January 14, 2018

"Games and Rules"

By Jim Culp

(A little prelude: If you've never read my blogs before, let me say up front that they are opinionated, well considered, and not always nice. That's me. I'm a retired soldier, a proud American, and a very concerned citizen. If you have thin skin, or think that unicorns and leprechauns will fix the world, this blog is definitely not for you.)

               It's the end of the second week of 2018, and we are already shaping up to another year here in the USA. It's been colder than a well digger's boot here in the mid-west, and as I write this today; it's snowing and we have about an inch on the ground. It's about 19˚F, the way January should be. I can say it is the first year in a long time that I can remember seeing both of the big rivers being frozen solid.
It's the end of the year for professional football. The best teams of the year are in the playoffs, including my Pittsburgh Steelers. We'll watch these games with family or friends, and cheer our favorites; lose or not.
But one thing about NFL Games that has always bothered me is the referee calls.
Let me digress a minute, and tell you that I have loved games all of my life. I was a chess player starting way back in junior high school, and have been so all of my life. I broke my wrist in football when I was young, and ended my illustrious football career.
I love games, and even design my own line of them. But here's my big caveat...games have rules. Rules dictate whether you can do this or that, how much you advance after that run or catch, and whether your King can "castle" at a certain point or not.
The NFL has a rulebook, but I am inclined these days to believe that either A)the rule book some days must be written in Arabic, and therefore the referees can't decipher it; or B) they interpret the rules as they are either paid or coerced to do.
I do not think that (A) is the case. Every referee can consult the rules anytime he wants with the latest electronic technologies, and coaches and referees alike know the rules very well. That leads me to believe that (B) might just be the deal.
Game after game, I see referees make calls about whether a player is "down" or if he had "possession or control." Great! Make that call, Ref! But here's the issue. Many times (and sometimes in the same game), the referees will make a different decision about the exact same occurrence! Ludicrous...right? So why does the NFL keep allowing this to happen?
My conclusion is that it has something to do with little pieces of green paper, and they typically have a U.S. President's portrait on the front of them.

-Jim

 

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January 1, 2018

It's a bone chilling -4˚F as I look out over the frozen yards of my neighborhood this morning. It is a New Year, and that means new things.

For me, I'll keep working and writing songs. I'll be busy just keeping my fingers nimble enough to play the guitar. Life will go on, and I hope the New Year will bring me more completion as a person.
For all of you that are my friends and relatives, I wish you a prosperous New Year. Just remember that "prosperous" doesn't always mean more money in the savings account or the 410k. Sometimes it means that you just grew as a human being during a time, and that means more than any stock, credit increase, or new car could ever hope to mean. To my readers, gamers, and blog followers, get ready for more of the same and some new and very different stuff. This year will bring my next science fiction novel, and soon after that, my first non-fiction book. I'll continue writing RPG's; my gamers are anxiously awaiting more of the 10th Millennium®.
Whatever you do, and wherever you go, find time to enjoy life. As you trudge along that winding road of reaching retirement, don't ever lose track of one of life's most important paths... that one of the pursuit of happiness.  
HAPPY NEW YEAR, and may you and your families enjoy the blessings of the universe for years to come.

Cheers!

-Jim

 

 

December 23, 2017

"Yule" by Jim Culp

 December 21st marked the first day of Yule for those of us that choose to be called Pagans. It will last until the first day of Imbolg, on February 2nd. December 21st is the day that the year dies, and the long nights and frosty temperatures let us know that a New Year is coming soon, and that we should celebrate the passing of the year, or the death of the old, and the birth of the new.

In ancient Egypt; Ra, the creator of man and the sun, would battle his enemy Apep, an evil serpent who wished eternal night. Apep would wait at the horizon, and wait for Ra to end his day, and attempt to seize control each night. Ra's rival god (goddess) Isis would also scheme against Ra, because she wished more than anything for her son Horus to be the supreme god. But every morning, Ra (symbolized by the sun) would rise, and give life back to the Earth.
The end of the year on December 21st symbolizes the death of the god in many beliefs, and three days later December 25th symbolizes the birth of a god who would deliver man from his woes, and create a path for him to forever offer his soul to an almighty god.
We here in our house celebrate Yule by lighting the Yule log (many times symbolized by a candle) and remembering those that died this year. We celebrate their memories, because we have long ago mourned their passing.
We will eat food provided by the sea, and drink wine provided by the Earth. Also this year, we'll watch the Steelers pound the crap out of another one of their adversaries; because we ain't just Pagans, we're good 'Mercans...by golly.
If you are among my friends and loved ones, you are as diverse in your beliefs and cultures, and I respect each and every one of them.
So I say to you... may you all have a Blessed Yule Season, and blessings upon you and your houses in the coming year.

Cheers,

-Jim

 

December 7th, 2017

 "Shutdown"

 Yesterday evening and this morning, I've watched the news intently as our government goes through the same old song and dance of saying that our government has to "shut down," because we are out of money.

That idea has always been baffling to me, because every time we need "money" for something, we just "borrow" it from the Federal Reserve.
If there is a war, we "borrow" trillions (yes, trillions) of dollars to finance it.
When there is a catastrophe, we "borrow" billions of dollars to send aid and hire contractors to fill the bill.
When I was a little kid in El Paso, Texas, I had a "piggy bank" (except mine was a Model T Ford made of pot metal). It always had twenty or thirty cents in it, but around birthday and Christmas time, it had anywhere from $5.00 to $30.00 in it. I couldn't borrow money from anyone, and when my car was empty, that was it. I had to wait for allowance time to get more money, which was the first of the month, when I would always receive $5.00. I couldn't buy model airplanes that cost $25.00; I bought ones that cost $3.00; and had $2.00 left over for glue, candy, or whatever else. 

But when I grew up, I used credit cards. I could buy things that I normally couldn't, and tell my friends at work about them. I also bought things I didn't need or even want; I just bought them because that magic card in my wallet allowed me to. Of course, that "money" had to be paid back. When I fell behind on payments, I began owing more money. Soon, and very soon; I owed more money for the things I had purchased than they were ever worth in the first place.

 Ladies and Gentlemen, that is where our government is today. We, the people of the United States of America, are almost 19 trillion dollars in debt. Contrary to popular belief, that debt is not backed by gold, silver, or leprechauns with secret pots of rubies. Ok, there is that 6 billion at Fort Knox. You can compare that ratio like this. Take a loaf of bread. Remove one slice. Divide that slice into one thousand pieces. One of those pieces would represent the amount of our debt that is backed by gold. Our nation runs on "money" borrowed on credit.  As of 1913, the Federal Reserve became our National Bank, and we've played this game since. The Fed will tell you that our nation's GDP and her household's assets balance that out. In reality it doesn't come close.

What is our government's answer? Shut down the Federal Government for a day, a week, or a month. That'll solve it.

Sure, and I have a date with Sofia Vergara tonight.

The concept that a government shutdown will put the slightest dent in the National Debt is ludicrous. A "government shutdown" accomplishes three things: A) It creates massive paperwork backlogs. B) It interrupts critical procedures and processes, and C) gives our government more time to dork around in committees instead of doing their jobs.

 

Why are we in such debt? We'll dive into that discussion in January.

Follow my blog at http://jimculp.blogspot.com

Happy Holidays, and may you have a Blessed Yule Season.

-Jim

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

October 7, 2017

Blessed

I was involved in two conversations yesterday, and both of them (at different times) were with persons of age 24-26. Both of these kids were working people, as well as college students; the distinct difference in them being that one of them was using the GI Bill from his service in the Marine Corps, and the other was having her college paid 100% (through and up to a completion of a Master's Degree!)

These two both say they enjoy talking to me, because "that old guy knows some shit!" I laughed really hard when this was repeated to me by another co-worker, because A) I am old, and B) I've got a lot of mileage that gave me some knowledge and a little more wisdom than some folks...
The conversations that these two young people and I have had cover a broad range of topics, but two particular ones struck a chord on the neck of my mental guitar.
The first was the first kid (the Marine) saying that he never heard of such a thing as a black and white TV, and couldn't imagine a TV without a DVR, let alone a remote. I gave him a friendly speech on how different times were just 30 years ago. Before I was 15, we had a black and white TV in the living room with 3-4 channels. It is extremely coincidental that my brother posted a photo of one this morning on Face-book with a comment that said "I was the remote."
When I was 16, I had a black and white TV in my bedroom for playing games on my Atari 2600. You couldn't get much more cool than that.
The second conversation was with the young woman who is going to college to obtain a Master's in Nutrition and Dietetics (again; 100% paid). She was complaining that her parents and grandparents take so much of her time...always wanting to see her, talk to her, and take her to dinner.
I commented that when I was five, my grandparents had all passed, and my Dad too. I told her that I'd have given anything to have them in my life when I was older, and to have had my Dad when times were tough in the growing up experience. I told her she was blessed to have all of these folks still in her life, and to enjoy them while she can, because they won't be around for ever.
It makes me wonder what our parents, aunt and uncles, and definitely our grandparents, must have thought when we whined about things we were blessed to have in our younger years.

Wake up...

When morality and brotherly love fails in a society, there is nothing left but the opposites, which are perversion and hate. When perversion of a decent society trumps all else, there is nothing to stop children from becoming the subjects of their nightmares. We as a society are waking up to see that very thing become reality in our own time. So when you wonder why children of today are disobedient, maybe you should look at the fact that Smart-Phones and X-Boxes are raising your children in your stead.

When a society begins to believe that an unarmed populace is unconditionally safe because the government they elected will protect them, they are doomed to the same fate as many societies that preceded them.
When a society of people believes that choosing one evil over the other is making the right decision, they are doomed to do so time after time. There is no such thing as a politician in Washington, DC being fit to be the President of the United States anymore.
Why?
Because we have accepted what I talked about in the first paragraph of this paper.
We've accepted lying, cheating, and stealing...as long as there is an apology afterwards.
We've accepted stories that are absolutely myth, regarded as truth; that will be recorded and taught as history to our grandchildren.

Wake up.

Your destiny belongs to you, and no one else.

-Jim Culp, 2017

 

 

 

10/2/2017

 

My most sincere condolences go out to the families of the victims of the Las Vegas shooting. I hope they can all deal with their losses and that their dead rest in peace always.

I keep hearing people say that “these shootings are getting more and more common,” and “they create mass hysteria.”

Yes, they are and do. But these shootings are part of a plan, and that plan is to declare a state of martial law, and disarm the public. These shootings, just like all of these bombings; are nothing but tools created to take away your freedom, and bring the United States, Mexico, and Canada under a centralized government where only police officers and soldiers will possess firearms, and only the extremely wealthy of our populace will enjoy the rights of the Constitution.

Will that happen tomorrow, or in 2050? I don’t know. But it will happen.

I’ve said all that to say this.

When it does happen, don’t come to me and say you weren’t warned, because I am warning you right now.

 -Jim Culp, 2017