An interesting story of the dismantling of the USS Enterprise, in service from 1962 thru 2012.
The Enterprise, the world’s first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, protected the nation’s interests from the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 to the war in Afghanistan in 2012. Now retired from service, it sits in Pier 2 at Newport News Shipbuilding, a division of Huntington Ingalls Industries.
She’s seen a lot of action.
This is really unfortunate, and typical of the attitude in the current administration.
When two-star Major General Harold Greene, the highest-ranking officer killed in combat since Vietnam, was laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery on Thursday, neither the President nor the Vice President were present.
Both Nixon and Bush 43 attended funerals of similar military men in 1970 and 2001 respectively. This time, Obama was golfing, and Biden was vacationing in the Hamptons. One of them should have shown up to this funeral.
An amazing story. This man suffered an injury that prevented him from making a living income. He saw an episode of “Antiques Roadshow” where someone brought in a Navajo Indian woven blanket which ended up being rare and extremely valuable. He knew his family had a similar blanket.
The rest is history.
This is where we are today in America.
Yeah, that’s Jeff Bezos. The individual who brought us amazon.com, or the guy better known as “The Most Hated Man in Book Publishing“.
If you’ve been in a cave, this is The Ice Bucket Challenge. I think these fads are dumb. We’re like a bunch of kindergarten kids. Hey, watch me as I dump a bucket of ice water on my head, then you can laugh at me, and then I’ll challenge you to do it too. I’m not against donations to the ALS, but couldn’t we find another way?
I can’t believe how grateful I am that the President of the United States resisted this stupidity. Frankly, I’m surprised he did. There is probably some poll out there that says this would give him a bump.
You really can’t make this stuff up.
When he’s not being booed by the crowd, he’s hyping them up using this technique. Impressive.
From my old friend Gateway Pundit.
RICK PERRY Declines to Fund Crazy Violent Drunk – Dems Indict Him For It
Even if you don’t click over to read the story, you’ve got all you need in that headline.
Farce.
This is great.
Parents in the Tri-State and around the world can relate: Trying to reach your teen by phone, only to get ignored. One frustrated mom decided to do something about it.
As CBS 2’s Alice Gainer reports, Sharon Standifird, was livid the day she called and texted her teenagers and they didn’t respond.Once she knew they were safe but ignoring her calls, she got an idea, Gainer reported.
“We need to develop an app that just shuts their phone completely down and they can’t even use it,” Standifird said. “And I started — literally just started researching how to develop an app.”So after months of design and working with developers, “Ignore No more” was born.
With one tap, a list of only parent-selected contacts come up. The child can call, get the password and unlock the phone.“Bradley needs to call me because I’m the person that has the unlock password,” Standifird said.
“It takes away texting, it takes away the gaming, it takes away calling their friends. The child will always be able to call 911,” said Standifird.
In my house, the only way to get the teenagers’ attention is to shut off the WiFi. Once it’s down, they come running. This app is a must-have for me, since I can only control my own WiFi right now. Too bad the app is only available for Android. We’re an Apple iPhone house. I’m sure it will just be a matter of time before an iOS app is available.
I’m coming back.
Some of you may know that this blog used to be a pretty active place. It started nearly 10 years ago. Just before the 2004 presidential election I started PunditGuy. It was great then. There were few political blogs in those days. It was relatively easy to get noticed. Most of the other bloggers were happy to link to PunditGuy, and many took my posts. It didn’t take long to get a following, and in just a few months, I had over one thousand unique visitors reading me per week. Talk about fun! I loved blogging. It became my hobby, and I put a lot of time into it. For the next few years, I blogged every day, got mentioned in the mainstream media, and had stories written about me in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and the San Francisco Chronicle. I had links into PunditGuy from MSNBC, CNN, and many well-read blogs. More and more people read what I had to say. It was really great.
Then, something changed.
I started getting bored. I missed a few days, then a week, then a month of blogging. I stopped caring. I was distracted. I just didn’t want to do it anymore. I became disinterested in it all. Little did I know then, but I was entering into a moment of my life that would occupy my mind for the next 7 years.
Yep, 7 years.
I’ve been struggling with a myriad of issues. Family problems. Drug addiction in an immediate family member. Mental issues. Anxiety. Confidence issues. Professional issues. You name it, I have probably been through it in some form or another over the past few years. It’s been exhausting. Doctors. Tests. Treatment centers. Counseling. Pressure. Stress.
Fear.
All of this zapped every ounce of creative energy from me. Oh, on the outside I looked like I was coping. Inside, I was a wreck. I just didn’t want to do a lot of stuff. I didn’t want to deal with a lot of stuff either.
I lost a solid 7 years of my life.
Recently, through the help of professionals, and confidants, I’ve been looking into these things and realizing their cause. They aren’t simple things. They are lifelong things. But I’ve learned some interesting information, and I’ve gathered some tools to address them on a daily basis.
A friend asked me recently to recall a time when I was really happy, and interested, and “in the zone” with things in my life. I thought about that, and the truth is, I was in that place when I was writing on this blog every day. I felt good. I really loved meeting other bloggers, interacting with readers, and keeping up to date with all that was going on in the world of current events and politics. I really had a lot of fun. My friend asked me why I don’t go back to that. I immediately had a bunch of excuses. I didn’t have the time. There were too many political blogs now. Politics is exhausting. Blah Blah Blah. My friend then said something interesting. He said, “Who cares? You were having fun. You were doing something you liked. You were keeping busy. Your mind was focusing on things that you were really interested in. Go back and start over. Do it again, and light those areas of your brain back up!”.
Wow. I had never thought about that. I never thought that just the exercise of writing on this blog again could bring back some of those memories in my brain. Those fun times. A time when I was a little less troubled, and a lot less narcissistic.
So, that’s why I’m back. I don’t care if I get a thousand readers again. I don’t care if I get mentioned in mainstream media. I don’t have to be famous. I don’t have to worry about trying to get linked by a big-time blogger. I don’t have to look at my blog stats every few minutes. I just have to write, about everything. Not just politics, but anything I want. The act itself is rejuvenating. It’s what I like to do. It’s what brings me a bit of happiness.
I’m going to be in this place. I’m going to spend time writing again. And it will be fun.
So, welcome back if you’re reading this and you used to read me here. If this is new to you, then, I’ll just say, “Hi”, and “Thanks for reading”, like I used to say, every day, years ago, right here on PunditGuy.
I love coffee. Not the buzz, but the actual coffee taste. I know, that might be weird to you, especially if coffee is simply a means to get you up and going in the morning. I have purchased dozens of specialty machines. I’ve ground, tamped, pressed, and Keurig’d (did I just invent a word?) coffee.
Lately, I’ve tried to cut down. I struggle with general anxiety disorder (GAD) and everyone I’ve read or talked to has said that caffeine doesn’t help. Still, I need the bean.
I got a kick out of this list of 9 things you should know about coffee.
1. A healthy daily dose of caffeine can be very different depending on who you are.
Don’t I know it. I used to be able to drink a double espresso at 10 pm at night and sleep like a baby. My personal assistant at work can’t have coffee after 11 am, or she’ll be up for weeks.
2. There’s no standard amount of caffeine in each cup of coffee—even within the same brand.
I guess I should have known this, but never really gave it a lot of thought. I just figured if I was drinking equal amounts of coffee from the French press, the caffeine all worked out in the end.
3. Caffeinated beverage manufacturers are not required by the Food and Drug Administration to label how much caffeine is contained in their product.
Not surprised. I don’t believe in the data on labels. It’s about selling me stuff. Labels will contain only as much as needed to get me to buy the product, coffee included.
4. Your grandparents probably drank twice as much coffee as you do.
So, that explains it. Gramma was wired – all day. No wonder she could work so hard for so many hours in any given day.
5. Pro athletes everywhere depend on caffeine—which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
…and a lot of other substances, right Lance Armstrong?
6. Keurig cups—those little disposable, single-serve cups of coffee with a special dispenser—are here to stay.
I’m proof of that. Even at $.75 per cup, I’ve dumped plenty of plastic in a few landfills.
7. Mixing caffeine and alcohol hasn’t been proven to be inherently unhealthy. But the resulting behaviors can be dangerous, potentially even fatal.
Translation: “blow your brain apart”. I’ll pass.
8. Caffeine could be way better for us—and also way worse—than we know.
See above. Coffee doesn’t play well with sufferers of GAD.
9. You’re not as much of a coffee buff as you think.
That’s right. While I love drinking it, and appreciating the taste of different types, I’m not that much of a geek. I don’t care a whit about a fruity or smoky tone.
The real issue about coffee is, I still can’t believe I willingly pay $4 or $5 for a cup of it, when my ancestors got along with a 3-pound can of Folgers for $6.99 which would last a couple of months. I refuse to look at my bank statements to see how much I spend on the glorious drink.
Some things about coffee should just be left unknown.