■ 24 May 2012 | 9:55 AM
My Sincerest Hope Regarding Our Next Vice President of the United States
I fervently hope our next Vice-President is not Joe Biden.
Sparkling Diversity provides a unique view of Hampton Roads, Virginia through the eyes of Archie Whitehill, a long-time resident of Norfolk. Politics, places, events, ideas and people are explored in sometimes provocative ways.
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I fervently hope our next Vice-President is not Joe Biden.
In reading today’s news, I am disgusted over some of the things people do. Here is a short list of the things I’d like to happen as a result of the actions reported in the stories:
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Little by little, Virginia Beach is moving toward expanding Light Rail into their borders (Click Here). That is a good thing to be happening.
In reading comments to the above referenced story, I note that there are few against the project, although they cry loudly and shrilly. Interesting to me is that many of those are against taxing in general. That is puzzling, since everything needs money to operate, light rail, schools, police, fire departments, city streets and highways, and, well, everything else we demand from out governments at all levels.
Light rail has been a boon to Norfolk, and it will be a boon to Virginia Beach.
There are so many people in Hampton Roads holding diverse opinions and gathering together in demonstrations against all matter of things. Everyone wants "the good life," but no one wants to pay for "the good life."
Here are a few mob-induced, no-rational "battle cries" of the peasants, or should I call them minions? I call these the battle cries of the inane:
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There are many more such inane, or nonsensical battle cries of the clueless mobs who gather to denigrate one thing or another. What is so sad about these phrases of the inane are that they establish a "black & white" thought pattern; there is no intermeidate grey, nor is there a chance of diversity of color, and depth. It is either "Yay" or "Nay." There is no middle ground.
Notice that such mobs of minions are never for something, always against, nor do they ever offer solutions to the problems their leaders have perceived and foisted upon them. Such herds of humanity never allow opposing voices to speak. To do so would be dangerous, perhaps force them to think of other points of view, of real solutions, if there even is a problem.
There is no thinking involved when one takes a stance with such strident thoughtlessness. What little thougth that takes place occurs outside the minion minds; the "thinking," and that term is used loosely, takes place withing the executive committees of unions, political parties, and special interest groups. They, the executive committees, come up with the black & white slogans, the thoughtless, albeit cute, sayings, and they feed this inanity to the minion masses who await word regarding what they think. They, the people who fear original thought, who support special interest groups, who support unions, who support political paqrties unthinkingly, cherish the opportunity to carry signs someone else has made and shout slogans someone else has thought up. Such are the diversely deficient thinkers.
There is no more "voice of the people." Instead, we have the many voices of left-wing and right-wing pundits; we have the authoritative, though under-informed voices of news anchors. Our real leaders come from the ranks of talking heads, from the lips of talk-radio hosts, and from grass-roots organizations which are really national, sometimes multi-national organizations posing as the voice of the people.
How can this be true?
It is true because we have stopped thinking. We no longer participate in critical thinking on the issues of the day. We join personality cults, believing our candidate can do no wrong, and the opposing candidate can do no right.
Inane slogans have replaced rational thinking
Take God out of government.
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To whet your appetites for OPSAIL 2012, let's look at some photos taken at OPSAIL 2000. Looking forward to a marvelous celebration of sail, history, and Hampton Roads. If any of you attended OPSAIL 2000, feel free to reminisce in the comments, below. The rest of you will get a very small glimpse of what is to come.
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There will be events and sights and experiences to be enjoyed by all ages throughout Hampton Roads. OPSAIL 2012 promises to be a most diverse extravaganza.
See you there!
Mothers come in all sorts of types, to use the title of one of my favorite movies, “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.”
We choose a day in May, this day; this Sunday we honor our mothers. Most of these mothers are deserving of honor, a few are not. Let’s concentrate on the good, the inwardly beautiful, the mothers who are deserving of our love, our honor and our respect.
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M is for the Multitude of tasks a mother must perform.
O is for the Ornery behavior of us kids she had to put up with.
T is for the Tenacity mothers must possess.
H is for the Harrowing experiences we put mothers through.
E is for Everything mothers must give up to take care of a child’s needs.
R is for the Respect mothers who care for children deserve.
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I laughed aloud as I read the article about Norfolk Mayor Paul Fraim asking Norfolk City Council members to remain civil. (Read It Here) It's kind of like an FAA inspector at the site of a plane crash commenting on the airline's choice of colors for its planes rather than on the cause of the crash.
Mr. Fraim, you have a member of "your" council who has flaunted the law by not paying taxes, repeatedly; who has physically attacked others, and who feels he is a gift to his constituency; well, maybe he is the booby prize. Yet, you say nothing, do nothing, and you're upset about raised voices? Come on Mr. Mayor, where do you keep your backbone?
Grow one or get out of the way.
Don’t let this grey hair and beard fool you. I don’t know as much as I’d like you to think I know. Older folk are like vehicles. I started adulthood as a Maserati, full of vim and vroom. I ended up a golf cart.
Senior citizens, aka older folk, have it good these days – no more criticism – free fart opportunities. I fart and I get knowing nods and smiles from others as they move away and leave me alone. I deserve the solitude. There are books == “Getting Old for Dummies; The Elder Bible. A quote from The Elder Bible: “
As a senior citizen it is my turn to rest – to loaf.
Do any of you know how to loaf? When I loaf, my cats sit around me taking notes on their paw-pilots – I have been honored with a number of 21-meow salutes and when I go out into the neighborhood, cats point at me and meow in awe. Loafing is a solvent – able to dissolve employment and relationships. Loafing makes me into a god – every day is my Seventh Day. It takes aged experience to loaf well – hit 60 and you are the expert. Yes, I do loafing seminars. Wear slippers.
My generation worked hard; we brought our kids into this world . . . . . . Well, you may have. I am happily childless. Having children is work, at least keeping them is.
Speaking of kids, I’m allergic. Don’t want ‘em. How do I know? I was a kid once and I don’t want to put up with the likes of that kid. Kids are solvents – they dissolve relationships – they dissolve bank accounts – they dissolve freedom of movement – and they are always whining – gimme! Gimmee! Gimmee! Gimmee! Gimmee! Gimmee! Gimmee! Geeze! I don’t need that. How do you all kid herders out there put up with that? It certainly explains many psychiatric malfunctions, doesn’t it?
Granted, I have missed some of the important things in life: useless purchases of diapers, milk, clothes, earplugs; daily disrespect; back-talk; whining, “are we there yet”; and delivering unto this world the anti-Christ.
Loafing is so much easier, and more pleasant than having children.
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*Loafing is good, no matter how you slice it.
After a face-to-face meeting with Norfolk City Council Candidate, Jesse Scaccia, I submitted a short list of questions for him to answer. After reading Scaccia's responses, be sure to watch his short video. Then get out and vote for Jesse Scaccia for the Norfolk City Council Superward 6 seat. We will not regret this.
I'm honest, accessible, and I always will worry about the interests of the needy before the interests of the powerful. Unfortunately, that differentiates me from a lot of the current mindset we have on Council. I bring an element of common sense and cultural sophistication that I haven't seen enough of on the Norfolk City Council.
Moreover, I see myself as a bridge between generations in this City. I love our history, our neighborhoods, and everything that has made us great for decades. But I see so many ways that we can do better, just with a shift in perspective. I'm the right leader at the right moment for this city.
I'll also take a page from one of my challenger's playbooks and say that we should audit the government. He wants to do it himself; I say that we should *all* get the chance to audit the government. The City should be open and transparent about its finances. With a whole City looking over the City's shoulder it won't be long before we find redundancies and other ways to save taxpayers' dollars.
I would also think regionally, and look for ways that Norfolk can share services with our neighbors. This would decrease cost while also likely increasing customer service.
Finally, all the basic quality of life improvements I'd want to implement would make us a more attractive city in general, more of a destination for businesses, tourists, and folks looking for a city call home--all of these bring in revenue for the City.
I'll also expect to be held accountable. I made this video here to give people a check list of my campaign promises. Please hold me to them.
Jesse Scaccia: 15 of my top priorities for Norfolk City Council
HamptonRoads.com
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