Culture Shock Blog

"Ashamed"

Last week I received e-mail from a friend with the word “Ashamed” in the subject line.  Even though my friend is a lefty and is pretty darned brilliant, his timing sucked!  His e-mail went onto chastise Republicans for deficit spending etc. al.   I conceded the point.  Republicans should be ashamed.  When they were out of power BIG Government was the bad guy, now that they are in power they are spending like the proverbial drunken sailor…  but so what?  I thought that it was about the economy stupid?

If you want to talk about shame explain this:

Ted Kennedy has implied that Judge Samuel Alito should not sit on the highest court in the land because of Alitos moral failings.  (Judge Alito was once affiliated with the Concerned Alumni of Princeton…  Huh!)  This is stupefying in its stupidity!  Is this all that you have?  And if it is, why in the name of all that is holy and just would the Dems drag out ole Teddy to question anybody on anything regarding ethics?!?  Is this the party that has old KKK Robert Byrd still in its ranks?

Wow!  This party is killing itself with a thousand little paper cuts!

Are You James in Sherman Park?

While attending my kids annual School Christmas, (Yeah, my kids go to private school. So, not only are they able to acknowledge the baby Jesus during the HOLYday Season,

but they can also pray, worship and talk about Jesus everyday in class!  Wow!  What a gift!!! God Bless our Founding Fathers...

Anyway, while attending the Christmas concert, a dude who was seated behind me asked, "Hey, are you James from Sherman Park?"  Ahhhh, O.k., he called me 'James from Sherman Park', that can only mean one thing...  This guy has been listening to talk radio! 

Apprehesivly I replied, "Yes, I am the man.  What about it?"

He smiled and said, "You are brilliant!" 

Now, I must be honest.  This is something that happens to me all the time but rarely in front of my wife!  I asked the guy if he could hold that thought while I franticly looked for my beloved, but I couldn't find her.  "Sigh".

What my new best friend heard was my reaction to the 110th murder in Milwaukee.  A popular radio talker (Charlie Sykes) was discussing the issue and I called in to add my two cents.  I wasn't my most elequent but I was passionate.  He told me that he heard the rant online!  Mr. Sykes linked it to his Blog.  Cool!

Well if you want to check it out here it is.  IT  I am the second caller on the segment.     I also blogged on the subject last November 24th.  Scroll down a bit and you will see it.  It's called 112th and counting.

Now, about the Founding Fathers!

With friends like these...

Packer fans are experiencing a nightmare season.  And if 3 and 11 wasn't bad enough, I have to live on the same block as garbage pickers and Bear fans!!!  This is my lot, but never fear Packer fans...  I've got skills!  Check out the e-mail that I received today and that was blasted to all of the other neighbors on the block.  With friends like these... :-)

<I was pulling out of our alley going north yesterday
when I discovered that one of the "faithful" has
discarded his cheesehead. Now I am not one who goes
through other peoples garbage regularly, only
occasionally. My dear friends, this is a serious
matter! It may require an intervention. Never have I
seen such blatant disregard for a team held so dearly!
I still remember the faint chants of "Brett Favre!
Brett Favre!" after a touchdown. But now, there is a
cheesehead in the alley.

We need to rally to this person's side and encourage
him! Please respond with a message of wit and
encouragement, especially after last night's game. I
fear that other items, perhaps autographed items may
appear in the alley, too!

Signed,
A concerned neighbor.>

<A cheesehead in the alley, Oh what a glorious day,
Now everyone knows, The Packers suck in a mighty way.
The Lambeau refrain has changed, The North belongs to my Bears,
The standings will be righted, For years and years and years.
Mike Sherman is a dud, Brett's career ends with a THUD (well actually an INT!)
Lovie's gonna win coach of the year, Don't worry, I'll make sure y'all hear.
Playoff parties at MY HOUSE, but James will be quiet as a mouse.

Smilin' big this morning!

Pete>

Dear Geoff, Peter etc. all

Thank you for your concern but no intervention is needed. All is well, here at Pack central.
Last nights loss was a stinging defeat and yes our season is one big stink.  But lost love for the Pack?  Never! Amen.
Interceptions and all, FARVE is the Man!

Peter, Peter, Peter MY FRIEND.  Thank you for reminding me of the wonderful years!  Fourteen seasons of the Pack kicking Bear Butt.  The glorious chant of "The Bears still suck!"
And they do Pete, please don't be fooled, with a coach named "Lovie" the Bears are doomed!
Skipping and prancing through the NFC, A Seahawk will gut you, just wait, you'll see.
And when they do I know how you'll look, like you always do when your mighty Bears choke!

(Peter at Lambeau Field, after the Monsters of the Midway blew a 14 point lead.)

As for the head, all is well... unlike Geoff, I rescued the cheese!  I didn't drive by with faux concern, I jumped into action and saved a friend.  How he got there, I don't know.  But loyalty to the Pack is in my bones.  So thank you my friends for reminding me again, when the mighty fall, the weaklings appear! 

James T., the Cheesehead and the Leader of the Pack.

Brett Farve Forever!!!

SEA MONSTERS

Reason #2 (Why James T. does not swim in the Ocean)

(From the London Times)

THEY are called echizen kurage, they are 6ft wide and weigh 450lbs. and they are real!!!!!  With countless poisonous tentacles, they have drifted across the void to terrorise the people of Japan. Vast armadas of the slimy horrors have cut off the country’s food supply. As soon as one is killed more appear to take its place.

<The most poisonous jellyfish is the Australian sea wasp, or box jellyfish, with enough venom to kill 60 people. Wearing tights is an effective defense.
The largest jellyfish ever found was a lion’s mane, with a bell 2m (7ft) across, and tentacles extending more than 35m.
The notorious Portuguese man o’war is not a jellyfish at all but a collection of different organisms including stinging tentacles.
Jellyfish have both male and female characteristics. A group releases sperm and eggs which mix in the water.
A collection of jellyfish is known as a smack>

I ran into a "smack" off the coast of Ireland in year was 1989.  That was the last time that I swam in the ocean.  My policy is simple.  If I can't see the bottom I don't go in.

Remembering Winter (When things die)

Today is December 7th and on this day sixty-four years ago, the Japanese Imperial Navy attacked America.  Pearl Harbor was decimated.  We got our ass kicked.  I’m sure you’ve seen the movie. 
Until 9/11/2001 this was our darkest hour.  Humiliated and crippled America and her citizens learned that in some matters neutrality is not an option. We tried to stay out of that war but couldn’t.  We didn’t go looking for WWII.  WWII looked for and found us.

In everything there is a season and this was our season to fight.  Winters work like that.  When it is cold everyone knows it.  People dress the same, are more alert and are way more purposeful in the way they approach life.  Winter is a time of coming together, a time to focus on the crisis at hand. 

It is also a season in which things die. 

When you look at the previous winters that America has weathered a pattern emerges.  Institutions may rise and fall but in winter that they crash.  The American Revolution witnessed the death of monarchies as a world political system, The American civil war witnessed the death of Slavery as an institution, and it also witnessed the power of the federal government usurping states rights.  The Great depression and WWII was our last complete season of winter.  In it we witnessed the death of totalitarism in the west as well as the beginning of the end of communism and other celebrated –isms and socialist  philosophy.

Good riddance.   So what’s next?

This is a question that I often get after I deliver my signature presentation on Cycles and Seasons and usually I make people pay for this sage advice!  But I’m feeling oh so Christmas(y) today!  So pay attention, here it is:

Say goodbye to the Democratic Party and the Mainstream media.  Maybe as soon as 2012!  Don’t get me wrong, there will always be liberals among us but they will not have a viable political party to represent them and their voice and the press will be greatly diminished.  The Democratic Part will not survive our next winter.  The seeds of their own destruction have already been laid.  Democratic leaders like Nancy Pelosi, Howard Dean and John Kerry continue to water and nurture their party’s destruction.

Contrast our response to the bombing in 1941 to the bombings of 9/11.  Both events were unprecedented and abruptly moved the country into winter.  Both events brought the country together and there are many more similarities but there is one glaring contrast.  At no time during WWII did Republican Party members turn on the Democratic President.  At no time did Republicans turn against the troops in the field.  At no time did the media sympathies with the enemy in the name of truth.  The problem with the Democratic leadership is that they are suffering from seasonal confusion.  They think that they are still in the 60’s.  It is no longer summer!  Elitist Idealism is out.  These cats are wearing polyester and the rest of us are in wool.  America doesn’t care that their president comes off as a dullard.  What they care about is results and winning.  Right now the Democrats are invested in defeat.  Cut and Run, bring back the troops, pessismissum. 
The Democratic leadership is killing their party with negativism in a season of crisis.

Don’t get me wrong.  I’m not complaining.  This is a change that just might once again free the minds of those who are enslaved.  Just remember.  You heard it here first.

Making the Complex Understandable

I spent some time in the "community cafe" chit chatting with Ms. Cassandra McSheparad on her afternoon talk show "That's what I'm talking about."    The conversation was relaxed and inspiring up till the very moment she opened up the phone lines.  After that the conspiracy theory moon bats flew free.   I wanted so much to start swatting away but it wasn't my show.  Cassandra is a sweet soul with the patients of a saint.  She is earth and water, I am wind and fire, and you get the idea!  For a minute I toyed with the idea of going into radio!  I could market myself as the Black Avenger (Righter than Rush!)  What do ya think?

Naaaaa!  I enjoy the road too much!  And I have car pool duties to maintain! Plus an asterisk is never accepted in his own home town!  (he he he)

I am scheduled to be on with Cassandra again in January of next year.  If you are free for lunch join us in the cafe on the 4th.  I'll be there around noon and will probably hang out for a while.  That's 1290 on the AM dial.  WMCS and "That's What I'm Talking About."

Speakers Summit & Elsa's On The Park

My good friend Tom Heck was in town a few weeks ago.  Tom is a genus when it comes to Team Building and liberating the passion that resides in all of us.  It didn’t take him long to get me all riled up and passionate about one of our favorite issues, presidential politics and seasonal history.  So, while Tom had his diet soda and salad?  I savored a fine Irish “adult” beverage while consuming a plate of Elsa’s famous Buffalo wings.  By the time I reached for the last bone a great conversation had ensued that lead to a few bold convictions.

For those of you who have heard my presentations you know I believe that history turn in seasons and that generation move in cycles.  Presently I argue that we are in the first stages of a new winter, a time of crisis, and it is usually the “idealist” generation (presently represented by the Baby Boomers) that is in power during this season.  Famous idealist leaders of the past include FDR, Winston Churchill and Abram Lincoln. 

All three of these gentlemen were great visionaries in a time of unparallel crisis. 
So, while chopping down on his ever so healthy salad, Tom jumped in.  “James T., if we are in winter and winter is a time of crisis, who will be our next President?”  Good question.  Without hesitation I told him Dr. Condelisa Rice.  Which I must admit was brilliant!  “But” Tom chimed in, “if we are deeper into a period of crisis will America turn to a woman?”  Now that was a pretty darn interesting question!  Politically incorrect too!  Love it!

O.k.  The next president will be a conservative and therefore might be an ethnic minority, female or both.  The Republican Party will be the first to produce one or the other as President.  If we are deep into a period of crisis no "cut and run" Democrat will win the office weather they be black, white, male or female.   I stand on an early prediction, which stated that if Kerry lost teh Presidental election, a generation would pass before another Democrat sat in the White House.  But!  If a crisis hits well before 2008, will America nominate a female candidate out of the primary?  Ahhhhhhh, NO!  Can’t see it.  I don’t see us being that open minded in a time of crisis.  So where does that leave us?  Which conservative man would America trust in a time of crisis? 

Looking to the past I see Ike and Grant.  But those selections didn’t come in winter.  They were both post crisis presidents.  I was on my second adult beverage by now so my thinking was loose and free.  Norman Schwarzkopf!  Can you see it?  I could until a few days later.  Tom called back with General Tommy Franks.  Now that’s good.  Real good.  I must admit I like them both, but would America turn to a general in a time of crisis? 
Throughout our history, there has never been a general that has occupied the oval office during a secular winter. 

In light of this I am force to go back to my original prediction.  (Sometimes you just have to go with the gut!  Or is it my heart?)  During times of crisis Americans gravitate towards hope and idealism.  Therefore the next president will be a boomer, will have a positive, optimistic outlook and she will be conservative.  If the she is not Rice, than all bets are off and my prediction doesn’t matter. 

However, if I am right, crown me King of the Buffalo wing and buy me adult beverages for the rest of my life!

112 and counting...

Milwaukee witnessed its 112th murder last night.  A man walking home from work was gunned down for no apparent reason.  He was married with children and he was black.  As a matter of fact, most of Milwaukee's murder victims are black.  100 out of 112 of Milwaukee's homicides are blacks that were killed by blacks.
Meanwhile alderman McGhee is out in Wawautosa fighting white racism?  Negro please!!!  Racism real or imagined is trumped by HOMICIDE!!!  Black on Black crime is the issue!  Where's the forum on that?

I'm Back!

Sorry for the absence!  I picked a fine time to check out hey?  During my sabbatical we've seen my Harriet Myers prediction come true, Black conservatives be reduced to a punctuation mark and jr. McGhee get a hug from the mayor of Wauwatosa, WI for starting a race riot in her town!  WOW!

Not to worry though, the sheriff is back in town!  I may comment of some of these items but first this...

Rosa Parks the mother of the civil rights movement died while I as away and while her passing is significant did it warrant a seven-hour funeral??? Seven hours!  While I was comforted to hear that Bill (former president Clinton), after hearing about Ms. Parks arrest, took it upon himself to always ride in the back of the bus (barf), I still cannot understand why anyone and I mean anyone, should have a seven hour funeral!!!  What about all of the old people who needed to take their insulin shots, go to the bathroom, eat lunch and dinner!  Who has a seven-hour funeral?  If Ms. Parks knew that one day black people would shame her and the whole race in this manner, I believe she would have given her seat to that white man.  Really.  She really would have.  Rosa Parks was a kind and considerate woman.  More considerate then the goofs that organized her lament.  May she rest in peace

Maui

James T. Harris is on assignment in Maui, Hawaii.  He hopes that wherever you are it is 85 degrees, sunny and that there is a beach near by.  Yes, he is rubbing it in!