Wednesday, October 18, 2017

On LOVE and LUST (For a good friend and young firefighter and family man, Eric)


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Eric Parker Waterville, Fire Department




Sometimes (actually often) life is hard. For some of us, it can even feel unbearable, at times.
I know it's easy to say, things will get better, that, "It's always darkest before the dawn," but that doesn't change the NOW.

There are times when we all really have to reassess our lives...everything in them. Sometimes it can be, "Am I in the right job?" Sometimes, it's "Am I in the right relationship?"

It's very hard to honestly question such things, because it seems like questioning our very essence...questioning who we really are.

Beyond all that, this (the Fall into the Winter) is a very tough time of year for all of us. The days grow shorter, darkness prevails and that has a depressive effect...more pronounced in some of us and at various times when we're more susceptible.

We need to be able to forgive OURSELVES, for only then can we truly forgive others.

Despite how unbearable things may seem it's almost never the right thing to think about escape through death. It takes much more courage to confront. In the worst of times, in the depths of despair...THAT'S when we need to figure out what's really important to us.

Sometimes jobs are lost, or changed. Sometimes relationships fail...but LIFE goes on, often, ultimately for the better.

In most relationships, the bulk of our problems are communication problems. We don't put things well, or we get frustrated and hurt those we love. ALL of us go through that. It's hard to see what we're doing wrong when we're doing it. It's like trying to see our own grammatical mistakes after having written something. Someone else can spot them right away, but we can't. We overlooked them when we made them and continue to do the same each time go over what we wrote.

One thing I believe I've learned along the way is that while lust is the magnetic attraction that brings people together, it is ultimately a poor imitation of LOVE.

Lust is all attraction, hedonism and pleasure, LOVE is duty and responsibility. It's HARD WORK. Lust fades under the monotony of the mundane and crumbles under the ponderous weight of the responsibilities of family. THAT’S when the hard work of real LOVE begins.

LOVE isn't something we "fall into," LOVE is something we build. It's earned with duty, dedication and loyalty...over time. When the lust is long gone, the LOVE we build will be there stronger and bigger than ever.

I learned what love was as a child, but I didn't understand the lesson until much later in life.

My Dad, raised through the Great Depression, serving in the Navy in World War II & Korea, then getting on the FDNY in time for its "war years," wore the same old coat for nearly 20 years, rarely got new shoes, and he WORKED...struggled...and STUDIED like mad to provide his family (his wife and kids) a better life.

I took that momentous act of LOVE for granted as a child, because, as a child I couldn't understand it. Many of us live out our entire lives without understanding that...many, MANY of us!

LOVE is duty, honor, dedication and the hard work of BUILDING something of value. Lust is the mere spark of attraction that, if the eventual connection is true, allows for LOVE to take root.

Lust fades, but a well earned, well built LOVE can last forever.

The FIRST principle is "Be good to YOURSELF." FIRST, love yourself enough to forgive yourself for all the flaws we all share as mortals. We each NEED to do that, before we can truly build a lasting LOVE with someone else.

The SECOND principle is to, "Be patient with YOURSELF." Nothing worth having comes easily...or quickly.

LIFE is hard...LOVE is work, but the value of life is found in what we build, NOT that which we "fall into."

The Fatal Flaw in Collectivism


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IF you feel healthcare is a right, then you must think food, clothing and shelter are even more basic "rights"....EXCEPT, of course they're NOT "rights" at all, they're COMMODITIES that some people produce and sell to others at a profit and that is quite literally, HOW an economy works...ANY/EVERY economy.

Government cannot produce a single thing. NO government has ever built a car, grown a crop, made even a single shoe.

What government CAN do, if enough of us WANT and SUPPORT it doing so, is forcing those "greedy profit making producers" to make all those things and provide them to all free of charge...or, more aptly, produce those things, then deliver them to government so that government can then make sure it's all equitably divided and delivered to ALL...kind of like SLAVERY, also known as Socialism's Command (government-run) economy.

THAT has NEVER WORKED!

You know what all those "greedy producers" do under such conditions?

They refuse to work and produce much, because there's nothing in it for them. Moreover, NO ONE, from the richest, to the poorest among us is willing to simply surrender what we each PERCEIVE to be "OURS." That’s why Stalin "HAD TO" purge the Ukrainian land owners and why Mao "HAD TO" eradicate China's small business owners. That kind of "greed" cannot be tolerated under Collectivism.

As a result, government turns to people...well, goons and thugs, to be honest, the kinds of monstrous humans who happily make people disappear in the night. They contract with monsters like that, NOT to make the "producers produce more," BUT to make EVERYONE work and slave 10, 12, even 16 hours each day, 6 days a week...every man, woman, child and invalid...to produce the bare necessities, and believe me, they'd do just that...they DO IT every time.

Moreover, they'd NEVER tire of "making examples of people," even when such examples are no longer needed and the populace is fully intimidated, they'd still make some folks disappear...because they LOVE killing that much.

THAT is life under Collectivism (socialism, communism, etc).

In 1974 a little known math prodigy, who was at Dartmouth at the time proved, with 97 pages of equations, that Collectivism CANNOT work, but the market-based economy, in which EVERYTHING'S for sale and NOTHING'S free works extremely well.

That paper is widely known and well understood by "the global financial elite," but remains buried somewhere in the bowels of Dartmouth University's library, as that young math prodigy sold it to a banker, who posed as someone looking to publish that paper.

At any rate, I think I kind of explained WHY the market works and the Command Economy doesn't WITHOUT all those pesky quadratic equations that tend to make most people's heads hurt.

Suffice to say, it's for the BEST if we just let all those "greedy producers" keep on producing the commodities we all need at profit, because in the end...WE are ALL those "greedy producers"....in one form, or another.

Addendum to "The Detroit Firefighter Watermelon" Case...


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Black Detroit Firefighters Defend White Recruit Fired Over Watermelon



It's a sad truth, but at least according to our media's playbook, "HATE = ratings."

It SHOULDN'T...in fact, it probably DOESN'T, but that's what they insist on selling us.

Earlier this month (October 6th, 2017), many media outlets picked up the story of the white Detroit probationary firefighter, fired over bringing a watermelon as a first gift/offering to his new firehouse. (http://www.fox2detroit.com/news/local-news/detroit-firefighter-fired-for-bringing-watermelon-to-station)

How many will pick up on this followup, with that guy's African-American classmates standing up to defend him? (http://www.fox2detroit.com/news/local-news/black-detroit-firefighters-stand-by-white-recruit-fired-over-watermelon)

I'm guessing, not many. From their view, this story is "NOT newsworthy."

There seems to be something very wrong with our Newsmedia's priorities.

Much of the divisiveness we see around us DOESN'T come from Police and Fire Departments, but from Human Resources/EEO Departments that continue to tout things like "micro-aggressions" and "dual consciousness" (the internalized view that you "can't be yourself" at work), something we all suffer from (and mostly, rightly so), no one more than "backwoods folks" (a/k/a "Hillbillies"), like Bill Clinton. You think Bill Clinton felt "free to be his true/authentic self" at Harvard, or Oxford?

Wittingly, or unwittingly our Personnel Departments have handicapped those they claim to seek to help by encouraging a grievance mindset that alienates the targeted groups, (women, blacks, LGBT, etc.) from others, by encouraging those folks to see the rest of society as being "against them," when, in fact, 99.5% of the people from any group are just trying to get ahead.

Both Drs. Walter E Williams and Thomas Sowell have noted that both blacks of Caribbean and African descent do significantly better, financially, than American blacks (a gand many white groups, as well).

They postulate that a BIG part of that appears to be due to those groups NOT buying into the "victim's status" much of America seeks to saddle such groups with.

Perception and attitude makes all the difference. As Henry Ford said, "Whether you think you CAN, or you think you CAN'T, you're right!"

AND THAT'S why THIS story is so important!

Shades of Eugen Hadamovsky...



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Eugen Hadamovsky



When Hitler's National Socialists came to power in Germany, one of the first things they did was nationalize (place under government control) Germany's private radio stations.


Eugen Hadamovsky was made director of programming and the airwaves became filled with Joseff Goebel's propaganda, including hosts reading "adoring, thank you letters to the Fuher," daily.

Now, Jimmy Fallon, the former SNL guy who always laughed at his own jokes in his skits, has apparently taken a page from Eugen Hadamovsky in having goofy Miley Cyrus and the female writers on his staff read adorong, thank you notes to Hillary Clinton. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpzeQ1Z3Ut0&feature=share)

Johnny Carson set a standard. BOTH Leno and Letterman were poor copies of the original, BUT today's litter (Kimmel, Fallon and Colbert) are just unwatchable.

Notice? With each succeeding group, it takes more guys to disgrace the existing legacy!

Talk about "shitting the bed"!

THIS is THE Preferred "Source" on Puerto Rico's Recovery, For Our Dishonest, Globalist Media


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San Juan's Mayor Yulin Cruz




NOT Puerto Rico's Governor, NOT the other Mayors who've been cooperating and working WITH FEMA....NO, just her...Yulin Cruz, San Juan's Mayor. (http://dailycaller.com/2017/09/30/exclusive-fellow-puerto-rico-mayor-rips-san-juan-mayor-shes-not-participating-in-any-meetings/)

The SAME media that pumped the Terry McAulife/Jason Kessler Charlottesville hoax, the SAME media that ignores Melbourne, Florida's Antifa chapter lauding Stephen Paddock and ISIS claiming credit for his actions. Our media pretends that this is both unlikely and unprecedented despite the fact that this HAS happened before (https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/268033/could-stephen-paddock-las-vegas-killer-be-muslim-daniel-greenfield).

It's just impossible for a reasonable person to trust such a dishonest and manipulative media.

A TRUTH BOMB From Heather MacDonald" Are The Police Racist?





WHY the backlash against the Kaepernik protests and BLM?

I suspect that even those who don't have these actual stats, on the tips of their tongues, DO tend to intuitively sense that THIS data is pretty much in line with what they see on a regular basis.

Friday, October 6, 2017

Never Judge a Book by Its Cover

















Chris ("Doc") Dougherty (L) & Kevin Kuhr (R)



I spent my best days in the FDNY in the Bronx.
At every step of the way I’ve met GREAT people...EXCEPTIONAL men.

When I was at E92 & L44 in the Morrisania section of the South Bronx, that firehouse, like most others was filled with a collection of “characters,” guys who were “different,” but endlessly amusing...“Firehouse Crazy” is the term some used to describe them, as opposed to clinically crazy.

Shortly after I transferred from Engine 92 to 44 Truck, I was assigned a guy named Kevin Kuhr as a mutual partner...the guy you exchange tours with.

I hadn’t known Kevin very well when I was in the Engine, but I knew he was “a man of few words and a perpetual scowl.” Kevin had the menacing presence of a Biker, with a large Fu Manchu mustache that made it seem as though he was always snarling...and he had a rebel flag tattoo on each forearm. In some ways, Kevin looked like that Brutus/Pluto character on L-44's patch (pictured).

In short, he wasn’t the friendliest looking guy around.

So, I approached my first real contact with “Kevin K. Kuhr” (his nickname, get it? “KKK”?) with some trepidation. I had no expectation I’d be one of Kev’s favorite people, or that we'd even get along, but then again, I never EXPECT another person to like me. Free people are, in fact, free to like and dislike others for ANY reason, or NO reason at all. No one has any right to expect others to like them.

At any rate, I quickly found Kevin to be the easiest guy to work with. He suggested, “Why don’t we set up our mutuals a month in advance with each guy working the half that his group is in first, so if it’s Wednesday night/Thursday day and Thursday night/Friday day, whoever’s group is in Wednesday night does that first half? If either of us needs a swap, we can call in advance and work something out.” That worked out fine and Kevin became the best mutual partner I ever had.

On "OT" (over-time), I got to work a number of tours with Kevin and I can honestly say that no one attacked a fire with more vigor than Kevin did. While he never pretended to like everyone, he always went above and beyond at jobs (fires).

I’ve always found that it’s usually guys like Kevin (well, maybe not all of them as taciturn, or rough around the edges as Kevin), but guys who see a fire as a challenge NOT the guys who say things like, “Every time I think of a kid trapped in a fire, I think of my own kids,” who consistently go ALL OUT!

The guy who says things like, “Every time I think of a kid trapped in a fire, I think of my own kids,” are usually the guys too focused on making sure they get back to their own kids. Guys like Kevin and others who rise to the challenge, tend to get “lost in the focus of that challenge” and it’s they who tend to, more often than not, go “above and beyond” what could be expected.

I was, sad to say, at Kevin’s last job. I had the roof and he was the Outside Vent, or “OV.” Together our positions made up "the Outside Team," as opposed to the Officer, the "Can" (the firefighter carrying the 2½ gallon extinguisher) and the "Irons" (the firefighter carrying the forcible entry tools) who comprised "the Inside Team." The Outside Team members worked isolated and alone/apart. At any rate, towards the end of the fire, we had 44’s Bucket at the Roof and were sending all the saws, roof ropes and a few other tools down “express,” as we, who'd worked on the roof, would make our way down through the fire building.

Kevin made his way up to us and came over to me and said, I can’t lift my arm.”

“Above where,” I asked.

“I can’t lift it above here,” he replied...he wasn’t raising it at all.

We sent Kevin down in the Bucket with the tools.

It turned out he’d cracked the ball of his shoulder joint tearing apart the fire apartment. He needed to have his shoulder rebuilt...and NEVER worked full duty again.

Without ANY question, most “Left-of-Center” folks I've met, not knowing Kevin, would see him as a vile misanthropic, “racist.” He could be "the poster image" for "white redneck" in their minds. Funny story, such people have no reasonable frame of reference from which to judge the likes of Kevin Kuhr. It would be best if such people simply thanked those like Kevin, or simply said nothing...and just walked away.

Despite being incredibly non-PC and reveling in making others uncomfortable...my wife, born and raised in Kingston, Jamaica, once told me, after meeting Kevin, “I was very nervous around him. He never said a word to me. He’s the only guy I get a bad vibe from”...Kevin always rose to the occasion at fires, when needed most.

So, yeah, I get that Kevin certainly gave off a “bad vibe,” mostly by design, I believe. He seemed to want to keep people off him...or, away from him, which IS his right as a free American.

All that said, in my view, from what I saw of Kevin, and it was a pretty large sampling, he was a “VERY good fireman” and that’s the highest compliment anyone can pay another in the Fire Service.

I truly miss Kevin Kuhr. Morrisania should miss him and many others of that generation, as well, the Finer’s Ginty’s Velten’s, Kenny’s, South’s, Fraser’s, Dembry’s, McGowan’s, Tyson’s, Sullivan’s and many, many more.


In Kevin’s case, he did his job quietly, without fanfare and despite having done it without any expression of either affection, or compassion for those in the area we worked, he did it with a real and very deep passion...and did it very well.

THIS is THE Preferred "Source" on Puerto Rico's Recovery, For Our Dishonest, Globalist Media


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San Juan's mayor Yulin Cruz




NOT Puerto Rico's Governor, NOT the other Mayors in Puerto Rico, who've been cooperating and working WITH FEMA....NO, just her. JUST Yulin Cruz!

The SAME media that pumped the Terry McAulife/Jason Kessler Charlottesville hoax, the SAME media that ignores Melbourne, Florida's Antifa chapter lauding Stephen Paddock and ISIS claiming credit for his actions. Our media pretends that this is both unlikely and unprecedented despite the fact that this HAS happened before (https://www.frontpagemag.com/…/could-stephen-paddock-las-ve…).

It's just impossible for a reasonable person to trust such a dishonest and manipulative media.

A TRUTH BOMB From Heather MacDonald





Are The Police Racist?





WHY the backlash against the Kaepernik protests and BLM?

I suspect that even those who don't have these actual stats, on the tips of their tongues, DO tend to intuitively sense that THIS data is pretty much in line with what they see on a regular basis.











THIS is Why I Love Freedom of Speech...


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Shannon Sharpe




No...it's NOT what Shannon Sharpe said, but that he could use that freedom to expose himself and those protesting the U.S. flag and our National Anthem in such a clear, yet vile way.

Sure, I liked Shannon Sharpe a lot better BEFORE I saw this window into his bigoted heart, and yes, I was more comfortable NOT knowing he held such views, but I want bigots black, white and other, to out themselves. It's vital information to have.

This is an important clip because it shows you...the "fan," buying the tickets, the caps and jerseys, tuning in each Sunday...to guys, a LOT of whom, hold views exactly like this.

Are you tired of rich, highly priveleged men like this spitting in your faces?

An 18% REPORTED decline in ticket sales last week, Direct TV reporting many taking them up on their refund offer over "NFL Sunday Ticket"...has been nothing more than "a pretty good start."

If you didn't catch it, what Shannon Sharpe actually said was "F*ck America."

NOW would be a very good time for America to use IT'S freedom of speech to say, "F*ck Shannon Sharpe...AND F*CK the NFL!"

Amazing! Not even a year ago, NO ONE would've believed that globalism/One Worldism could have fallen so far, so fast.

This NFL debacle has allowed the Nationalists to equate Nationalism with being "PRO-American," and Globalism/One Worldism with being ANTI-American"!

It really is unbelievable!

Thank you Shannon Sharpe for showing everyone the true face behind the NFL protests.
American Ideas Click Here!