Paul L. McCord Jr.

Have you ever noticed how people that have pit bulls always have huge ego issues and then tie there dogs to heavy weights?  These people remind me of the macho types from high school that walk around holding their arms out strutting.  These are the guys you see that like to tell you how someone looked at them the wrong way and they straightened them out.  If there are any people that get on my nerves worse than liberals it is these kind.  My neighbor is the typical pit bull dog owner.  They leave their dog outside in the cold rain and snow. They chain the dogs to a heavy tire, transmission or something else heavy.  I am convinced these kind of people get the dog for the sole purpose to protect their drugs or other illegal activities they are doing.

The poor dog next door comes and jumps at the fence at me when I go out into the backyard but then calms down almost begging for attention.  I am not a dog person but I can see the loneliness in his eyes.  He is left out in the cold, virtually abandoned just so the losers in the house can get a warning when the police or any other concerned citizen approaches the neighborhood.  These people want a dog that will protect their sorry rear ends while they ignore them.  I hate to rant about them but I see it again and again.  These rent houses are just new faces with the same type of people.  If  you are not going to spend any time with the dog, then why have him or her?

Back in high school I had a friend that had a pit bull dragging around a huge tire rim in the backyard.  I asked him why he had the dog dragging the rim around and he told me that he was trying to make the dog stronger.  I have often asked myself why would someone want to make the dog stronger.  People do not want a strong dog to be a pet.  A watch dog that is ignored and abandoned out in the yard is just wrong as far as I am concerned.  If you need a watch dog, you could use a Chihuahua.  A watch dog will make noise to alert you to the presence of an unwanted person so that you can take action.  Having a large dog out in the yard that is abused like this is not only mean to the dog but is also a liability.  If the dog ever gets out and bites someone, they are putting themselves at risk of a lawsuit.  Okay, I have complained long enough.  I just had to vent.

DISCLAIMER: This post contains photos that may be inappropriate for young viewers.  Parental Guidance (PG) is advised.

(Cue the piano music)

Yesterday, March 28, 2009 will go down in history as the day that mankind almost went extinct.  The Blizzard of 2009 was so horrific that it will be talked about for generations as the Oklahoma City metro area was brought to its knees with a record TWO MILLIMETERS of snowfall.  You are right, your ears did not fool you as this city received two millimeters as in twice as much as one millimeter.  As the storm clouds passed over night the horror of this event is just now being measured.  As mothers clung to their children their very homes were being destroyed by the weight of two millimeters of snowfall.  The chaos that has ensued has been nothing less than horrific.  This morning after shows a city, and nation that can no longer survive on its own.  The panic and wailing of those left behind gives the impression that time is running short.  Looting has become out of control as well as violent.  Below you can see what is left of a mother dandelion as she was mauled by a black bird.  This graphic image is just an illustration of the pandemonium that has ensued.

There are far worse images than these but I felt that to show them would be taking advantage of the poor victims.  I guess that is just the humanitarian in me rearing its head.  Below you can see the young child of this dandelion clinging to life on a nearby chain link fence as the violence continues just out of the picture.  I think I speak for all of humanity when I say this poor child needs our prayers.

As much as this pains me to see this violence and the raging storms go on I feel that we need to recognize that it is our own fault.  If we had only listened to the doomsday predictions of global warming.  If we had only taken their advice and rode a bicycle in a suit and tie to work ten miles, this could have been avoided.  This horror is your fault and mine for not heeding the advice of the climate change crowd.  Is it too late to correct this terrible situation?  We will find out the next snow storm we have.

I have received countless emails praising my heroics of my reporting but I just want to say that I am no hero.  I am just doing what anyone would do in this situation.  I put myself in danger to protect you.  It is just who I am as a humanitarian.  I will continue to brave the elements and cover these terrible events to keep my viewers educated.  I will not bow to the pressures of those that speak logic.  I will not bow to those that have common sense.  I do it for you because you the viewer mean so much to me.

(Piano music off)

It is no secret that people have differences of opinions on virtually any topic.  It should be no surprise that you are going to have people that want to legalize marijuana usage.  I have heard many arguments on both sides of the argument.  Those people wanting to legalize it usually post about how it can be used for medical purposes with a prescription.  Others that I run across are just opposed to the restriction because they do not like the government imposing laws on individuals.  After all any restriction is bad unless it is something that you oppose yourself.  This evening I ran across a post on Friendfeed from a guy that is known for starting controversy.  I purposely do not mention his name because it gives him unnecessary traffic when search engines pick up my post with his name.

This Friendfeed post was about legalizing marijuana and at the time of this post everyone of the comments attached to it were pro legalizing marijuana.  Although I disagree with this opinion he has a right to say what he wants.  What really surprised me was how one guy posts “I think the people who dismiss this as unimportant have no grasp of the scale and scope at which drug prohibition destroys lives.”  This opinion just defies logic to me.  How can a prohibition of drugs destroy people’s lives?  There opinions are that the prohibition drives up the costs and drug lords use the money to buy weopons and make it dangerous.  This is the typical liberal approach to things like this.  Others think that you should legalize it and tax it.  The problem with that is that people will go around the systems.  Have they not been paying attention to the mp3 downloading of the last six or seven years?  People opt for the cheap as in free if they can get it.  If Marijuana is legal and taxed people would still rather grow their own and not pay any taxes.  This notion that making Marijuana illegal is responsible for the violence in the drug trade are dismissing the fact that these countries are lawless already.  When they make Marijuana legal the dealers will go to the next drug that is illegal.  There is an attitude that people have that says that since someone is going to do something anyway then there should be no restrictions on them.  Sort of like giving condoms to children because “they are going to do it anyway”.  Why make drinking and driving illegal because “they are going to do it anyway”.    Why have copyright laws because they are going to share it anyway?  Why wash dishes because they are going to get dirty anyway?

It should be no surprise to me that people can be so opposite on some topics but I must admit that I am surprised.  The assumption that all parents have common interests and will be in agreement on such important things as a runaway child is another thing that was a wake up call for me.  Three years ago I had a 13 year old son run away on several occasions.  On each occasion we found that other parents were hiding him in their homes.  When confronted they would tell me they were told that I was abusing him.  I would return with the statement that if they suspected that I was abusing my son, then they have an obligation to report me.  It is illegal to hid a runaway from their parents but I was shocked to find that on every single occasion the parent would hid him from us.

We live in a lawless society now.  People will disregard every law as though it does not exist.  This is what makes me laugh when I hear people advocate new gun laws.  If the criminal is willing to ignore the law that says you should not kill someone, what makes you think they will obey the law that says you cannot have a gun?  This is a new day that we are living and if you have been alive for more than 40 years I am sure you have seen the change.  The people that acuse religious people of being the ones that bring hate and intollerance need to wake up.  We now live in a day where religion is virtual profanity .  We are seeing all sorts of sexual crimes on the news every day.  We are watching political crimes, corporate corruption, and a world that is spending more than they make.  We now have school shootings and all sorts of crimes daily on the news.  I guess the non religion crowd needs to see their way is not working.  It is not going to work either.  I am old enough to remember that we did not have cameras in school because we did not need them. 

The reason people do not want to even consider the existence of God is because that would be the recognition of the ultimate law.  If God is real then we are not at liberty to live totally free with no restrictions.  If God is real then we have to recognize there is a concrete right and wrong.  Again, I realize that people have differences of opinions but I still get surprised to the degree of differences.  Somethings are so obvious to one person while to another person the opposite is true. This is what you get when you have nothing that is immovable, non negotiable to base right and wrong.  When there is no religion there is confusion and wandering around.  You have people that operate on consensus or the majority rules.  This sounds like an innocent way to live until you put a few scenarios together.  What happens when you have three people in a room where there is two men and one women and the two men vote to rape the woman?  She must comply because the majority rules.  What happens when the media hypotheticallyconvinces the majority that slavery is acceptable?  The majority agrees that slavery is acceptable so it must be right.  Who dares to go against the group?  If there is no absolutes then who is to say.

Others think that anything is acceptable as long as it does not hurt anyone.  Who determines what hurting is?  What happens if the father decides that he wants to get into pornography?  It seems that no one gets hurt in this innocent activity.  Ask the wife if it hurts anyone. Pornography does hurt families and can result in families breaking up and the children actually do get hurt.  This post is not an attempt to preach my rules on anyone but rather to explain my position.  My position is that virtually every moral belief in our country has its roots in Christianity.  If you take away the concrete, absolute values that are in the Bible, then who determines what is acceptable or not?  There are those that would argue that religion has caused more wars and problems in the world than anything else.  In these cases you will find that it was usually someone that was operating against the doctrines but claimed to be operating under the doctrine.  An example of this would be the Ku Klux Klan.  They boast Christianity though the Bible opposes their actions.  It is easy to claim something even when you are not one of them.

You can agree with me or disagree but this is my feeling on matters.  I may be not be right on everything but this is my opinion.  Whether you agree or disagree with my opinions you must agree that it is amazing the degree to which people can disagree.  I do not expect everyone to agree with my opinions but I have a hard time understanding how some fundamental things can be seen with complete opposite points of view.  One group thinks slavery is acceptable while claiming Christianity while the very doctrine opposes it.  I just thought I would share my thoughts on this.

This morning, against my better judgment, I was listening to a program on National Public Radio (NPR) and they were discussing American Exceptionalism.  They had a guest speaker discussing the dangers of viewing one’s self as being greater than others.  This man was a British guest that I cannot remember his name.  He pointed out that Americans have begun to see themselves as better than others.  I was not surprised to have the guest point out this being a Republican policy dating back as far as Ronald Reagan and continuing through the current president George W. Bush.  I would expect nothing less from this source being that NPR is a bastion of liberal apologetics.  I do agree that announcing to the world that you are better than everyone else is not good policy.  It is my opinion that Mr. Reagan’s proclamations to that effect, at the time, was not an attempt at being arrogant but rather an attempt to energize Americans to have confidence. Where I disagreed with him was his lack of acknowledgement that both political parties engage in this attitude.  At least he did admit his sympathy to Democrat policies over the years.  I did agree with his opinion that it is not a good idea to announce to the world that you are better than everyone else.

The current attitude of American supremacy in my opinion has gone too far.  It really troubles me every time I hear someone on television or radio refers to our country as a “super power”.  To me this statement just sounds arrogant to hear.  I am not saying that I think it is wrong to denounce Communism as being wrong.  In this case pointing out a murderous government that denies their people freedom is not boasting that you are the best around.  In that case Ronald Reagan needed to address this because the Soviet Union was growing and conquering nations on a regular basis.  I am very proud of many aspects of our country though we do have some things that are not to be proud of.  Among them are the ways we have treated various racial groups in our own country.  I do not think there is anything wrong with being proud of our country though I do think you can go too far.  Just as it is inappropriate to scream obscenities at a sporting event it is just as inappropriate to announce to the world that we are the “only super power”.  I am both a fiscal and social conservative and it bothers me every time I hear Rush Limbaugh exclaim this to the world.  Sadly this guest on NPR was not completely wrong in this regard.  The Republican Party that I have always clung to has become associated with this in recent days.  Unfortunately the Democrat “ic” party is far worse in many other ways in my eyes.  On many moral issues I cannot support the Democrats.  It seems as though everything that I find that is wrong with the world is supported by that party.  As bad as the Republican party has become, the alternative is even worse.

It would seem that everyone would instinctively know that public boasting is poor taste.  This is just another example of a bigger problem that we have in this world and that is a lack of understanding of what is right and wrong.  People base right and wrong on what the crowd thinks.  If the crowd feels that something is right then most people will follow along.  You may have heard this referred to as moral relativism.  This is what happens when you take religion out of public life.  The lack of having a fundamental standard in which to base morality has left an entire generation with no sense of right and wrong.  Public boasting is wrong period.  It is not acceptable in any circumstance.  Not because it is some sort of political correctness but because God’s word  (Bible) says so.

I recently received a message on Facebook that was clearly cut and pasted from somewhere else.  I have received this from others over the past few years and  At the bottom it gives authority to paste it in an email or web site so I took the liberty of doing so.  I am not certain on the validity of where it originated but the main point is worthy of sharing…

The following was written by Ben Stein and recited by him on CBS Sunday Morning Commentary

Herewith at this happy time of year, a few confessions from my beating heart: I have no freaking clue who Nick and Jessica are. I see them on the cover of People and Us constantly when I am buying my dog biscuits and kitty litter. I often ask the checkers at the grocery stores. They never know who Nick and Jessica are either. Who are they? Will it change my life if I know who they are and why they have broken up? Why are they so important?  I don’t know who Lindsay Lohan is either, and I do not care at all about Tom Cruise’s wife.
Am I going to be called before a Senate committee and asked if I am a subversive? Maybe, but I just have no clue who Nick and Jessica are.  If this is what it means to be no longer young. It’s not so bad.

Next confession:
I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees Christmas trees. I don’t feel threatened. I don’ t feel discriminated against. That’s what they are: Christmas trees.  It doesn’t bother me a bit when people say, “Merry Christmas” to me. I don’t think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it. It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn’t bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu. If people want a crèche, it’s just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away.  I don’t like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don’t think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can’t find it in the Constitution, and I don’t like it being shoved down my throat.  Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we should worship Nick and Jessica and we aren’t allowed to worship God as we understand Him?

I guess that’s a sign that I’m getting old, too.
But there are a lot of us who are wondering where Nick and Jessica came from and where the America we knew went to.  In light of the many jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a little different: This is not intended to be a joke; it’s not funny, it’s intended to get you thinking.  Billy Graham’s daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayson asked her “How could God let something like this Happen?” (regarding Katrina)  Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response. She said, “I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we’ve been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives.

And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?”  In light of recent events…terrorists attack, school shootings, etc. I think it started when Madeleine Murray O’Hare (she was murdered, her body found recently) complained she didn’t want prayer in our schools, and we said OK.  Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school. The Bible says thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself. And we said OK.

Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn’t spank our children when they misbehave because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr. Spock’s son committed suicide). We said an expert should know what he’s talking about and we said OK.  Now we’re asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don’t know right from wrong, and why it doesn’t bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves.

Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do with “WE REAP WHAT WE SOW.” Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world’s going to hell.  Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says.  Funny how you can send ‘jokes’ through e-mail and they spread like wildfire but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing.  Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace.

Are you laughing?
Funny how we can be more worried about what other people think of us than what God thinks of us.  You may point your friends to this message or highlight it, cut and paste it to your site or e-mail.

I just wanted to take the opportunity to thank the veterans of the United States military on this day.  Our country as diverse as it is shares the freedoms that many countries do not have.  The freedoms that we take for granted are often non existent some other countries.  We owe a debt of gratitude to our veterans who fought for our country.  Many of these veterans never saw any hostility but that does not remove the gratitude for them because we know at any time those that were in the military could have been called upon at any time.    What ever the motivation, the end result was the same and that is a retention of our rights that we enjoy today.

Our country has people of differing opinions to the point of hostility.  There are many in our own country that cannot muster the energy to say a nice word about our military.  As contemtable as that is to me, I say this…You owe gratutude to our military for giving you the right to dissent.  Our military is an all volunteer force and no one is compelled to join but somehow our military always ranks among the top in the world.  Some of these people join for the opportunity to serve our country, while some join to gain a college education.  Some go as a last resort during hard economic times.  Whatever the reason a person joins we know that it was voluntary and no one forced them to join.  The rights and freedoms that we Americans enjoy are directly related to the veterans that live next door to you.  Again, I would like to express my thanks to those that joined the military for what ever reason.  You have ensured our safety, our freedoms, and our rights and I am grateful.

Thank you,

Paul

Yesterday we had the remnants of hurricane Ike and we received a little rain.  Today we woke up to a sunny morning with a cool North wind.  Man it was so nice feeling that cool wind all day long.  Add to this, I just saw on television that the University of Oklahoma (OU) Sooners moved up from number three to number two after the decisive win over the Washington Huskies last night.  I am a little disappointed that KWTV would choose to carry a New York Jets versus New England Patriots game over the Denver Broncos game.  We are twice as far from New England than we are from Denver….oh well.

I have been having some fun playing with the new Facebook features.  I love their new “Live Feed” feature that automatically updates as people do things.   I also like the ability to chat in the small built in chat within the page.  I just heard that the Oklahoma City Thunder have sold out their season tickets within five days.  They have held back four thousand tickets for daily game sales and smaller game packages.  I am getting very excited about having our own professional team.

Well tomorrow is “back to work” and I really want to have some success in getting some things done.  I spent Thursday and Friday in a class to learn about the Department of Defense’s program to mark every part over $5,000 with a unique identification mark.  Sounds a little like the “Mark of the Beast” to me but oh well.  Again, what a beautiful day.

DISCLAIMER:  I voted for George W. Bush both times.  I have been very disappointed in his leadership by allowing this war in Iraq to run his eight years and not get any conservative agendas past.  I think his lack of willingness, or ability to take a stand at the media and Democrats under the guise of the “New Tone” has made things worse.  I think he is not conservative enough.

I just loaded the Yahoo front page and happened to notice the headlines listed as you can see above.  This is reminescent of the 2000 presidential campaign where the media willingly swallowed the pill of the fabricated stories of voter fraud and racism.  Reach back into your memories when during the 2000 election George W. Bush won the vote count.  Our good friend Al Gore immediately tried to do recounts in selected counties that he believed supported him.  He was not concerned with fairness or he would have demanded a full recount in Florida.  Weeks before the election we kept hearing to watch Florida, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.  Before the voting had concluded the left wing media started screaming about voter fraud that the ballot was so confusing that the clearly mental deficient Palm Beach residents voted for the wrong guy.  To this day it amazes me the depths the left wing media followed this story as though there was any credibility whatsoever.  They had a marketing firm out of Texas calling people before the polling places even closed telling people there was voter fraud.  We were told how the minorities were being turned away from the polls which is about as typical liberal trick is there is.  People say prostitution is the oldest profession?  They need to look at the liberal political ways.

The first recount favored George W. Bush.  The second recount favored George W. Bush in a smaller majority.  The third recount was finally stopped by the Supreme Court.  Immediately we started hearing from the left wingers that George W. Bush stole the election.  When you look at the situation, if it were not so serious it would be laughable.  The very people that were trying to cheat so they could get their guy in and failed after three recounts accused the winner of stealing the election.  We have listened to this nonsense for eight years.  The truth is that IF there was fraud, it was on their side.  They are the ones that ALWAYS oppose requiring an ID to vote.  In typical fassion they claim it hurts the minorities and poor.  Every time there is an initiative to change voting methods to eliminate these fabricated voting fraud stories they oppose it.  They are the ones that insist on allowing illegal immigrants to vote.  They are the ones that insist on allowing fellons to vote.  The reason for this is that they know these people will vote Democrat.

The above photo is evidence of the Democrats and their good buddies in the media are planning on doing this again.  The first story tells of a major shift in white women to McCain.  The media has been bragging for some time that Obama had this group locked up.  This story is followed by the story of 300,000 people in New Jersey being told they are not registered.  Do you see what is beginning?  I am certain the Democrats are already signing the contract with the telemarking firm to make calls before the polls close to warn of voter fraud.  This way if they lose, they can start their screaming about nonexistant voter fraud.  Why wouldn’t they?  I mean it worked so well last time.  The in typical fashion media has followed the Democrat line and not question any of these unfounded claims.  They never do as indicated by this humorous satiracal video about how Larry King does not even question stupid claims.

This video is not new but it illustrates how the liberals can claim ANYTHING and the media does not question the validity.  The first time I heard this about ten years ago I was so amazed at how realistic this really is.  Anyway, this should be interesting to see how it turns out.

Often I find myself getting upset about comments made by some people that I really respect in the technology world, specifically in computers. An example is a technology personality that I have on my Twitter list made the comment last night that Myspace deleted a large atheist group for no “apparent” reason other than their non belief. Notice the natural instinctive assumption that religious people do not believe in free speech. Hardly anyone in their right mind would call the owners of Myspace religious but nevertheless the implication is made. I noticed that he used the word apparent implying that he does not know this for sure but made the assumption that it is true. I often have to remind myself these individuals are from San Francisco, the liberal left wing capital of the world. They make snide remarks about Christians and conservatives in general. At times I wonder what drives these people to be at such polar opposites to me and my belief system. What is it that makes them believe the way they do. I know what makes me believe the way I do and that is the Bible. I may have some incorrect interpretations on occasion but my core values are based on a fundamental belief in the Bible being the infallible word of God. In my world, if God says it is right or implies a principle, then I believe that it is right. If God is against it, or a principle has been made that something is wrong, then I believe that it is wrong and it is that simple.

I see a practice in the technology field that has bothered me for a long time. Most of these individuals are from the San Francisco bay area and most of them agree with what ever the other one says. If one says that Firefox is the best browser, they all fall in line. If one says that a Macintosh computer is the best, you get the same response and they all buy one despite the fact that they are so much more expensive than a PC. The biggest one that really gets me is the almost cultist following of anything Google does. They are not a bad company but if you are honest with yourself they are not that spectacular. Almost 100% of them are liberal in their belief and promote homosexuality and other depraved behaviors while making quiet jokes about it off the record. I am speaking of a specific This Week in Tech (TWiT) episode where they were discussing homosexuality and how there was nothing wrong with it though they were laughing hysterically and making jokes. The truth is, they know it is disgusting and depraved but their peer groups all follow the talking points.

The point that I am making in this is that it is a values thing and I cannot tell what another person’s values are, but I can only speculate based on what I experience. I see a group that follows what the other group says, though making jokes about them. I see a group that has no values at all. I see a group that goes with the wind and has no core values and that is a dangerous way to live. These same individuals make remarks about those who differ in opinion as though we are uneducated and unenlightened. I am guilty of the same thing to a degree when referring to liberals. Instead of bashing them, I wanted to try to understand them. So far, I can only derive that most people are followers and just follow the line of what their cohorts tell them. Without a core belief system, your beliefs are usually determined by your peer group. This is why I think it is so important to have core values that are unshakable and non negotiable. There was an old country song by Aaron Tippin that says “You’ve got to stand for something or you’ll fall for anything.”

The Bible said in Hebrews 13:8 “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.” It also says in James 1:8 “A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.” They can call us crazy religious nuts all they want but you do not hear us telling the world that sex between two people of the same gender is normal. That instinctively gives a normal person the creeps without even bringing a persons religious belief into the conversation. Do not let the world convince you that unnatural things are okay. I stand on the Word of God without shame. I would suggest you not follow the crowd because the crowd is so easily swayed with what ever sick thing the media tells them. You can agree or disagree but that is what I believe.
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