Funerals

I went to a friends funeral yesterday.  He was one of the first agents at our office that came up and offered help.  I still remember the first time he came up to me was outside the old office, he introduced himself and offered any help he could give.  His name was Jeff and he was Charles age.  He had left real estate a couple years ago but earlier this year his son got his license and started working here.  A couple weeks ago he was here with his son visiting and when he saw me he came right up and started asking how everything was.  He remembered all we had talked about in the past and asked on those items.  Kind as could be.  He was a retired Major, very decorated and even reached the status of Green Beret.  Unfortunately with his military life and time in the Iraq war came his own personal "demons" .  Demons he just couldn't get past. I heard he sought help in different ways.   As I saw the looks on his familys faces at the funeral my heart just ached.  I just pray God touches this family and finds some way to help them through it.  I know he can if they will just seek him.  I do not pretend to imagine what they are going through right now.  I am glad to have met him and known him.  I see a lot of him in his son Jeffrey.  Thats whats on my mind.

Moral Decay

Oh how I long for the days of no sin.  I miss how people used to never commit murder.  How when you would walk down the street everyone would say hi and ask what they could do to help you.  The days are long gone when men would only marry women and have big happy families where the kids would only say yes sir, no sir or ma'am.  It was great when you would tell a child to do something and they would hop right to it with no questions except in wondering what else they could do.  I remember how all music was in praise of God and television was only clean with no perversion whatsoever.  But NOW we live in a world with moral decay.  Not like the days when Cain and Abel used towork together on everything and grew old together with their kids playing together.  Not like the days when God told Adam and Eve what to do and they obeyed without question.  Luckily the Bible never had to mention anything about divorce as its just a creation of modern man.  Husbands and wives stayed together forever because they were always loyal, in love and never did anything to  hurt each other.  All kids in Biblical times were raised by two parents not one because children raised by two parents never did anything wrong.  There was no jealousy of what other people had in those days either for example Jacob and Esau were always looking out for each other.  Yup everything was just fine until those darn liberals introduced moral decay to society. 

Good Books

I love a good book.  Sometimes I just wish I could sit and read with no interruptions.  Caylum and Evan seem to have this trait also.  Caylum is reading LOTR right now and Evan reads teen scifi/fantasy type books.  It is great though to just kind of start reading and make the world go away.  I have been reading The Song of Ice and Fire.  Unbelievable character creation and the sheer volume of characters is amazing too and yet not one of them is safe it seems.  Just felt like sayin.

Gun Control or Lack there of

A lot is being said on both sides of the gun control issue right now but not a lot of substance actually coming out.  The NRA and other "Gun religions" are creating a straw man to try and argue their case.  They paint the gun control advocates as people who all believe noone has a right to own a gun or should only own limited guns.  They want their followers to believe gun control only means taking away their guns.  While there are many who do believe in that kind of gun control the majority actually just want to find ways to limit the availability of guns to the wrong people.  And when a gun falls in to the wrong hands someone should answer as to how this happened.  I find it preposterous to think that our forefathers would say we should be allowed to have easy access to any type of gun manufactured, they could never fathom the destruction that can be caused by todays weapons plus the other problem with that argument is they never intended for the second amendment to apply to everyone it does today.  In the days this nation was founded you pretty much had to be a white landowner to have rights(oh and a male).  ( And don't go quoting the second amendment I know how it reads and this is a very different world than the one that existed when it was written) Now I am not saying we should not be able to have any type of gun manufactured I just believe there should be numerous controls as to how you obtain them and should be properly trained to use them.  I have seen the recent arguments as to how the teachers in Israel carry guns to protect their students.  Really?  You really want that to be one of your arguments.  You want to be like Israel?  That is a war torn country how do you not understand that?  Thr pro gun postings on facebook do not paint a very good picture of who gun right advocates are either.  Most gun rights people I know tend to have faith in God but then they post items like cartoons that say "Please rob my neighbor he believes in gun control"  Or "this house protected by guns and God, enter unlawfully and you will meet both" .  These are not funny, just hateful of people who do not agree with you. 

On the other side of the issue the gun control activists seem to believe that more gun control would solve the issues we have seen more and more often with these mass killings.  It seems like quite a stretch as these are demented people who were going to find a way to commit these heinous acts no matter what.  Might there have been less damage if we could find a way to deter their access to guns, maybe.  But the gun rights advocate have a great point in that people kill people the gun is just a tool.  Admittedly a gun has only one real use and all other uses are still based on that  one use and that is to kill, but for protection shouldn't you be able to have an assault rifle to protect yourself from one who might break in and also have an assault rifle.  They are already out there so people may have a right to be prepared for such an issue.  The police can't protect you once you are already in that situation they tend to be more of a cleanup crew.  Gun control advocates also need to recognize many people own guns for many different reasons, collectors, hunters, protection reasons, just because they can, and most do not own any that could cause the mass destruction we have been seeing lately.  Not all NRA members oppose gun registration or mandatory training classes.  We tend to hear mostly from extremists.

I understand the debate from both sides but I find it would be better served without all the false rhetoric and outright lies.  I believe most politicians if they were to be honest without fear of losing a large portion of their constituency would say Americans should be able to own most any gun they want but would also tell you there should definitely be some controls put in place to keep them out of the wrong hands.  What defines the "wrong hands" would be a whole other debate.  I know of many people who qualify to carry and that definitely doesn't make me feel safer knowing that if ya get my drift.  No I will not mention names.

Tis the season

Christopher Pop-in-kins showed up last night sometime.  probably came in on the wind.  Kids noticed him first thing.  We went out last night and got me a new phone.  No I didn't get an I-phone or a galaxy.  I got a Motorola Atrix.  I am a tightwad when it comes to that.  I can't see spending 150 dollars on a phone, especially when they already get their monthly payment from us.  It also came with a  100 dollar gift card from Walmart.  Its pretty cool, but it will take me a while to get used to the features (The phone not the gift card).  Definitely added the insurance this time.  My latest candy is a milk chocolate fudge with caramel and walnuts.  Kris starts finals later this week, and finishes up next week.  She has loaded on the extra credit to help keep her grades up as much as possible. 

I went to a couple foreclosure auctions this week.  It was fun.  A broker I do some work for here in town asked me to go to one in Tehama.  I went and bid on a house for him but we didn't get it.  I thought we were going to but then it escalated to high for his blood.  Then the next day he wated to go bid on one in Willows and since the checks were already in my name he had me go with him.  That one never auctioned so we didn't even get a shot.  It was a fun experience though.