A New Warranty
I’ve had a few readers questioning where I’ve been of late. The month of March, 2016 will go down as one that has brought about great change. That change is the way my heart functions.
I’m not one to go on Face Book or Twitter and moan and groan about this, that and other physical ailments. We have all seen this every time we visit Jerry’s home page, he has a new malady:illness, sickness, disease, infection, ailment, disorder, complaint, indisposition, affliction, infirmity, syndrome; informal bug or virus. Jerry by the way is a fictional character.
Back in February I visited the Doctor for Bronchitis, subsequent follow-up provided me with a Hospital bed, Cardiac Cath and lots of tests during a four day visit. It was confirmed that I had Bronchitis and the Cardiac Cath proved that my CABG of 2000 had exceeded it’s original warranty. My passageways for blood flow were totally blocked and I was existing on collateral circulation only. I was to be scheduled to see a CV Surgeon once over the Bronchitis. That time would be extended to another week after coming down with an Intestinal Virus.
Thanks to http://sbynews.blogspot.com/
In early March i would have my Surgical consult and get a scheduled date for a CABG redo.
Since the warranty had expired and my original Surgery, and my Surgeon having moved out of town, a new Maestro would direct the Surgical Orchestra this time. Mid month found me checking into the Surgical Suite surrounded by my wife and children. The surgery went well and I was given two new by-passes. A collapsed Lung kept me in the ICU an extra day and after a total of six days it was back to home and my Cat Simon and dog Maggie.
My good Irish friend O’Leary put in a request for my Kilkenny Sports Club hoodie should I not make it through the surgery. Yes, the same good friend we went to Ireland with in December. He and his lovely wife have been frequent visitors since arriving home. With each visit I see him glance towards the jacket pegs, most likely thinking, what could have been.
For all the prayers, cards and words of encouragement I’ve received, thank you all. For those that did not know, well I’m not Jerry. I’m on the road to recovery. It will take a bit of time to heal. I’m blessed with a wife, daughter and two sisters that are nurses. I’m reserving judgement as to if that’s a good thing or not. Perhaps it will provide more fodder for the next edition of the Rooster.
Once again thank you to all my well wishers, the Rooster continues to crow. Thanks for visiting.
The Curse of Self Check Out
Last week the Mrs. and I visited Giant, our local super market. Throughout this great country of ours we have these stores everywhere with different names. Living here on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, Salisbury in particular, we only have two choices, Giant or Food Lion. Food Lion was recently purchased by Giant for those who do not know. Giant by the way is owned by Royal Ahold, a Dutch company. They also own Stop and Shop, although they are not in our neck of the woods.
No Whole Foods, Publix, Albertsons, or Trader Joe’s in our neck of the woods. We were once told in an article in our local paper that a Harris Teeter would not be opening here as we were not sophisticated enough to warrant them coming here. Come to think of it, I never even saw an Editorial in the paper about that.
Royal Ahold, the designation “Royal” from Dutch Queen Beatrix in 1987, awarded to companies that have operated honorably for one hundred years. Well, I contend that they do not operate honorably and you only have but to go through the Self Check-out to prove this.
We went to the store to pick up a few items, not a lot mind you.The store was quite crowded, perhaps a snow storm pending? Every register had a line and there was even a line of several people waiting on Self Check Out. What the hell we thought, three people waiting, eight machines, be done in a flash, right? Wrong!
Step one, declare nationality. Think about it people, how often are we told, we are all one? At least Bernie Sanders’ says something like that. Not in a grocery store Mr or Ms politician. They also want to know if you brought your own bags, which we do. The provided plastic bags rip and of course environmentally, are a disaster. After telling the machine we have our own bags, it tells us to place bag on the proper space for bagging. Instantly we hear, “Remove item from bag and please scan.” Now we’ve put nothing in yet understand. I repeat the process, not once, but two or three times at least.
Lights, sirens, customer needs assistance, “Bad Boys, Bad Boys, What you gonna do when they come for you?”
Up walks a 18 or 19 something polite young man, most likely a Salisbury University student to provide assistance. S U is our local University by the way. “What seems to be the problem Sir,” he asks politely. I explain about the bag and scan question the robot uttered and he just smiled. He scanned his do all, I’m in charge here card and started my process all over again. “ Just start from the beginning sir, you’ll be good now.”
Our helper leaves and goes off to another flashing light. We remove the bag, place the bag back on the stand and hear “Remove item from bag and please scan.” My wife looks at me, rolls her eyes, much as she does when I have erred in one way or another. I clear my throat, as I’m told by my wife and children is something that I do when consternation is present.
I beat our helper to the problem, remove the bag and attempt to rectify the issue myself, wrong. There is now a prompt on my screen, “Please wait for assistance.” Yes, the light is flashing, and there’s that Bad Boys music in my head again. I glance around and see that I’m getting that, “ you stupid @#” after a brief wait. It appears there are several other morons getting assistance also.You dummy, visualizes from several folks in the wait line. I am now with furrowed brow. Back comes my helper.
On this occasion our aide stays with us, starts the process again for us, hits a button or two, places the bag in the holder, squaring it up all pretty like and begins. He in turn gets the same prompt several times. I’m starting to feel a bit better of myself. Finally he is able to scan an item and places it in the bag. “Your all set now sir,” he says. “Oops” I say. “Gotta put my reward # in.” Start over Rooster. Ok, everything is in properly, once again he double checks the bag. He neatly places the bag on it’s designated spot. “Ah Ha,” “Please remove item from bag and scan.” He’s a moron also people.
The young lad then proceeds to go into a Doctoral Dissertation about the lack of the machine being able to recognize bags other than what is plastic and hanging on the racks. Mind you now, my bag is a “Giant” bag, bought at this store. We begin once more. Bingo, after several more tries it works, finally we’re off and scanning.
I take a glance at the line, the lady in front has this look on her face that could commit murder. Steam is being emitted from her nostrils, her leg is driving her foot into the tiles, much like a bull about to charge the Matador.
I am truly in fear for my life. I look at her, point to myself, shake my head “Not me,” point back to the Robot and plead “it’s this thing.” She is not amused, I am in the spot light,“Bad Boys” chimes in my head.
I scan a few items and am now on a roll. Then the unthinkable happens, I now have to scan two bottles of wine. “Please wait for assistance.” Blue light special tuns on, I start to tremble and glance towards the raging bull standing in line. She looks at me in disgust, daggers are piercing me, thrust from her eyes. Over once again over comes this lad to verify this 72 year old, soon to meet his demise at the hands of this vile woman in line, is in fact over 21 and legally able to purchase the wine. We have a bottle of KJ Chardonnay and Raging Bull (HOW APPROPRIATE) Cabernet.
I’m finished, just have to get through scanning my card. I fumble for my wallet, pull out the card, push the necessary Credit buttons. God forbid I should push the Debit button, the Bank will charge me 2% to do that. Plus, I’ll most likely enter the wrong Pin on this fateful day. “REJECT,” Crap, I used my Sam’s club card. I glance around, feeling guilt like never before, I reach for my wallet again, knowing everyone is looking at me now and start over. I replace Sam’s card and pull my Rapid Rewards. Gotta get those points you know.
Finally it tallies, issues me my receipt, and I grab my one bag. It’s taken me longer this trip than purchasing a pre Thanksgiving meal for 25. One Bag, 7 items, two bottles of wine. As I turn to leave I’m face to face with “HER.” I smile and say, “I hope your experience with this machine is more pleasant than mine. Have a great Day.” She glares!
Please, make her experience be everything that mine was, payback you know.
“Royal Ahold,” yep, )( an appropriate name.
For some more on why Self Check-Outs don’t work:
http://www.marketplace.org/2012/03/30/life/commentary/why-self-checkout-lanes-dont-work
Who agrees with Daylight Savings Time?
“Why are we still doing this,”my wife asks. “You want more daylight, get up earlier.”
Here’s what “The Atlantic” says:
What Is Daylight Saving Time? The History Behind Why We Set Our Clocks Forward and Back
Mic By Kathleen Wong
March 8, 2016 7:27 AM
On March 13 at 2 a.m., almost everyone who lives in the United States (unless you live in Hawaii or Arizona) and 78 other countries will need to turn their clocks forward by one hour for daylight saving time, according to NJ.com. As always, daylight saving time starts on the second Sunday of March and runs for about eight months until the first Sunday of November, when clocks are turned back an hour.
Daylight saving time started in 1918 during World War I as a way to allegedly conserve fuel, according to NJ.com. The public didn’t like the idea, and daylight saving time fell to the state’s discretion until the Uniform Time Act of 1966, according to Live Science. But the idea of “maximizing daylight” can actually be traced back to the late 1700s to Benjamin Franklin, according to the Atlantic.
Read more: Daylight Saving Time Isn’t Just Annoying — It Could Be Bad for Our Health, Says Science
In 2007, daylight saving time was lengthened by a month due to the Energy Policy Act of 2005, according to NJ.com.
View photo
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What Is Daylight Saving Time? The History Behind Why We Set Our Clocks Forward and Back
Source: Sonja Langford/Unsplash
Unfortunately, the energy savings that come with daylight saving time aren’t very significant, according to the Atlantic. In 2008, the National Bureau of Economic Research found that while the use of lighting dropped, the use of air-conditioning increased in turn.
So not only is there a lost hour of sleep, but the hour of extra sunlight doesn’t really provide many health benefits, according to the Washington Post. Experts have found more suicides, headaches and workplace accidents around the start and finish of daylight saving time. A large component of that mood disrupting has to do with the change in the circadian rhythm, or the body’s 24 hour cycle (which also deals with sleep).
Another Soldier of the Greatest Generation
Forward
Speaker of the House Paul Ryan’s office posted this today and I thought it was worthy of sharing .
Thank you Lt. Col Magellas
The 82nd Airborne’s Most Decorated Officer
March 11, 2016 | Molly Edwards | http://spkrryan.us/1QGVpy5
Speaker Ryan meets 99-year-old Lt. Col. Magellas
Week by week, Speaker Ryan greets many different Wisconsinites as they visit the nation’s capital. On February 2, one visit in particular brought a special sense of pride to the speaker when he came face-to-face with a true American hero—Lieutenant Colonel James “Maggie” Megellas, originally of Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. And boy does he have a story worth sharing.
In mid-1943, then-26-year-old James Megellas joined the 82nd Airborne division of the United States Army to defend the nation’s freedom during World War II, and his actions thereafter were nothing short of legendary. That’s why a grateful nation honored him with a February ceremony in the Cannon House Office Building—a place steps from the U.S. Capitol that houses congressional offices like the Veterans Affairs Committee.
In attendance at this ceremony was a fellow Wisconsinite: Speaker Paul Ryan. They exchanged stories and laughs of being Wisconsin-bred, with plenty of Packers talk thrown in. As always, Lt. Col. Megellas was the definition of modesty. “You make me proud to be from Wisconsin,” the Lt. Col. said to Speaker Ryan. “Are you kidding?” responded Speaker Ryan. “I’m the one who’s proud.”
There was no doubt about it: Everyone there was in the presence of an American hero. Lt. Col. Megellas is the 82nd Airborne’s most decorated officer, having received both the Distinguished Service Cross and the Silver Star. Two stories of his heroism stand out in particular.
Then-First Lieutenant Megellas was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross—the U.S. military’s second-highest decoration—for his heroic actions on September 30, 1944, in Holland, when he single-handedly dismantled an enemy observation outpost and machine-gun nest.
He was also awarded a Silver Star for his heroic actions on January 28, 1945, when he single-handedly attacked—and destroyed—a 50-ton Nazi tank during the Battle of the Bulge in Herresbach, Belgium.
Today is this hero’s 99th birthday. We celebrate him, and we celebrate this truth: It is because of American heroes like Lt. Col. James Megellas that Americans have the freedom we all enjoy today.
For that, we should all be thankful. Happy birthday, Lt. Col. Megellas!
Lt Col Megellas
Speaker Ryan’s Press Office | H-232 The Capitol | 202-225-0600
You Are Here Notre Dame Prof: Our Schools are Committing ‘Civilizational Suicide’
Intro
The below is from http://www.intellectualtakeout.org/blog/
Should you take the time to travel to Intellectualtakeout on occasion you will come upon many thought provoking titles. If you go a bit further, or is it farther, your senses might be additionally peaked, or is it peeked?
Is it too late to avoid a new dark age?
I posted this on Facebook earlier today. Where are we going, what are we doing, and who is responsible?
I can only think of Matthew 7:7 – Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: But in today’s world, to whom do we pose these questions?
‘For the name of Jesus and the protection of the Church, I am ready to embrace death.'(St Thomas Becket)
We must need change, right? Is there a Guy Fawkes out there in 2016?
Be it through book, the internet, or travel back in time, educate yourself.
From http://www.intellectualtakeout.org/blog/
Dr. Patrick Deneen has taught in some of America’s finest universities. He has been a professor at Princeton, Georgetown, and is now in the political science department at Notre Dame.
So what’s his assessment of America’s best students?
“My students are know-nothings.”
In an extremely important essay posted to Minding the Campus titled “How a Generation Lost Its Common Culture,” Deneen further describes his students:
“They are exceedingly nice, pleasant, trustworthy, mostly honest, well-intentioned, and utterly decent. But their brains are largely empty, devoid of any substantial knowledge that might be the fruits of an education in an inheritance and a gift of a previous generation. They are the culmination of western civilization, a civilization that has forgotten nearly everything about itself, and as a result, has achieved near-perfect indifference to its own culture.”
Deneen accurately diagnoses the problem: that schools today no longer seek to initiate students into a particular tradition, their tradition:
“But ask them some basic questions about the civilization they will be inheriting, and be prepared for averted eyes and somewhat panicked looks. Who fought in the Peloponnesian War? Who taught Plato, and whom did Plato teach? How did Socrates die? Raise your hand if you have read both the Iliad and the Odyssey. The Canterbury Tales? Paradise Lost? The Inferno?
Who was Saul of Tarsus? What were the 95 theses, who wrote them, and what was their effect? Why does the Magna Carta matter? How and where did Thomas Becket die? Who was Guy Fawkes, and why is there a day named after him? What did Lincoln say in his Second Inaugural? His first Inaugural? How about his third Inaugural? What are the Federalist Papers?”
Usually, people assume that this distressing situation is due to the failures of the modern education system. But according to Deneen, that is not the case. On the contrary, he writes that modern students’ ignorance is the education system’s “crowning achievement… the consequence of a civilizational commitment to civilizational suicide.”
He explains:
“What our educational system aims to produce is cultural amnesia, a wholesale lack of curiosity, history-less free agents, and educational goals composed of content-free processes and unexamined buzz-words like ‘critical thinking,’ ‘diversity,’ ‘ways of knowing,’ ‘social justice,’ and ‘cultural competence.’
Our students are the achievement of a systemic commitment to producing individuals without a past for whom the future is a foreign country, cultureless ciphers who can live anywhere and perform any kind of work without inquiring about its purposes or ends, perfected tools for an economic system that prizes ‘flexibility’ (geographic, interpersonal, ethical).”
If one holds to G.K. Chesterton’s maxim that a pessimist criticizes that which he doesn’t love, Deneen is no pessimist. He cares deeply for his students, and is frustrated that they haven’t been taught “what is rightfully theirs.”
But he is no false optimist either:
“But even on those better days, I can’t help but hold the hopeful thought that the world they have inherited—a world without inheritance, without past, future, or deepest cares—is about to come tumbling down, and that this collapse would be the true beginning of a real education.”
As Alasdair MacIntyre lamented in After Virtue, “[T]he barbarians are not waiting beyond the frontiers; they have already been governing us for quite some time.” It’s perhaps too late to avoid a new Dark Age. Now is the time to begin the effort of recovery and rebuilding.
As The Rooster Crows 