Memorial Day Vow

Taking off to the time share for a week. Just relax and rejuvenate and put the problems of deficits, crumbling foreign relations, bad European economies, middle east turmoil and Chinese agression temporarily out of mind. Instead, I suggest that all take this Memorial Day weekend to reflect on what is and has been good about our country. How people came here and started with nothing to work and build successful lives and families. How are Founding Fathers Gave us liberty and freedom and a Constitution that allows this nation to grow and develop. How we correct our problems like slavery when thousands and thousands gave their lives in the Civil War to bring freedom and  citizenship to those oppressed. How we as a nation rallied in 1918 and again in 1941 to save the entire world in the two great wars. How we take care of our neighbors in times of disaster both here and abroad. We are the most generous nation in the history of the world. How through invention and technology we have gone beyond all imagination to better the lives of all.
Let us take this Memorial Day to vow to bring this nation back to the intention of our forefathers and to the greatness we were. Back from an entitlement society to a ""by my own bootstraps mentality." We must vow to elect leaders who will follow the constitution, put American back on course and not pander to special interest minorities seeking votes. Vow to find these leaders. Vow to elect them. Vow to hold them accountable. Vow to be informed. When being informed by our media, vow to seek the truth. Happy Memorial Day and may God bless us all! ----Grandpa Gordon

Embarrassing

Yesterday, on a European tour and on the road again, our President and his wife, Michelle, were invited by Queen Elizabeth to a formal dinner at Buckingham Palace. In his address to those assembled, Mr. Obama without his teleprompter, had to read his remarks from notes held in his hand. I,as an American, found this very embarrassing. When it became time for him to offer a toast to the Queen, he requested everyone to stand. With glass in hand, instead of looking at the Queen, he had to look down and read his brief toast from his notes now on the table. Not only embarrassing, but rude!
The biased major media in this country continually tells us how smart President Obama is and how dumb his predecessor, George W. Bush is. I want to tell you that our corrupt media organizations have this one completely "bass ackwards!" ----Grandpa Gordon

Obama Give Back

In 1967 some Arab nations launched a war against Isreal. The war lasted six days. Isreal had the enemy in full retreat and  in the process secured  additional territory. As a result of the victory the Isrealis kept some of the land that they had won. Yesterday in his speech, President Obama said that in order to have a peace agreement, Isreal had to return that land to Palestine. How rediculous! Isreal was attacked and they deserve to keep what they had won. Mr. Obama, Isreal is a friend and an ally. Palestine is terrorist. What nonsence!
In colonial days the British attacked the colonists in the Boston area, The colonial militia beat back the red coats and we secured Massachusetts. Under Obama's theory we should return that state to England. On second thought, maybe that is not such a bad idea!-----Grandpa Gordon

Protesting

Today groups of concerned parents and teachers are holding protest rallies at the Capitol in Albany. They are very upset at the large size of the cut in education spending. Teaching staffs are being reduced, support workers are being laid off and, most important, student activities and sports are being abolished. I heartily agree with these protesters. It would be far better to further reduce the bloated state work force. I use the word work jokingly. Ther just isn't enough work for the number of people that are hired by the, too many, state departments. This is evidenced by people standing or sitting around, arriving late and leaving early and taking three day weekends. There would be huge savings in downsizing the departments and privatizing state jobs. Our schools do need much improving but, cutting funding is not an answer. Isn't it ironic that the elected officials doing this cutting were highly endorsed and heavily funded by the teacher and public employee unions.We do need to reduce spending and balance the budget. Most importantly we need to lower taxes to make our state competitive and encourage families to stay and thrive here. Selfish unions and poiticians relying on union donations need to go bye bye.-----Grandpa Gordon

Not so good news

Over the weekend I read that Albany School of Law graduated almost 300 new lawyers and that Ellis School of Nursing graduated 27 new nurses. What is wrong here? God knows we are over run with lawyers and that there is a tremendous lack of nurses.
Our Country Has a multitude of drastic issues, both at home and abroad. Included are: huge deficits, high un-employment, the shrinking dollar, high gas prices, floods and tornados along with an invasion of illegals and drugs.Overseas we have the war on terror, unrest in the middle east and hostile nuclear nations. Ignoring all of this, our President takes Air Force One to El Paso for a fund raising dinner to benefit his 2012 re-election. There he went into a comedy routine mocking the Republicans desire to seal our southern border. He lied about the miles of fence that had been built. He lied about the number of troops on the job. He, jokingly suggested a huge moat filled with alligators. I wonder how this made the border residents feel who have had family members murdered, property destroyed and contiually living in fear? Perhaps Obama should be on Saturday Night Live or Comedy Central. He sure as Hell does not belong in the White House. 2012 is the time to get him out of there, if not sooner.-----Grandpa Gordon

The Three Gets

Andrew Cuomo, the new Governor of NYS, announced that the multi year renovation to the state capitol building had been reduced by two years. This would save the taxpayers millions of dollars. With his insistance  the contracters found ways to get the job done. This reminded me of the old days when there were three GETS in the contracting business -- GET in, GET done and GET out! Then along came the unions. Longer consruction time meant more money for the workers and the unions. An example: bricklayers were limited by union rules to lay a specific number of bricks each day. Most skilled masons reached the limit before the lunch break. They had to, however, remain on the job till the day was done. Sitting and doing no work. Before the unions, jobs were completed faster at less cost. Ridiculous isn't it. Back in the days of sweat shops, unions were needed and served a good purpose. Today these mob-like unions are hurting the country. It is way past the time for a change.-----Grandpa Gordon

College Problems

A couple of items in the morning news were interesting and thought provoking. Two lacrosse teams, the U-Albany women and the Siena men earned their way into the NCAA tournaments. The initial games are scheduled for May 15th. This is the same day that both institutions are having their 2011 commencements. The Senior students on these two teams will be unable to attend their own graduation excercises.
The other story was about college students becoming stressed out the last weeks of April cramming for their final exams. Little wonder! These young adults are attempting to master twenty weeks of information in eleven weeks of actual instruction.
Each year college tuitions are going higher and higher. College semesters are shorter and shorter with a long holiday break in December and January and the traditional spring break in March. World technology is advancing daily. Leaders are advising that our students at all levels need more intense education to compete in the modern world. Many are calling for longer elementary and high school years. Yet college training days are constantly growing shorter and more expensive. Some thing is drastically wrong here.
Are college sports running too long into the semester? No, college semesters are running too short. I, frankly, do not know the answer to this problem of higher costs and shorter instructions. I will offer that somewhere in all of this there are teacher and proffesor unions involved. How simple is that? ---Grandpa Gordon