Repubs Have Selves to Blame

All this whining from the right about the Republican debate moderators being too tough is a joke.

If any alleged political representatives of the people are fair game for grilling, it's the corrupt right beholden to big money -- evidenced by their virtual unanimous debate declarations favoring tax breaks for giant monopolizing corporations.

And let's face it. It's the alarmist, disingenuous, mud-slinging, finger-pointing, scandal-provoking right -- ala, the Karl Roves, and the Rush Limbaugh's over the past decade or two -- that are at least indirectly, if not directly, responsible shaping the nasty attack dog mentality of the political arena today. Add to the mix, Donald Trump with his cheap shots and one-liners, and you have what you had the last Republican debate.

You saw it in the sharpened reflexes, and smart guy remarks among the Republican candidates themselves. Everybody seemed to have their hackles up. And the questions were probing and to the point.

But what sense is Ben Carson making? How is getting paid for speeches and doing free video ads not proof that the good doc is in bed with the said questionable company? Complainers like Carson or Chris Christy only have their own single-minded, conniving party liners and strategists to blame.

Donald and Bernie Alike?

Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders have one thing in common, anyway.

In their respective parties, both presidential candidates have impacted markedly the level of intelligent conversation and focus on the crucial issues of the day.

The Donald, of course, has lowered the bar for his fellow Republican presidential candidates. Bernie, for the Democrats, has raised it.

"The Donald," appropriately enough, has reduced the Republican debates to mere slapstick comedies complete with clownish cheap shots, one-line zingers designed to sting and illicit a good laugh from the audience.

In the meantime, Sanders, as evidenced from the get-go in the initial Democrat presidential debate last Tuesday, has inspired his fellow candidates to harp on the one issue that arguably is the most crucial to 99 percent of Americans: income inequality.

And he is doing it without outrageous claims or crude, insulting remarks.

The top Democrat candidates Tuesday night opened their speeches talking about income inequality, which sees this country's richest one percent owning nearly 50 percent of the wealth.

In case you missed it, Sanders has been shouting from the rooftops about this absurd injustice for years now, particularly since the Wall Street-orchestrated, right wing think tank-endorsed near collapse of our economy in 2007 under "W"'s watch.

Now, if only the American people would pay attention. If only they will tune out American Idol, and tune in to Eisenhower's decades old call for an "alert and knowledgeable citizenry." And then, act.

Eagles Can Still Soar

So, is there still hope for the Philadelphia Eagles this season?

Just remember that despite their 2-3 losing record so far, and struggling quarterback Sam Bradford's lackluster performances, the Birds aren't a bunch of bums. This Eagles bunch is chock full of talent.

We can always argue about Coach Chip Kelly's controversial personnel shakeup between seasons, but there will be no telling really, whether the Eagles would have been better off keeping the likes of Foles, McCoy, Maclin and company.

So far, the key missing component for the Eagles has been unity.
And unity typically comes with time, of course. It's still early in the season. There's still time.

Now, without the pressure of living up to the preseason Super Bowl contender hype, and assuming their role as underdogs, the NFC East last place Eagles have the time, space and focus to gel as a team and in what's proven to be a mediocre conference so far, still emerge as a playoff contender by season's end.

But they do have to start winning their conference games. And a big test comes in the national spotlight, in the their own backyard Monday night against conference foe New York Giants (first place), when the Eagles get a chance to redeem their Monday night season opener loss to the Falcons.

Has the groundwork been laid for an Eagles comeback?

A Crooked Hobby?

There's a time and place for every hobby.

Typically, you don't carve wooden ducks in the middle of traffic. You don't paint with watercolors in the rain. And you wouldn't knit a sweater while standing in the ocean.

And if you're one of those beefy, wife-beater wearing guys who likes to stroll the beach with headphones hugging your head and a long metal pole for an arm with a disc at the end, let me suggest there are more reasonable times and places, ethical even, to treasure hunt on the beach than say, 5:30 p.m. on a late summer day, in the very places just vacated by families.

Unless you're helping one of those specific beach goers who lost something valuable and metallic, there's no excuse for you to be out there their digging up other people's treasure.

An habitual late afternoon beach arriver myself, I've spied my share of metal detector guys sweeping and beeping down the beach in those peaceful early evening times, my favorite time to relax on the beach. And the mere sight of them is annoying and chilling.

Why wait for people to pull up their blankets? Why not simply circle the blanket while they are still there. Maybe modify your detectors with high-powered magnets and just suck the gold necklaces from their necks as they dose in the warm, summer sun?

Spending some evening time on the beach in this week's Indian summer weather, I noticed the skeleton crew of seagulls. The few and scattered people. And I figured now would be the appropriate time for metal detector hobbyists to search for their gold, particularly in the wake of last week's storms.

Otherwise, these alleged hapless, happy treasure hunters that magically appear in the misty haze of an early evening summer, really are no different than big city opportunists, working crowded sidewalks, looking to pick your pocket.

Praising In The Storm

Impending disaster has a way of waking us up.

Sometimes we have to face the very real possibility of losing everything we have, before we really appreciate -- everything we have.

Sometimes it takes the looming threat of a powerful storm, to make us truly grateful.

That's the lesson, the blessing in disguise, the silver lining that Hurricane Joaquin offers many of us along the east coast who escaped the ravages of the powerful category 4 storm.

It could have been disastrous. We could have lost everything. Sadly, folks in South Carolina did lose it all in the hurricane-spawned floods. And the central Bahamas got hammered. Lives were lost.

Hurricane Joaquin seemed a particularly ominous, calculating storm. It appeared to purposely pause just south of the Bahamas so it could gather itself for the onslaught. Spinning in place at increasingly higher speeds like the Tasmanian Devil, Joaquin in a day and half amped up and transformed from a category 2 storm into a muscular, powerful category 4 storm, with 130 mph sustained winds, before making landfall.

While lingering mockingly in the Bahamas for another day or so, inflicting maximum punishment, it was as if Joaquin couldn't make up its mind. Where to next? And none of us could say for sure.

This was part of the lesson, by the way. Uncertainty. Nobody is crazy about it. But life is loaded with it. The Creator was speaking loud and clear, reminding us that for as much as we may think of ourselves, of our trumped up capabilities, we're not in control.

And for awhile there, not only were we powerless against the storm, but with all our scientific know how, our future-seeing techno-gadgetry and all seeing expert analysis, the weatherman's best guess at Joaquin's next target was on par with tossing a dart, blindfolded, at a dartboard 10 feet away.

U.S. East Coast or northeast into the Atlantic Ocean?

We were either days from disaster -- or deliverance.

After incorporating and deciphering the various highs, lows and stalled fronts occupying the east coast as Joaquin entered the picture, that picture finally came into focus. The storm's forecasted paths narrowed. One of those paths had Joaquin eyeing the east coast. And right in its newly-revised projected path was the Jersey Shore where we live.

Ultimately, you couldn't look at Joaquin's latest tentative projected paths -- aware of the havoc it reaped in the Bahamas and with the still fresh memories of Hurricane Sandy's impact on the shore just three years ago -- without imagining the worse.

Alarm bells sounded in the mid Atlantic states. We hoped and we prayed for the best. We started to appreciate what we had.

The Bible is loaded with scripture on the importance of thankfulness. Scripture talks about how thankfulness, no matter how adverse the circumstance, opens the door to God's mercy and blessings. In psalm 90, David asks God to "teach us to number our days" so we would appreciate life, live wisely and use our time well.

That's what Hurricane Joaquin did. Bottom line: A thankful heart goes a long way. It's true. Hopefully, we know that more than ever now. So, yeah, be grateful we were spared. And then be truly thankful that you are thankful.