The House

Every neighborhood has one. You live in a quiet little suburban locale away from the hustle and bustle of big city life. Your kids can play and roam the area without having to dodge traffic every five seconds. This "hood" is the ideal place to start your family, if that is what you care to accomplish. Most of the neighbors are friendly, hard-working, and caring. Unfortunately, there is that one abode across the street that is a total enigma. Of course it is a rental house  stationed in the middle of your own little utopia.
The grass in the back yard is always two or three feet high. It has new tenants bi-monthly. The owner never makes any improvement and only cuts the grass every three or four years when the town hall gets enough complains to force his hand. The new tenants apparently do not have a job because their vehicle or vehicles, if they have any, never leaves the yard on a possible work schedule. The front yard seldom gets landscaped and it is often taken care of by responsible neighbors. You begin to fear for your children's safety with all the "monsters" loose in our world today. They keep to themselves and all the information obtained is innuendo and gossip. If they ever communicate with anyone, it sounds like bluster and bragging. Then the "visitors" start to arrive and take up residence for a while. The police start to visit regularly and nearly every week or so the rescue squad makes it normal arrival. Then suddenly they are gone. The owner sends the local cleaning crew to clean up inside, but never outside. The for sale by owner sign with the phone number you have called numerous times to complain is deposited by the street. Then, the cycle begins again.
In the meantime, calls to your local government which has passed several town ordinances to assure us that our neighborhoods are safe are ignored. Most of which are personal issues that governments should have no control over. Our nice little utopia becomes that neighborhood with the "Mystery House." And we think video games, music, television and movies are unsuitable for our families.

Who is Responsible?

Our economy is in a tailspin right now, but does anybody in society know the reasons why. Could it just be old fashion greed on the part of our government officials. Unfortunately the government has decided to cut spending in some very important areas especially education. Just like the retail business leaders when they lose money, the loss is passed on to the consumer by raising the prices on the products we purchase. The people in charge put the onus on the little guy. That is what our government is doing to us now.

Education is one of the few areas in our society that allows everyone to benefit regardless of race or sex whether they cho.ose to take advantage of it or not  However, this is the first area that our so called government leaders are cutting drastically. Then when the leaders of local school boards get the news they whine and complain, and then turn around and cut teachers that are sorely needed. These teachers surely do not teach because of the high salaries they are making. None of the school board superintendents have bothered to cut their high salaries, and they are the ones making the poor decisions that put us in bad economical positions throughout the years. Our congressmen and women are surely not mentioning that they are taking pay cuts to ensure we keep our teachers. Recent news in ou state showed that if the government was shut down, many of our legislators would still expect to receive their salaries. Teachers, regardless of what the public thinks, work with students because they care about the kids and want to help improve the future of our society. Pay cuts should be made in programs that do not have such a high influence on our future as a viable country.

Greed by our so called leaders and poor judgement by these "leaders" is ruining our lifestyle at the expense of their affluent and extravagant spending. The leaders of our different branches of government are destroying our country with their selfish decisions. The graft is even spreading to
to local governments. People are raising their salaries and taking money for services that are not needed or used, and then passing the price on to the public by raising taxes and such things as utility bills. Gas companies are raising gas prices because "we may run out of oil." You can not tell an intelligent public that we can not find new ways to make vehicles run. But our government continues to take money from lobbyists to keep the status quo. We all know who has to foot the bill - the public.

Watching Sports

Been an avid sports fan my whole life. When you get older, most sports become a spectator sport. Watching my daughter for 17 years has made watching sports a lifetime of wonderful memories. However, watching sports on television these days is very nerve wracking. Officiating and umpiring aside, sportcasting has made watching sports very irritating for this lifelong sports fan. Most people that watch sports already understand the nuances of the games. Many of us have even been an athlete, coach, or official in our lifetime. Today's broadcast sports are becoming ridiculous. The flood of inane information from the long list of sport's announcers is irritating. Firstl, sports announcers are not celebrities. We can not turn on the televison these days with out seeing sportscasters in commercials and on sitcoms or other televison shows. Granted, some of the sportscasters of today are very attractive, but I do not watch sports to see five or so sportscasters give their opinions. I know what I like and it is not listening to sportscasters. Thank technology for the mute button. It is the only way I can watch sports these days. A perfect example is the 2011 March Madness. We had to listen to Kenny Smith, Ernie Johnson, and Charles Barkley. They only deal with the NBA, but there they were giving us their opinions on NCAA games. Along with them were five or six other know it alls we had to listen to. (I know you English grammar teachers are having a grammatical fit) The only opinions I want to here are actual quotes from the athletes that were involved in that particular contest. Did any of these announcers actually play sports because they are so critical of, especially college kids, the athletes that it is very annoying. Mute. Unfortunately we had the pleasure of seeing the US Women's World Cup team play in Cary about two weeks ago and you would have thought the man behind us was Howard Cosell himself. He told everyone within earshot of his very loud voice what was happening in the game. He narrated every play but forgot to control his children who continued to kick and hit us in the back with their signs, feet, and nachos. I shoud have stayed home and listened to some British announcer broadcast over top of Julie Foudy on ESPN. Can some one please pass legislation to limit the number of announcers on sportcasts since the US government seems to think they should chime in on the BCS, NFL lockout, and cheating athletes. My motto about celebrities, sports "heroes", and politician is to tell them to keep their opinions to themselves.

Have a good day and keep the remote handy.