HAPPY HALLOWEEN

FROM THE BBC

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FROM SCTV

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FROM GOOGLE

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FROM ME

ENJOY THE NIGHT,

SOME VERY SCARY THINGS ON THE TUBE

TONIGHT

AMC

IS AIRING THE REMAKE

OF

DAWN OF THE DEAD

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FOLLOWED BY

THE PREMIER OF

THE WALKING DEAD

AND LETS ALL REMEMBER THE TRUE MEANING

OF

HALLOWEEN

CANDY!

A LETTER TO UPDATE MY FRIENDS

Starting during the summertime, And continuing until today the number of people who I call friend has been growing exponentially. Christian bikers, 1% a motorcycle gang members, old shipmate from the Navy, and many wonderful people right here in the blogosphere have reached out to me to say hello. Additionally I have regained contact with people that I went to high school with 40 years ago. Mostly on Facebook. Most of the old friends to see me remark that the bad boy image does not surprise them. But within the closer and see the pictures of my wheelchair I get bombarded with questions about what's the matter? Or what happened?

I am not embarrassed to tell the story. But after explaining it 200 times in the last three months it gets a little tiring. So for all of you people that I call friend, here's the story…



Long story short;
1.    Chemical exposure in the Navy resulted in a rare form of leukemia.
2.    Chemotherapy complications
3.    Coma, renal shut down, 0 blood pressure, at least 2  strokes,
4.    One full year of total quadriplegia
5.    Infections (caused by chemo) that required removal of my lower intestine
6.    Infections (caused by 0 blood pressure) that required removal of left leg below the knee. And all the toes on the right foot.
7.    3 ½ years battling sepsis,

And now I’m writing to you about this portion of my life journey. I have to warn you, at this point, I don’t tolerate pity in any form from anyone. I have had an insatiable lust for life. And I put more living into the first 30 years of my life, than most people see in 80. During  21 years in the Navy, I visited every continent on the planet, save Antarctica. All the places I couldn’t get to on a ship, I visited via motorbike. I have always owned a motorcycle. I own 1 now. My first car was a motorcycle. And I believe that bikers know exactly how the birds feel in flight. I enjoy chasing the horizon, with no particular destination in mind. Whether on two wheels or skimming across the surface of the sea.

I have no bucket-list (a list of things I must do before I kick the bucket) because I did all the dos, and saw all the sees, and tasted all of the tastes I have ever wanted before the opportunity escaped me. And if I were to die today there would be no reason to feel sorry for me. I have lived so close to the edge my entire life. So close that I have faced my mortality many times. The first time at age 9. And another half dozen times before my 20th birthday. In the latter portion of my life I have found great strength in my faith in an all powerful creator God, who knows my name and listens when I pray. No one has been to the abyss as closely or as often as I have, and does it without meeting that same GOD.

And one of my goals is to be able to ride a motorcycle again. I'm currently involved in the VA physical therapy program where we are trying to strengthen my arms and legs again and get back into life. During the protracted battle for life under the care of the people at Kaiser Permanente, we gauged success on the fact that I was still alive. I have recently reached a new stage in life were simply being on this side of the sod is not considered living. While the people in the are cautiously optimistic about my ability to walk again, they are staying very close mouth on the subject of motorcycles, and the riding one. Something about why put all that effort into saving you just had to get killed on a motorcycle. To which I respond "look at me now, motorcycle had nothing to do with this."

One last note:
Another friend remarked that, "it seems rather unfair that all of this should happen to a good person like you!" To which I respond, I have very seldom been a very good person. And all of this would only be unfair if it had happened to someone whom God had not given the strength endure and survive it.

I am truly blessed to have so many caring people in my life. And if you're reading this now I consider you to be my friend and for your friendship I am truly thankful.

Respectfully,
Kurt

LOOK FOR THE UNION LABEL

I'm not sure what your position on workers unions may be. But I know that I am diametrically opposed to them all, and everything they stand for. hate is not a strong enough word to describe my feelings about Unions and collective bargaining agreements. If that statement angers you, tough darts farmer! It was meant to be inflammatory. Labor unions in the United States are one of the biggest causes  of the  financial crisis we are currently experiencing. The city of San Diego, is currently trying to close down all and essential services, and some essential services such as police and fire department because they cannot continue at their current tax level. During fiscal year 2009 the city of San Diego reported one lowest crime statistics ever reported for the city of San Diego. If the Police Department labor union has said that those numbers are incorrect because so much crime may actually go unreported. And that without the new tax revenue being proposed on this year's ballot the citizens of San Diego who live in fear because police officers will be leaving for better paying jobs in other places. Forget that there are no openings in those other places, and in those places are experiencing the same LOAD of rhetoric from their Police Department.

Due to freedom of information, it has been discovered that city employees retiring from the city of San Diego are able to garner upwards of $80,000 a year plus full medical benefits for life at age 50. It doesn't stop there. The state employee union has the same deal. This infuriates me! Not because of the money. But, because those employee unions use their collective political clout to boss politicians around and force them to give those people exactly what their avarice and greed desires.

There's nothing that infuriates me more than a drive by some building or some company where the employees are on strike because they want to draw attention to the fact that they aren't getting what they want. Complaining that their job is so dangerous, or their pay is so egregious that they just have to walk out and stop all financial gain being done by the Corporation. And supposedly their job is so dangerous or so underpaid that they have to stay in the street and threaten bodily harm against anybody that tries to take their job. If a nonunion member stood up in front of the company and threatened to beat up somebody who applied to work there he/she would be in jail so fast he would know what them. With these mobsters get away with it on television and act with impunity.

There is a ballot measure in San Diego County that removes the requirement for people bidding on a construction job to be a member of the union. I voted for that. Back in 1979 when I took a part-time job as a security guard during the Chargers football season, I was forced to become a member of the Teamsters union. It left a bad taste in my mouth that has lasted until today. I really wanted that job and I feel bad for having gone against my convictions about labor unions, just to have it.

One of my least favorite collective bargaining units is the teachers unions! Especially the California teachers union. I keep reading and hearing how underpaid and overworked teachers in California are. Yet children spent 12 years in school and still not know how to read. I read information that says teachers spend on average $500 out-of-pocket for classroom supplies. And ask for us to donate markers and pencils and paper supplies for the classroom. Because, they just don't have the resources to teach our children. Well, I'm calling a big fat BS on that! Two years ago Gov. Schwarzenegger put on a ballot measure that would not allow teachers that automatically gain tenure just by showing up to work every day. The California teachers Association spent $150 million to defeat that proposition. Where the hell did they get $150 million when they can't afford crayons? Schwarzenegger's biggest mistake was to not reintroduce that Bill the very next year. It would have been a knockout blow financially against their teachers union that they would never have recovered from. And we would not be faced with a situation where the teachers unions are more interested in the teachers there are about the children.

I have the utmost respect for teachers, but I despise their unions. And I think they make for bad politicians also. I would never vote for a person running for political office on the basis of their experiences in academia. Academia is responsible for some of the worst tragedies ever perpetrated on the human race. Those fools who sit in their ivory towers and pontificate on how we could improve the world, are the same people that brought you the Marxist pogroms that killed 60 million Russians installing Communism in that country. There is also the German intelligentsia who were responsible for developing Zyklon B (nerve gas used for extermination of Jews during the second world war).

I have been debating in my own mind the best course of action for this blog. I thoroughly enjoy all the people I have met here and the interactions that we share. But I am feeling drawn, no called, by my patriotic heart to go all political. I need a little feedback from my friends here. Should I go ahead and start a second blog, where I'm free to attack verbally all of those institutions that I find at odds with the American dream? Would you like to hear it here in this forum?

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BYE BYE BABY

Call Me Senator from RightChange on Vimeo.
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LOVE THY NEIGHBOR

DALE

In 2006 when the chemotherapy I was taking caused sepsis it was a life-changing experience. I spent the better part of a month in a coma, most of that year completely paralyzed and bedridden for the next 2 1/2 years. and during this time of infirmity the man pictured above took care of all my household repair needs. Without being asked, he came across the street from his house to mine and every two weeks for over three years my neighbor Dale mode my lawn, did all the yard maintenance and kept my automobile running so that my wife could have transportation and our home would be maintained.

Dale and his family moved into the house across the street from us approximately one week after we moved into our house. Homeowners in the new subdivision seems to make friends much easier, then when moving into an already established neighborhood. I owe this man a debt of gratitude, so great, that if I live forever I could not repay it. On July 13, 2008 the temperature outside was a balmy 118°and wouldn't you know it? One of the infamous California rolling blackouts struck full force and left my house without power or air-conditioned. Having grown up in the sultry parts of North Carolina that heat and humidity don't really bother me.  But the mattress of my hospital bed requires a constant pressure air pump to be running all the time. Otherwise mattress collapses and laying on cold steel. Dale and his family own RV, and during the blackout they just moved into the RV. Quite surprisingly to me, Dale remembered my situation and ran200 foot extension cord for the generator of his RV to the motor of my air mattress.

During the four years of my infirmity, Dale has come to my rescue in similar fashion on many occasions. And while I hear people complain that they know of nobody who lives up to the Christian principles, I know just such a person. He lives across the street from me and his name is Dale. He is one of the less than a dozen people I address as brother.

Thanks bro!