WOW!  All the news that's happening right now!  I guess if I wasn't blogging, it wouldn't seem like so much.  A church in Crystal Springs, Mississippi turning down a black couple who wanted to get married there... go figure!!  I suppose I've been living under a rock for so many years, but I must apologize to my "heavily pigmented" friends... seriously, I would have denied that would ever happen in this day and time.  These are the times I feel embarrassed to be white.  And I hear the couple regularly attended the church in question.  NOW I have to deny that those people are actually Christians.  Then again, maybe they don't profess to be?  Cause dey ain't... ;-)
And the Olympics... are you watching this!?!?  And now maybe the Chinese are cheating!  Does that surprise anyone?  They were caught several years ago, and now, with government backing, they say it's really easy to develop and use performance enhancing drugs that leave the body quite quickly.  NOT to say a woman could never beat a man swimming... but beating the world record by 5 seconds deserves some scrutiny...
And how about the ATF's Fast and Furious gun walking scandal?  Just give up and walk, Eric Holder.  If you won't give up the records, then OBVIOUSLY you have something to hide...
And I won't say much more (that hasn't been already said, anyway) about James Holmes.  I can't imaging how anyone would think anything LIKE that could be a good idea.  I'd like to smack him upside the head and yell "WHAT THE HECK WERE YOU THINKING??"  It's completely beyond my imagination to fathom doing something like that.  Like trying to picture what it's like to be God... my mind just can't stretch around it.  I CAN imagine that he thought about what might happen to himself, but I wonder if he ever stopped for one moment to think about the impact his actions would have on his family?  I mourn for the families that lost loved ones... but also for James Holmes family.  They have lost a son as well.  I have an 18 year old boy, and I love that boy like I love myself.  When I was a police officer, dead people didn't bother me.  I couldn't afford to LET it.  But now, with children of my own, I just can't see that stuff anymore.  I always see my own children in the faces of the dead.  The same with people that throw their lives away like James Holmes.  That could happen to ANY of us... that could be OUR children.
Let me tell you what... YOU may not believe in a God.  And looking around you daily may be your own evidence.  But I thank Him EVERYDAY for my children, and my family... they may not be mine tomorrow.  I try to do my very best to raise my children and live my life honoring a God with the values taught in His Word, and could try harder.  Don't even get me started with the Chick-fil-a fiasco.  I'll just remember to always stay far south of Chicago.  GO COWS!

Well, I thought I'd give this "blog" thing a try. (Note - I'm so good at it, my first blog didn't post until a month later. Lol. )   I'm a 45 year old blue-collar male, and I grew up in the age of Atari, Pong, and the IBM PcJr, which had no hard drive.  MY first computer was a Texas Instruments TI-99/4A, if you don't count the very computer "looking" Odyssey game console.  I remember getting my "email" from "bulletin boards," which were servers in someone else's house.  I've built my own computers in the past... so you would THINK  I'd be in-depth with computer stuff.  LOL  It's true that if you don't use it, you lose it.  I don't know that I could've kept up with computer technology even if I had tried. 
So I'm not really sure who will ever read any of this.  It's almost a journal for myself.  I'm sure my beautiful wife of 20 years will read it... if only to confirm what she already knows.  Or perhaps to glean a bit of knowledge I didn't think important enough to pass onto her.  20 years is a long time... but I hope I get another 20 more with her.  So this may turn out to be another of my passing hobbies.  Like the sailboat that's been in the yard 3 years, or the photography equipment piled in a corner of the closet, or the remote controlled airplanes in the storage room.  In my defense, I DO have over 20 thousand photos.  Some of them are even good.  And I did get fairly good at flying the planes.  I even earned my private pilots license, but haven't flown since 9/11.  Not that 9/11 had anything to do with it.  It's just REALLY expensive to fly!  (Please refer to the second sentence in this blog... "blue-collar" being the key words.)
So what will this be about??  I have lots of opinions... but you KNOW what opinions are like.  And the title may give it away a bit.  Ranting and raving.  Probably more ranting, than raving.  Sometimes I have the idea that I'm always right (is it just me?) but I always try to keep an open mind, and graciously apologize (if necessary) when I'm wrong.  I have no problem admitting my mistakes... and I get lots of practice doing it.  I just hope that whomever reads this keeps an open mind as well.  I welcome your comments... but I am NOT a tolerant person.  I am not "politically correct," and never will be.  Sometimes I talk too much, and sometimes when I shouldn't at all.  But if you don't agree with something I say here, please don't attack me for it.  Perhaps you misunderstood what I said, and should ask for clarification.  Perhaps I misspoke, and should re-state my stance.  Regardless, we live in the Land of the Free.  I may not agree with everything YOU say... or maybe even with NOTHING you say!  But I'll fight to the end for your right to say it!  All I ask is for the same respect from you, the reader.
Now, since I'm getting quite old, my bedtime is getting earlier and earlier and I've had enough for tonight.  Not to mention (but for some reason I will anyway,) the Olympic girls are doing the breaststroke and distracting me.  Please read me blog often, and I'll try to keep the material fresh.  Oh... and for the advice part of my blog... Wear sunscreen.  :))