Back From the Desert

Well, the conference is over. Turns out the place was actually a large city, with lots of lights and people. Memorial weekend is one of the busiest out there, and the posers were out in full force. I did feel very old at a couple of the venues, especially Hard Rock poolside. Got to see Dred Zeppelin for the first time in years. Felt like a chaperon, but did enjoy the show.

Anyway, the conference was good. 911 actually showed up and was awake for most of it. The gist of many of the talks was don't do anything but reassure the patient that they will get better with time. This is great with me, because I don't want to do anything at all except put a tube down your trachea, give you a jolt of electricity, pump you full of drugs and send you upstairs. If you don't need these things, you can probably go home.


As for the meme you could basically copy what 911 doc so eloquently said, but I will add a few.


1. I am a conservative. Sure I had my more liberal days as a wayward youth, but that was before I had a family or a paycheck. With both of these, I can't see how sitting high in a California redwood reading Jack Kerouac, spouting some asinine diatribe about a socialist utopia and wealth redistribution, or telling other people to buy "carbon credits" (what???) while I fly in my private freaking jet across the country, will benefit me, my family or my country.

2. I love my country. I admire the young men and women who have sacrificed and are sacrificing now for the U.S.A. in the military. I believe that if you don't like our country, you should either vote to change your leadership, work within the leadership that was elected, knowing that in a democracy a new election will come, work on a grass roots level to change things, or shut the hell up and leave. Don't try change this into a Stalinist/socialist haven, and sure as hell don't try to establish a caliphate.

3. I believe law abiding citizens should have guns, and more of them should have concealed carry permits. I don't hunt, but I own guns, and I would Charlton Heston you if you tried to take them (you would have to pry them from my cold dead hand). The people I am referring to would deter the thugs and psychos who wish to do harm, or would at least shorten their rampages. I am a news hound, and in my nearly 4 decades I have yet to see a heinous crime carried out by a concealed carry card holder, but I have seen them stop some misanthrope in his tracks who thought he was the only person with a weapon.

4. I believe in personal responsibility. It is the role of the govt. to protect me, provide infrastructure, and help the downtrodden ( read: those who CAN'T help themselves, although I really believe even this service is more efficiently performed by religious and other private groups) and least among us, at least until they can get on their feet. That is about it. It is not to provide cradle to grave services, thereby instilling generation after generation of a "where's mine" or in the case of certain NATURAL disasters "where's the boat?" mentality. As a corollary to this I am against affirmative action. I believe need based (economic) help for college students is appropriate on an equal footing, but I never want to spend a single second of my life explaining to my son why, although he worked hard, scored as high or higher on the test, he didn't get the promotion, position, job etc. because his skin happened to be a certain color or he had testicles. That just isn't going to happen.

5. I believe the French (this also applies to Quebec, as you think you are in France) are smelly, jealous people. I have traveled there many times, but don't plan to go again until Euro Disney annexes the French capital, cleans it up (smells like urine) and makes it one of their theme areas. The can have Johnny Depp for all I care. One thing I do admire is their ability to be lazy and smug at the same time. In honor of this and since I love college football, I propose Saturdays in the fall be National France Awareness days, where all businesses, including hospitals, (excluding beer and chip stores) will be closed to allow me to sit on my butt and do nothing, smell horrible, and still enjoy myself soaking in ALL the glory that is football.

6. College "professors" frighten me. I hope that in 18 years I can teach my child enough and prepare him well enough to be able to fend off the left wing liberal wacko crap they spew to the lemming masses at most of the campuses. I also hope that he is good enough at golf that even if he has to go to college he can concentrate on his game and not their socialist diatribes. The old saying "Those who can do, those who can't teach" applies today in colleges more than ever. They say they want to encourage free speech, but only if that speech falls in line with their thinking.

7. Elvis was a genius. If you don't go through the entire range of human emotion listening to Don't Cry Daddy, Kentucky Rain, and An American Trilogy, in that order, then you are a soulless robot and have no reflection in the mirror.

8. I believe the Judeo-Christian work and moral ethic are what have guided this nation to greatness, and a lack of these relegate us to mediocrity. I try to instill these values in my kids, attending church as often as my horrible schedule will allow. The founding fathers did not want congress to establish a state religion, which is appropriate in a pluralistic society. But they knew the value of a moral compass, (not moral relativism) and even celebrated a day of religious observance (thanksgiving) after the Constitution was ratified. In addition, most people forget the second clause of the 1st amendment, the one about making no law prohibiting the free exercise of religion. The ACLU seems to have forgotten that as well.

That's all folks.