I am a dedicated uncle. Some who call me `Uncle` are not even technically related to me, but I don’t care. Kids like being around me because I don’t speak down to them using `baby voices`. I speak as plainly as possible. I am as honest as I can be considering their age. I know I have made a difference in some of their lives because I am still in touch with some and they tell me so. Kids are great and they are important.

I say this to make the point that I do worry about the future.

One of my greatest concerns is the habit that people have these days or trading ability for convenience. When I was a senior in high school, pocket calculators were almost as large as a paperback book. The cost around $50.00. I wanted one. My argument was that I had always weak in math and was in danger of not graduating on time. I thought this was a well though-out argument to bring to the highest court in the land… My Mother.

Apart from the fact that she could not afford the money; she made the point that if I depended on an overprice gadget from Sears to do my math for me, I wold never I learn to do it my self.

I was angry that she couldn’t see the logic of my opinion. I was frustrated that I didn’t have my own money to buy it. Mostly I was annoyed that she was right.

My ability to do math in my head has served me well over the years. While others are still bent over in apparent prayer to their plastic totems, I have already worked out the answer and am thinking about the next thing. By limiting my use of my cell phone, I have learned to plan. By refusing to use a microwave I have become a better cook. By declining the availability of Word Processors, I have learned to spell and punctuate on my own. By leaving the TV off, I became a better reader, thinker and more imaginative.

Fine, my punctuation could use a little work and I don’t pretend to be a master chef, But I like to think I am a little better for having learned to do these things on my own.

We live in a wonderful time with fancy toys and instant gratification. But I worry about what we are losing.

There are some people that have been so-much a part of my life, that I cannot imagine them gone. Kurt Vonnegut, John Lennon and Stanly Kubrick to name a few. Now we have lost another one.

As a liberal-leaning independent, I am livid over the democratic party’s successful attempts to destroy any hopes they have of wining the presidency. Beginning with the Clinton-bashing early in the campaign and continuing with Obama’s judo move to cast himself as the victim, the campaigns seem to be designed to turn the `Progressive` party into the `Comic-relief`. We have to recover from eight years of living under the `leadership` of probably, the DUMBEST person to occupy The White House since the nineteenth century. During `Baby-Bush’s` administration we went from a robust economy, record-low unemployment and actual progress in balancing the budget; to our current situation with out of control unemployment, the crashing housing market and the declining dollar. Oh yes, then there is the war that he lied to gain support for. You would think that the Dems would have the easiest time winning an election since Ford pardoned Nixon. But they have succeeded once again, to shoot themselves in the foot.

Sept. 11, 2001 was a bad day. I was shocked, but not really surprised. I don’t think anyone in the security business was. Everyone KNEW something like that was going to happen. The problem was that, in a society that portrays itself as `Free` (Define that!) there was nothing that could be done to prevent it.

One of any terrorist’s goals is to draw attention to his (or her) cause. To bring like-minded people to their sphere of influence.

The other purpose is to change the lives of their enemies.

The goal of 9/11 was to steal some of our freedom. To make us a little less American. It gave that tiny little man in the oval office an excuse to steal some of what makes us different from the despots that we hate.

Does this opinion make me unpatriotic? Some would say it does. I think just the opposite. I was born in the country and have served in it’s military. I know that I am a citizen of the most enlightened nation in the history of the world.

If we allow our government to use `Homeland Security` as a catch phrase to accuse people like me of being anti-American, then the bad-guys have won already.