Putting Things Into Perspective...

It’s funny how quickly things can change. One day you’re stressing out trying to meet the demands of your everyday obligations. You know, things like your job, trying to stay on top of the yard work, the plumbing issues, and trying to keep your wife from killing you because you’ve been working on the road for five out of the last six months. And on top of all that, you absolutely have to have your column turned in by 3:00 P.M. every Wednesday afternoon.

And so it went. For the last two years and eight months without fail, I’ve managed to get it all done. Then last week, out of the blue, I got a call from Denise Hall, the owner of the Topeka Metro News. She informed me that she had sold the paper and that I’d better contact the new owners to find out whether or not they’re interested in continuing my column. So I did.
The answer came in the form of an e-mail the next day. It simply said, Mr. McGinty, sorry but we won’t be able to run your column anymore.
Well, that’s that then. I can no longer call myself a columnist, but then neither can any of the other local columnists that have always been a big part of the paper. The new owners have decided to drop all local commentary from the paper and keep a couple of national syndicated one’s.
I’m not sure why they‘d want to go that route, but it looks a lot like the strategy, Spike Santee used when he took over one of the most popular radio stations in Topeka, AM 1440. The first thing he did was to fire Jim Cates. Then came the local DJ’s, followed by Steve Forman and Deb Goodrich. By the time he was done, he had managed to get rid of almost all the local people and replaced them with national syndicated shows.

Hey, it’s their world, they can do with it what they want. But they do need to understand how that strategy worked out for my old buddy, Spike. He took over a radio station that had always enjoyed ratings at the top of the charts because of local participation. And a year after he took over, their ratings have dropped to the very bottom of the charts.

Was I disappointed? Yes. Was I pissed? Oh hell yeah. It was a little like getting kicked in the gut. I thought for sure they'd at least write one last column, you know, just to say goodbye and all that. But the new owners of the paper thought otherwise.

But you know what? None of that really matters. I received a text massage from my daughter that same afternoon that brought everything in perspective for me. (Dad, everything’s normal, there’s no cancer and I’m okay.) God, you have no idea how much of a relief that text was. After that news, any small disappointment I may have felt, whether it was real or imagined, just sort of faded away.

So now, I’m just going to keep writing and posting on my blog. I’ve decided to keep Wednesday afternoon as a deadline and I'm going to try writing a book of some kind. And my offically cancer free, daughter has promised to work on it with me. Today, I’m stuck working in Pratt, Kansas and I’m okay with that.

Take a minute or two today to give your kids a hug and tell them how much you love them. Call your mom and dad if you can. Maybe you grandparents, too. How about your brothers and sisters, maybe your mad at them over some family squabble or something. Call them to burry the hatchet. Maybe you have an aunt or an uncle who’s not doing so well. Give them a call just to let them know you’re thinking about them. Life’s too short not to.

Life is full of disappointments, large and small. Just try to keep them in perspective.

I hope all is well with you and yours today, and I’ll talk to you guys next week…

We've had it...

Wow, have you seen the latest Gallup poll? Evidently, President Obama’s approval rating has now dropped to an all time low, and his disapproval numbers have risen to an all time high.

How about the poll that says that conservatives now outnumber liberals in 47 of the 50 states? Seen that one?

Last week I talked about Obama being one who wanted to divide us. Maybe I jumped the gun on that statement. What the president and the Democrats in congress have actually done with their non-stop name calling and personal attacks on conservatives is to unite us like no one else has been able to do since the days of Jimmy Carter.

And they wonder why so many people are fed up with them. It’s because we can’t get a straight answer on anything. Go ahead. Ask any of them a simple question about the massive health care plan they’re trying to sell us. Good luck trying to get an answer though. Sure they’ll talk a lot. In fact they’ll probably talk 10 or 15 minutes non-stop and by the time they’re through, you have no idea what they just said. But neither do they.

Then last weekend they trotted out my favorite ex-governor, Kathleen Sebelius to tell us Obama might be willing to drop the public option in order to pass his proposal. She told us, the public option wasn’t really essential to getting this done.

That same weekend, Obama told a crowd in Grand Junction, Colorado pretty much the same thing. He described the public option as not being that important. Actually, he said it was only a small sliver of the plan in the first place.

Then on Monday, they sent press secretary, Robert Gibbs out to tell us what we all heard wasn’t what they were saying at all. He explained that Obama and Sebelius have always favored the public option and there was no reason to think they had changed their minds.

Note to Robert Gibbs: That, Jedi mind trick you keep trying to use was pretty cool in the Star War movies, but it doesn’t really work.

Look, conservatives aren’t unreasonable people. But we don’t like being lied to and we like to know what we’re getting before we just blindly buy what you’re selling.

I know it’s a stretch, but how about just being honest with us. How about answering simple questions with simple answers for a change. How about just explaining it to us, the whole thing. Not just the parts you want to talk about. We want to know what’s in the bill and we also want to know, if you know what’s in it. Is that too much to ask?

When we ask you how much it’s going to cost us. Give us an honest answer. When we ask how you’re planning to pay for it. Don’t tell us by taxing rich people. With all the spending you’ve done since taking office, you’re going to bankrupt all the rich people we have. Then what?

When we ask if this plan will mean tax-payer funded abortions will become the norm. Answer the question. Don’t tell us it depends on how you look at it.

You act like you’re shocked because so many of our 40 million seniors citizens have turned on you. Did you really think they’d be okay when you announced your intentions to cut medicare funding by $500 billion.

Then you tell us, all that means, is you’re going to go after the fraud in the system. Hmm, why aren’t you doing that anyway? That’s your job.

And now, a note to the Republicans: You can stop slapping yourselves on the backs. We’re sick of most of you too. You had your chance to get things right, you blew it.

Mid term elections aren’t that far away. I believe the American people will finally come out in droves and vote for the people who they believe will have their best interests at heart. You carreer Congressmen and women had better start looking for another job. We’ve had it with you.

Agree, disagree? Stop by the blog this week at: www.rm235.blogspot.com I’d love to hear from you.

Divide and Conquer...

Hey, before we get started today, I’m going to throw Obama’s Snitch Line (www.flag@whitehouse.gov ) out there just in case someone wants to report me to the, “One.”

Responding to the outrage during her Town Hall meeting in Missouri the other day, Claire McCaskill, said, “I don’t understand the rudeness, I honestly don’t get it.”

That’s the problem, Senator. You really don’t get it, do you? Somehow, the Obama administration and his puppets in Congress can’t grasp the idea that anyone has the nerve or even the right to question their decisions.

Well, let me try to explain it. We’re sick of the whole damned thing. We’re sick of your arrogance. We’re sick of you mocking us. We’re sick of you calling us names. We’re sick of you trying to shove your socialist programs down our collective throats. And we’re sick of your lap-dogs in the media going along with you every step of the way.

Remember the Democrats outrage when we found out that the Bush Administration had been tapping into e-mails and phone calls from overseas in their attempt to intercept terrorist messages? Remember how they called that one of the worst cases of destroying our Constitutional rights they‘d ever seen. And now, these same people have the nerve to provide direct access to the White House through an e-mail address where we’re supposed to report fellow American citizens for criticizing their “health-Care“ bill. You know, for exercising their first amendment right, the whole “Freedom of Speech“ thing. Now that takes a hell of a lot of nerve.

Every time Obama gets on TV and tells us to get out of the way and shut up just makes it worse, too. When you send out your fellow Senators to compare us to “the type of people who pushed Timothy McVeigh over the edge,” it widens the gap. You call us racists, extremists, and angry mobs. You’ve even trotted, Nancy Pelosi out to call us Un-American.

You accuse Republicans of using scare tactics. Give me a break. How many times has Obama used the word “crisis” since he took office. First, he followed Bush’s lead when he said if his stimulus package wasn’t passed in a couple of days, America was doomed. Bam! He got it.

How many times has he used the phrase “Climate Crisis” as he spreads his message of how the world will suffer if we don’t sign onto his “Cap and Trade” fiasco? Depending on how they're spinning the latest crisis, it's either the "Health Care Crisis," or the "Insurance Crisis." According to a report from the U.N. the other day, we've only got four months to secure the future of the planet.

Wow, nothing scary there.

A lot of people believe Obama simply misspoke when he inflamed racial tensions with his “the Cambridge Police acted stupidly” comment. I don’t believe that for a minute. Ever hear the phrase “Divide and Conquer? He wants us divided. He knows if he keeps us at each other’s throats, we’ll be less likely to pay attention to what he’s trying doing to us. It’s the same thing when he goes out of his way to mock and ridicule “people holding those little tea bags.”

On September, 11th, these same people are bringing those same tea bags to Washington D.C. for a little "Tea Party" and they’re bringing about a million friends with them. It's funny as hell when you look down your noses and say it's all organized and manufactured. You bet your ass it is. You see, we've figured out how to use the internet just like Obama did to get his message across too. We're organized, mad as hell, and there are millions of us. Believe me when I say, you haven't seen anything yet.

But still, you guys really have no idea who we are. We’re the “Joe the Plumbers” of the world. We’re the baker, your waitress, or maybe we’re the cop on patrol. We might be the mechanic, who fixes your car because you can’t. Maybe we’re the electrician who fixed your wiring. We might be the carpenter who built your house. Maybe some of us drive a truck for a living. Some of us might even be found hanging onto the back of a trash truck. I have a hell of a lot of respect for those guys. We’re the farmers and ranchers who feed your family, we’re oilfield workers, and we even have a few doctors and lawyers to boot. We're the American people. We’re also the one’s who'll be expected to pay up when the bill comes due. And it will.

We’re the tens of millions of regular, working class, Americans you've been trying to push around. We outnumber you and we're here to push back. Don't make the same mistake others have in the past by underestimating us. We will not sit down or get out of the way, and we're sure as hell not going to shut up.

Senator McCaskill, maybe you’ll understand the American people's anger in next years mid-term elections when we kick you and the rest of Congress to the curb.

Stop on by the blog this week. I’ve posted a bunch of videos I’d like to hear your response too at: www.rm235.blogspot.com

This video by Justin Holcomb explains it better than I ever could...

Lone Duck: The Best Lil' Campground in Colorado...

It’s funny. I’ve always made it a point not to get sucked into an argument with a loudmouthed, drunk. But one night last week, I let my guard down. It wasn’t really an argument, I guess. More of a difference of opinion. Still, the debate is settled. I was right, he was wrong.

If you’re a long time reader of this column, you might remember me telling you about the, Lone Duck Campground in Colorado. My family and I have camped there for twelve years in a row now. Well, there was the year my daughter and daughter-in-law were both pregnant. They both used it as an excuse not to travel. Whatever.

Anyway, that’s where we were last week, and late one night, around 11:00 P.M. I was in the video game room, minding my own business when this guy holding five bottles of beer plus the one he was drinking from burst in. I continued to mind my own business and kept on playing my pin ball game. For a while the guy just kind of staggered around looking at the different games in the room. Finally he asked in a loud, obnoxious voice. So, where you from, bud?

I told him I was from Topeka, Kansas. He said, cool, you’re a long way from home, why in the world would you come to this place? I told him this was our twelfth year in a row to camp there and that there was no place I’d rather spend my vacation. He looked at me like I was crazy or something. He said man, there are so many better places than this. I asked him, where? He told me, he couldn’t remember the names of the places, but assured me there were a lot of them out there. I bid my new drunk friend, goodnight, and headed back to the campfire my clan had gathered around for the night.

Early the next morning, I thought about what the guy was saying. I guess, “better“ depends on who‘s telling the story. Sure there are a lot of bigger campgrounds. There are newer one’s too, who knows, maybe that’s what my, drunk friend meant by better.

But if you’re looking for a place in the heart of the Rocky Mountains that have so many of their own things to offer plus being so close to so many attractions in the area, you won’t find a better place to take your family.

Steve and Lisa work tirelessly to accommodate every single one of their guests. If you’re up early, Steve will even cook you breakfast, but don’t be late, his cooking is pretty popular. They have tent and RV sites. They also have at least one travel trailer they rent out. If that doesn’t work for you, you can always stay in one of their, one-room cabins. There’s a playground and a heated swimming pool for the kids. They even have a fishing pond for those who’d like to try their luck at landing a trout. They have a really cool gift shop and plenty of room to gather in the lodge. The game room is filled with a lot of old games from when I was a young man. Games like TRON, PAC MAN, GALIGA, and several racing games. They have three old pin ball machines, FISH TALES and WHITE WATER are the one's we play the most. If you hurry out there you just might find my initals on GALAGA as the top score. Cool! And because they never stop cleaning, the restrooms are spotless. Your clothes getting wet and dirty? no problem, they have a laundry mat to take care of that one too.

Let’s see, they’re five minutes from the Pikes Peak Highway and Santa’s Workshop, a really cool place for the kids. They’re located five minutes west of, beautiful downtown, Manitou Springs. You can easily get to The Garden of the Gods in 15 minutes. Seven Falls and the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo are 20 minutes away. Woodland Park and a seemingly endless supply of jeep trails we explore along Rampart Range every year are just 15 minutes to the west. And if you’re a history buff or a gambler looking for some action, Cripple Creek is just a 33 mile drive. Maybe you plan to go river rafting, Canon City is just 57 miles to the southwest. Maybe you’d like to spend a day to see the Continental Divide. It’s just a 100 miles to the west. Trust me, it’s a beautiful drive.

Oh yeah, and it’s only 8 miles or so from our official, newest favorite, locally owned, restaurant in the world. It’s called “Jo Mamas“, in Woodland Park. It’s a small, Italian place. Nothing fancy, just a really cool place. The atmosphere is fun and friendly, the food was wonderful, and even though they were busy as hell, the service exceeded all expectations. Friday and Saturday nights they have live music. You should have seen my 18-month,old grand daughter out there dancing when the guy started playing his guitar. It's quite possible that she was a bigger hit than he was. To the guitar player, I'm sorry I didn't get your name. But just so you know, your performance that night just made an already exellent day even better.

For me, it’s all about building memories. And to Steve and Lisa, and now a little Italian restaurant named Jo Mamas in Woodland Park, I thank you for being a part of it.

A better place? No way, that’s just crazy talk.

Stop on by the blog this week and tell us your vacation story at: www.rm235.blogspot.com