly and numerous other stains from carpet. Use sparingly, and just scrub with an old toothbrush and rinse and blot well.

3. If you have cast iron pans (and this is a good way to get additional iron in your diet AND avoid the harmful chemicals in non-stick coatings), or a wood stove that has collected “gunk” from being used over and over, remove the crusting with a paste made of cream of tartar and vinegar.

4. If your drain is clogged with grease, pour one cup of salt and one cup of baking soda into the drain followed by a kettle of boiling water.

Grab Bag Snooze Strategies:

Rest, rest, rest. Sources in all centers medical and metaphysical are harping on us to get more and better quality sleep. The pace and progress of our world often counteracts our efforts to book better snooze time.

I hear you, Oh Great Medical Community, but getting more sleep is often easier said than done, at least for MANY of us (I think I resemble that remark). Here are a few interesting ideas from Dr. Andrew Weil:

1. Get in the habit of napping 10 to 20 minutes in the afternoon, preferably in a darkened room.

2. Spend time outdoors in natural sunlight (I say do this as early and as late in the day as you can, which helps to set your circadian rhythm).

3. Try to spend the hour before bed in dim light (creating the cave man’s natural dusk).

4. Pay attention to caffeine intake, noise and light in the bedroom… better sleep rests in the details … zzzzzzzzz

For extra credit, take a look at these 37 tips for better rest from iqmetrix.com

Grab Bag Edible Mat:

Amber’s Garden has come up with a no-brainer vegetable garden for:

• Kids

• People with only a deck and pots at their disposal

• People with no thumbs, green or otherwise 🙂

The 9 different herb and vegetable mixes are actually sheets of seeds that just need soil and water. Planted as a whole or cut apart by variety and planted separately, these pre-packaged wonders take the guesswork out of edible gardening.

While most are for spring and summer planting, there are a few for fall or year-round (in subtle climates).

A page of snow peas, anyone? Click on the picture above to see all the offerings.

Grab Bag Sweet Stuff:

Have you ever seen a baby hedgehog? No? Well here’s your cuteness quotient for the day:

Thanks to Ing. W. for sharing this with me.

Grab Bag Jaw Dropper Moment:

How’s this for your morning run?

Thanks to Pat M. for sending this to me…

Grab Bag Brain Game:

By clicking and removing intervening blocks, leave the red star resting on the base platform.

REDSTAR FALL

Grab Bag Funny Stuff:

Don’t know who wrote this but if you can’t relate, you’re either a tech-savvy middle ager or part of the under 50 crowd. For those who find hi-tech a high-pain-in-the-ass, read on.

I thought about the 30 year business I ran with 1800 employees, all without a Blackberry that played music, took videos, pictures and communicated with Facebook and Twitter.

I signed up under duress for Twitter and Facebook, so my seven kids, their spouses, 13 grandkids and 2 great grand kids could communicate with me in the modern way. I figured I could handle something as simple as Twitter with only 140 characters of space.

That was before one of my grandkids hooked me up for Tweeter, Tweetree, Twhirl, Twitterfon, Tweetie and Twittererific Tweetdeck, Twitpix and something that sends every message to my cell phone and every other program within the texting world.

My phone was beeping every three minutes with the details of everything except the bowel movements of the entire next generation. I am not ready to live like this. I keep my cell phone in the garage in my golf bag.

The kids bought me a GPS for my last birthday because they say I get lost every now and then going over to the grocery store or library. I keep that in a box under my tool bench with the Blue tooth [it’s red] earpiece I am supposed to use when I drive. I wore it once and was standing in line at Barnes and Noble talking to my wife as everyone in the nearest 50 yards was glaring at me. Seems I have to take my hearing aid out to use it and I got a little loud.

I mean the GPS looked pretty smart on my dash board, but the lady inside was the most annoying, rudest person I had run into in a long time.

Every 10 minutes, she would sarcastically say, “Re-calc-ul- ating”

You would think that she could be nicer. It was like she could barely tolerate me. She would let go with a deep sigh and then tell me to make a U-turn at the next light. Then when I would make a right turn instead, it was not good.

When I get really lost now, I call my wife and tell her the name of the cross streets and while she is starting to develop the same tone as Gypsy, the GPS lady, at least she loves me.

To be perfectly frank, I am still trying to learn how to use the cordless phones in our house. We have had them for 4 years, but I still haven’t figured out how I can lose three phones all at once and have run around digging under chair cushions and checking bathrooms and the dirty laundry baskets when the phone rings.

The world is just getting too complex for me. They even mess me up every time I go to the grocery store. You would think they could settle on something themselves but this sudden “Paper or Plastic?” every time I check out just knocks me for a loop. I bought some of those cloth reusable bags to avoid looking confused but I never remember to take them in with me.

Now I toss it back to them. When they ask me, “Paper or Plastic?” I just say, “Doesn’t matter to me. I am bi-sacksual. ” Then it’s their turn to stare at me with a blank look.

I was recently asked if I tweet. I answered, No, but I do toot a lot.”

Thanks to my sis Tally D for this submission: