gritty musings...Bright Shiny Pennies

So this week has been interesting...lets see navy yard shooting...house republicans pledging to shut down the government unless they can de-fund Obama care...Pakistan is releasing a top Taliban official into the cess- pool that is Afghanistan...I mean what else can we do wrong...or could we as a species do anything right... in a nation where gun violence is only topped by emerging African nations committing genocide...there is a large portion of the populace...voters ..that will fight to have a gun ..in their house..in their car...under their pillows or even in their kids teachers desk drawers...because if only bad guys have guns then we are lost as a country...where were all those gun owners when this guy was walking around killing people... or the asshole in the elementary school..the high school...the college campus...runnin in the opposite fucking direction...the only people running toward the sociopath were our police...the only americans that should possess a weapon...

We all remember where we were that fated morning.  I was in the doctors office.  Lots of old people around me, I mean I am in Florida.  There was a monitor sitting silently in the corner and usually Regis and Kelly would have been on.  But on this morning  as I lifted my head from the well worn issue of men's health I noticed the mouth a gape look of the folks around me.  I went from face to face around the waiting room.  Slowly realizing something was happening.  Something was desperately, horribly wrong.  I turned to the monitor to see just what was causing the horror I saw in their eyes.  These folks had seen some horror.  I fathomed that they were kids when Hitler and Stalin stalked the earth.  They had seen their children and grandchildren die in Korea and Vietnam.  Seen presidents and visionaries killed.  But the look was sheer terror.  One silver haired woman sat silently weeping, shaking her head. ...

Have we been at war for twelve years??  Have  we lost enough of the best and brightest of a generation to two wars that have made no sense, against an enemy that only grows larger and more rabid with our every action.  Yes we have. And  I for one am done with it.   I got into it with a liberal friend of mine the other day.  I know two liberals on one front law constitutes treason here in florida.  The argument centered on Syria.  I feel that our dependence on foreign oil and our desire to remain the big dog on the porch has left us precariously close to national demise.  The last president used his made up war against made up weapons and a propped up dictator to grab hold of oil fields and give us a base of operations to fight the big evil... Iran.  Then our present commander and chief followed suit, plunging us into the black hole of national destruction, known as Afghanistan.  This place is credited with bankrupting and destr...

we all have our own opinions..and we all believe ours are correct... lets start with that simple premise...i try, i really try, not feed  into my pigheaded nature...i read, all kinds of stuff..stuff that directly goes against my beliefs..i do this.. so as not to be a mindless fob..a spouter of propaganda, planted in my mind by people i agree with...its easy to do that  these days..because you can Google up support for your view very simply...and you can leave the page of anyone you disagree with with a simply mousey click...ill give you a case in point..i, like most liberal  fucking do gooders ,was ready to hang George Zimmerman the morning after the news report of   Travon Martin's death...but i  then choose  to read everything i could get on the legal disclosures...the evidence...the law..i came to a very un liberal opinion...i don't think a grown man should have been so afraid for his life to have shot a teenager in self defense...self defense.. t...

So i was watching a documentary on virgins...strange you might say...a constantly dwindling yet ever replaced segment of the female persuasion ...of course this doc was about evangelicals and their pursuit of the godliness...a fine pursuit...a pursuit worthy of praise...but then they start throwing out some stats...now these aren't actual..verifiable statistics...no these are...unqualified...unsubstantiated...bullshit...the first was that 40 percent of americans believe in creationism...that can't be right ...cause if it is we have become...the stupidest...most uneducated...nation in the modern world...we immediately halt all medical research...start praying over the sick and infirmed..because all of the sciency stuff that we have come up with is...just crap...cause jesus fought t-rex...and if jesus fought t-rex than what the hell is a mri...in the big picture...forget carbon dating...we got scripture...so i'm on my knees tonight...and i'm praying that we are not that s...

I am a whore...I mean aren't we all in some way or another...i sell my services to an owner and in exchange for a pittance of a salary..give everything to the  birth, growth and existence of their dream...their restaurant...I have adopted their dream as my own...transferred their ideas to my staff..and then sat back in the kitchen to watch them bathe in their adoration...in their success...I have also watched dreams dash...bank accounts dwindle...marriages crumble...partnerships dissolve...I have had great owners...down in the trenches...there with an icy drink...pat on the back..thanks a lot owners...owners who stuck money in my pocket...pulled me out into the dining room to receive the accolades of grateful clients...and i have had pimps...sweet talkers that tell you one thing...and spend the rest of the time chopping at you with an axe...whittling away at your vision..changing the deal...destroying your staff...Ive had bounced checks and bold faced liars..ive had mid night run...

i was on a train..from Paris to Rotterdam...and i remember the countryside raced by so fast in the bullet carrier that i barely could make out the bucolic scenery of western France...and i am reminded of my life...56 tomorrow ...holy shit..how i did i get here...life has literally raced by my window...days ago..i was intrigued by Paul Moyer's stir fry technique in his dirty socked apartment in altoona pa...was that the first inkling of cheffieism to come...i was swimming with some of my oldest friends or throwing yellow gritty balls against the natatorium walls ...was this the first instance of team building...traveling in a hazed and confused van from one polo match to another...wild haired and skinny...how is it that all my teams have always had a pot thing...there was those moments when ..breathless you met a woman that would change your life...forever...it has only happened a handful of times...but wow..path changing every one.. and..those friends who where a tiny bright blast ...