Comments by Bobby Tony | Eastern North Carolina Now

Update July 2018:
I received this note from the caregiver of Mr. Boykin. He passed July 15, 2018

HI Bobby Tony. I have been working on the Eulogy for Mr. Wilfred Boykin. He died in the care of hospice on July 15. Your remembrance of him is helpful to me as I prepare remarks for his funeral. I am certain he received your letter, and he had a penchant for keeping everything sent to him, so it is probably in his things!

Mr. Boykin struggled with dementia the last years of his life. I work with a home care company and we provided care for him through the years as his dementia increased.

A memorial service for him will be held on Monday, July 30, 11 am at the Glenn Chapel. Emory at Oxford remained first in his heart. Of that I am certain.
Thanks again for your remembrance.

Commented: Saturday, July 21st, 2018 @ 8:02 am By: Bobby Tony

BT Crystal Ball gazing:

Scene: Judicial Hearing for Brett Kavanaugh

Sen. I. B. A. Blowhard (D): Do you commit to recuse yourself in any case that may come before you that involves the President, Russia, abortion, immigration, health care or any Election of the United States of America.

Judge Brett Kavanaugh: Senator thank you for that question. I will apply the Peter Strzok Bias-threshold principle to any actions I may take regarding any case that would come before me should I be confirmed to the Supreme Court.

Commented: Sunday, July 15th, 2018 @ 8:47 am By: Bobby Tony

Your point is well taken. It is most difficult to maintain optimism in today's environment, but like the two boys trying to explain why there was so much sh!t around, I choose to be the one who believes there must be a pony around somewhere.

I agree the experiment of socialism has been tried and failed by some of the most rightous and pius of citizens.

townhall.com

Commented: Friday, July 13th, 2018 @ 7:29 pm By: Bobby Tony

I grant that universal suffrage in voting tends to initially favor the Democrats, but once that group begins to experience the American Dream, they will discard the nanny state. I base this on the fact that many of them are in fact leaving the very type of government that the Democrats are trying to create here.

Even though the founders themselves tried to gerrymander the qualifications for voting, I can't help but believe that they had ultimate faith in the common sense of a voting public to be able to listen, read and discuss various opinions and collectively come to a reasonable conclusion. I base this on the knowledge that once they had set up the elective system, they proceeded to tear into each other in print, speech and innuendo without any qualms relating to truthfulness.

I assume that makes me extremely naive in believing that Nixon's Silent Majority eventually came to the conclusion that he was indeed a crook and as a result he lost the support of even the most ardent Republican partisans. At some point, I expect the Left Leaning Liberals will eventually come to the same conclusion regarding Democratic –Socialism.

On second thought, I guess that faith will confirm my naivety or stupidity regarding the human ability to self-govern ourselves. My biggest fear is that we have strayed from the Constitutional protections under assault by activist judges and the reversal of that trend my be this administrations greatest contribution to our history. Time will tell.

Commented: Thursday, July 12th, 2018 @ 7:49 am By: Bobby Tony

Just for clarification, I have voted in every election since I was first Eligible in 1964. In all but the presidential elections the majority wins. For that reason I was taught to always be in the "counted votes column" regardless of the turnout or the issues.

Here is a joke post from one of my non-published articles on citizenship. Hopefully people see the humor in this and not the sinister ramifications.

Commented: Wednesday, July 11th, 2018 @ 10:15 am By: Bobby Tony

I was going to weigh in on this subject because I have an Opinion on Brett Kavanaugh, but it does not really matter now, so I thought I would just comment on this article.

It dawned on me when I recently started a review of the record of Brett Kavanaugh who is Donald Trump's nomination for the Supreme Court that I don't really have a vote in this upcoming battle. I may have some influence based on the degree I wish to voice my opinion but I don't have a Vote.

As I have aged I find that I have increasingly had time to study the founding principles of our government. As a younger man I did not have the time or interest to delve into the minutia of day to day political decisions. I often thought that the basic GENIUS of our system of government lay in the idea that we could elect people who would study and become proficient in the mechanics of running a government. So it should come as no surprise to me that this PRIVILEGE (some would call it an AFFLICTION) of voting is the very foundation upon which our country is built and the reason we have existed for 240 plus years. We get to vote and elect those we wish to make most of the decisions for us. We are given recurring opportunities every two years to assert our wishes on the elected officials who serve at our leisure. If I have a serious difference of opinion on how those elected officials behave or vote, I and my fellow citizens have a signed document which prescribes the exact remedy for almost any situation that is likely to occur.

My real chance to influence the direction of the Supreme Court or the country for that matter occurred in 2004 & 2010 & 2016 when I voted for Johnny Isakson for Senator from Georgia. It occurred again in 2014 when I voted for David Perdue for Senator from Georgia. It finally occurred again in 2016 when I voted for Donald Trump for President of the United States. Below are the three people that I selected to pass judgement on Brett Kavanaugh. I doubt I had ever heard the name when I selected these people, but I was not selecting Brett Kavanaugh, I was selecting someone who I expected to provide the due diligence that I had not taken the time to complete.

• US Senator: Johnny Isakson 2004, 2010, 2016,
• US Senator: David Perdue 2014
• President of the United States: Donald Trump 2016

So my only official influence in this matter occurred in just four visits to the polls. I won't have another chance for these three officials until 2020 & 2022. That kinda of makes my current opinion mute on the subject of Brett Kavanaugh. It might be well for others to remember that this is not a "Johnny come Lately" event. It started all the way back in 1788 when the whole process was ratified.

In the final analysis, you should feel free to march, protest, bitch and moan, celebrate or just ignore it all. After all each of us has three people who will make the choice now and perhaps we should have thought about that when we elected them to ride up top of the Stage.

I am tempted to repeat the Abraham Lincoln's quote about Opinions but I'm not positive he ever said it. Maybe I should GOOGLE it so I won't be accused of posting FAKE NEWS!

I was pretty satisfied when Ronaldo Maximus was up on top of the Stage and so Far I think The Donald is doing a passable job.

Commented: Tuesday, July 10th, 2018 @ 1:20 pm By: Bobby Tony

In an effort to stay under a 1000 word self-imposed word limit, I condensed my original research article. Here is a sample of the rationale for the AK becoming the weapon of the rebellions across the globe. (Various Sources and paraphrases by me)

The concept of the AK47 was anchored in the Battle of Moscow where the Red Army lost 80,000 KIA and 50,000 POW. Kalashnikov was injured in the battle. While recovering from his injuries, Kalashnikov started experiencing flashbacks of the raid and became obsessed with creating a sub machine gun that would drive the Germans from his homeland.

The standard tactic in military conflict is to employ firepower to direct maximum force at an enemy. In simple terms the idea is to send more rounds downrange then you are receiving up range. Or as Nathan Bedford Forrest said in a more simple statement:

"Get there first with the most."

Russia suffered roughly 20 million deaths during WWII (roughly ½ military and ½ civilian). The design of the AK47 was to put a automatic weapon in the hands of the most people with little sophistication and or technology.

As a result that weapon also became the most popular weapon for use by a non-military rebellion that did not have the benefit of organization, training and tactics. The Russian government provided vase numbers of AK47 to almost any insurgent movement to crate the chaos that they felt help the spread of Marxism. Each shooter was in essence an army until themselves.

The AK47 and later iterations is still a remarkable weapon for rebellious people world wide.

Unfortunately, we have as yet not found a way to eliminate guerrilla style warfare. The British also had this problem in 1776-1783 era. As a modern culture we lean toward Geneva based combat, while revolutionaries tend to use the shoot them and let God sort it out. James Mattis has a more nuanced approach. “be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet."

Commented: Sunday, July 8th, 2018 @ 6:09 am By: Bobby Tony

I’m having a brain fade who is zero and or michael.

Commented: Thursday, July 5th, 2018 @ 5:42 pm By: Bobby Tony

Based on a quick read of the summaries of this book I would offer that most of my Posts on BCN are pseudo - events and for that I thank the publisher for his forbearance.

Commented: Sunday, June 24th, 2018 @ 6:33 am By: Bobby Tony

I was just wondering if the Home Owners Association sent her a letter about the over use of Display flags on her car.

Commented: Friday, June 22nd, 2018 @ 11:09 am By: Bobby Tony

So True, Nothing is permanent.

Commented: Saturday, June 16th, 2018 @ 2:33 pm By: Bobby Tony

I operate on the theory that it is best not to ask too many questions when you are eating something but don't know what it is.

Commented: Tuesday, June 5th, 2018 @ 8:04 am By: Bobby Tony

The article was getting a bit long in the tooth, so I redacted (to use the current phraseology) a couple of lines out of it. Here is the original paragraph which explains the reference to 50 ways.

"I was recently called out by one of the regulars at happy hour for sneaking out without saying GOODBYE. It reminded me that I used the same technique in my love life in the first few years after returning from Vietnam. Paul Simon wrote a song about that in his fourth solo album "Still Crazy after all these Years (1975)." I could only reply that there was a song about the best way to make an exit from old girlfriends and happy hours."

Commented: Saturday, May 19th, 2018 @ 8:10 am By: Bobby Tony

After I wrote this article I ran across another article that purports to be an interview with a Navy Veteran who was assigned to another ship but involved in the Navy experiments.

AS ALWAYS BUYER BEWARE –All of this could be fake news

educate-yourself.org

Commented: Saturday, May 5th, 2018 @ 11:46 am By: Bobby Tony

No doubt, the original Groundhog Day. I enjoyed The Philadelphia Experiment original movie which was a rehash of the theme.

Commented: Friday, May 4th, 2018 @ 11:36 am By: Bobby Tony

This line from my article 'Naturally, as I said, this is not an original idea by me' prompted me to follow my natural OCD tendencies and do further research.
I found this discussion of the writer Kurt Vonnegut last novel. It gave me pause for two reasons:

1. I may have inadvertently plagiarized Kurt in this Article.
2. If indeed my thoughts parallel Kurt's mind then I should be afraid. Be very Afraid!

"It is no surprise that Vonnegut, a writer who saw the golden age of short story writing collapse under the weight of the widespread adoption of television, is no fan of the screen. But Vonnegut’s reason for disliking TV is less curmudgeonly than humane. His final novel, Timequake, includes a short story about an alien who invents the television. The invention soon replaces traditional learning: rather than develop their imaginations, the aliens learn from a box that gives them images splashed across a screen. As they lose their imaginative abilities, they lose the ability to “read interesting, heartwarming stories in the faces of one another.”

home.isi.org

Commented: Thursday, May 3rd, 2018 @ 7:55 pm By: Bobby Tony

I distinctly remember reading the book but the time frame was unclear. I think it may have been assigned reading for a 10 year old boy in the fourth grade (which would explain the 1955 time frame) and then the Disney movie was shown on TV which cemented the images.

My dad's reading leaned heavily toward Louis L'Amour. I never understood why he was so enamored with reading Books in French until I got older.

Commented: Thursday, May 3rd, 2018 @ 8:40 am By: Bobby Tony