The Fork on the Road to the Midterms

WARNING: Move to the jokes if sensitive about political ideas.

I can’t believe I paid over $6 for a gallon of gas. I can’t believe the stock market continues to tank. I can’t believe this is still America.

The midterm election is just around the corner. Whether living conditions have improved or not since the last election is the normal gauge of whether one votes one way or another. In other words, if things got better since the last election, you re-elect the current establishment. If things got worse, you vote for the other guy. Simple, right? No. Not really.

Where we are today

It’s quite obvious that things have gotten worse — the sinking economy, the rising crime wave, the unabated influx of illegals, the surging homeless population, the one-sided judicial system … heck, we’re at the brink of a nuclear war with Russia. No matter how you lean in your political ideology, you’d need to be really wacko or in denial if you can’t admit this, right? There’s nothing irrefutable about my observations.

Pennsylvania is a microcosm of the rest of the 50 states. A well-funded buffoon who can’t speak and think logically is up against a celebrity doctor with limited means. It’s anyone’s guess who will win. How is that even possible? It’s because this is no ordinary election. Performance is not the gauge. Personality is. Ideology is.

HIM

“Anyone but HIM” is a mantra of many. Do you realize how illogically dangerous that notion is? One has to assume HE is the worse human being in the planet. After 2 years of irrational decisions by the OTHER GUY, how’s that turning out?

Are we talking about loyalty without question … even to the point of going down with the ship? If Putin says attack Ukraine, do we attack? Is it possible that the ideology of the party has changed? JFK would not recognize his own party today. Are our priorities in order? Do we build the foundations first or do we build the penthouse? If nuclear missiles are launched will there still be an environment to save? Will abortion still be an issue when we are scrambling to survive?

Einstein never really said “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result” but the logic is still true.

Indeed, this midterm election is a mirror that tells you what you’re really made of.

TGIF people!

Raoul

Joke of the Week

Thanks to Joanne of Connecticut.

Videos of the Week

Thanks to Jackie of Whittier, CA for this Halloween video of Topi the Corgi.

Thanks to Tom of Pasadena, CA for this video of a prank by the Payless discount shoe store. Hear the professional opinions of the influencers. Sadly, Payless closed its 2,500 US stores shortly after and filed for bankruptcy in February 2019.

Parting Shots

Thanks to Art of Sierra Madre, CA

Thanks to Garie of Paranaque, Metro Manila

These I found

Cool Halloween DIY idea.

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Welcome Home

It’s Veteran’s Day this Monday, November 11.

When I was a kid I played with GI Joe action figures. I built fortresses out of mud hills and created battlefields with green plastic soldiers. I watched war movies and thought it would be so cool to actually go to battle so I could put on camouflage paint, lob smoke screens and grenades and fire bazookas. When I was in High School I joined a military cadet training one summer … I signed up to be a man … to be one of the cool kids.  It was a physically grueling summer. On the first day we were out of breath after a half mile jog. We could hardly carry our fake wooden rifles. Every infraction translated to pushups, sit-ups or laps around the soccer field so after a week we developed real muscles and stamina. By the last day we were running with our rifles above our heads for miles and we were doing 50 pushups easily. We were quite proud of our accomplishments. We thought we had done it all to prove how strong we were but during the last night we got hazed. Yes, we were beaten up by the upper class men. We were in shock. We were blindfolded, then pushed into the “armory” where our sadistic officers took turns beating us up with stomach punches and paddles on our legs. Except for our heads and arms we had to cover our bruised trophies underneath our clothes for weeks. We were sworn to secrecy so I never shared this traumatic experience to anyone until I was already married. This was just make-believe army training but that was enough for me.

Ask a veteran about his/her time in active duty and chances are, he/she will want to keep that experience to himself/herself. You can only imagine how much more difficult it must have been at the actual battlefield where bullets zingged past … amidst the bloody sprays of his unfortunate comrades. Imagine the never ending nightmare of the hell he/she went through. Nightmares that continue to haunt veterans to this day.

I studied this in my Trauma Counseling class. People are familiar with PTSD or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder but we who study Biblical Counseling would rather call it PTSM — it is not a Disorder … it is not permanent. Instead, it is a Malfunction of the brain. Because through the deeper understanding of our relationship with God, even this is curable. We don’t erase it from memory but we grieve through it and move on.

This Veterans Day, please thank our heroes for their sacrifice. Welcome them home.

TGIF people!

Joke of the Week

Thanks to Lois of Whittier, CA for sharing this joke.

Don’s Puns

Funny Video

Sent by Dean Guzman of Vancouver, B.C.

TV Symbols

Shared by Art of Sierra Madre, CA

Parting Shot

Thanks to Don of Kelowna, B.C. who shared this:

The post Old Bull appeared first on Traveling Archive.