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I was recently reminded of the old axiom - The squeaky wheel gets greased.

It is a fact of life that most people do not notice things when everything is going along smoothly. We have a tendency to ignore the things that work, and only pay attention to the things that cause us to notice them. Therefore the idea of the squeaky wheel being noticed, that something is wrong. Found another site on the internet (isn’t the internet a lot of fun!) that proved that old axiom. It remarkably is called, The Streisand Effect.

Over and over things get noticed only because someone made noise about what was going on. When living in Florida, the National Inquirer newspaper put an article in its pages that Carol Burnett had a drinking problem. She of course protested that lie. The paper put in a retraction article back in its rear pages. Right where someone would NOT notice it. Carol Burnett of course did not like the hidden retraction, after all the original article was put in the front of the paper, in a very public manner. She took the paper to court and sued. She only asked for 1 (one) dollar and a very public apology, which of course was only right. The jury agreed with her that the paper did wrong. They however awarded 1(one)MILLION dollars to her instead of the original single dollar which she asked for. If the paper had been as public with its retraction as it had been with the original lie, the court case could have been avoided. As it ended, trying to hide what it did wrong created more noise than if it had just done the simple thing.

We ourselves should become squeaky wheels when we see something wrong. We should not let only the arrogant noise makers be noticed. I’m talking about the Silent Majority here. Being silent has its uses, but not when things are wrong though.

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I’ve lived in the USA all of my life and I know there are times that I underestimate what freedoms that we have.

One such freedom I enjoy is speech. Well, I guess writing in this case, Opinions are something that everyone has, although not everyone lets them out. Putting thoughts down on paper, screen, or just onto your tongue helps you to organize yourself a little. Every day, without our noticing, some of our freedoms are being eroded. I’m not saying that it is obvious; but, it happens. I’ve learned that the ‘frog in the pot’ theory isn’t based on fact, but as an analogy it works.

I do not favor ‘political correctness’ in my life. Understand that I have no wish to antagonize any person. There are just times when it would be nice to be able call a rose a rose, and a pile of dog droppings a pile of dog droppings. Calling it fertilizer will not change what it is; something that smells and is not wanted.

I’m all in favor for being polite, when possible. Courtesy helps to keep society moving more or less in a cooperative effort. However, when something is not right, plain speech can be of more benefit than beating around the bush.

All I have to really say is…KEEP speaking people!

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Everyone is concerned about the ‘gas’ shortage. Meanwhile, our politicians seem to have no lack of ‘hot air’. Why do people only think of petroleum products for fuel.

Every person who has taken a drink of liquor can tell you that high octane sources come from more that just petroleum. RICE is used to make Saki - the Japanese and others know this. POTATOES are used to make Vodka - the Russians and others know this. SUGAR CANE is used to make Rum - the people of the Carribean know this. HOPS and BARLEY (not really sure about the ingredients here) are used to make Beer. WINE makers in many countries know that sometimes wine will turn into Brandy. It can also be made into vinegar. CORN, of course, is used to make Moonshine. That has been used to run vehicles for decades by the very people who make it. Every gardener who makes a compost heap knows that the rotting refuse makes potent aromas, eventually turning into fertilizer.

Now, I’m no expert on the origins of liquors, just what I’ve found out about in many different ways. No doubt there is a lot out there that we don’t know about. Even camels milk can be fermented!

Why are we so hung up with old fashioned, messy, polluting petroleum?

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Many candidates running for office make promises in their speeches. How many actually carry through with their promises?

One candidate talks about improving health care…..and yet opportunities to do that before have been bypassed. This candidate’s home state has people who get extremely ill—for lack of doctors. After all the doctors want their money up front or else NO SERVICE. Where’s the health care there? It ain’t.

Another candidate pushes change; but, what change–where are the details? This candidate talks big, but what has been done so far.

Another candidate spent over $80 million to run, yet has been proven to be a bully when people don’t do what he wants. He has practiced deceptively to control others in other states that have never met him, or even done business with him.

Have the people ever kept track of all the promises made, but never kept? I understand that officials will sometimes block the effort of those who are elected. What I wonder about are all the promises that were never even acted upon.

Talk is cheap. All it costs is a lot of hot air.

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Just watched a movie called “Meet John Doe”. About an ordinary man in an extraordinary situation. A world exists out there we don’t know. It is filled with people like us–just surviving.

There are things happening that we never hear about. The news programs don’t look for this because it isn’t sensational. I believe that ordinary people living is a sensation. We’re not fat cats living off of other people and what other people do. We are ordinary people living each day.

The news media treats us like we are invisible, like we don’t exist. If we truly didn’t exist, the media wouldn’t have jobs because we pay them; because they wouldn’t have jobs without us. Why should we be ignored? It is like we’re treated as if we are mushrooms. You know, kept in the dark and fed bu**s**t. Please fill in the blanks where the stars are. Why shouldn’t we count? Why should we be ignored? Why should only the oddballs, the weirdos, criminals, powerful, famous and rich count? When did being ordinary all of a sudden mean we should be ignored? Open your eyes and look around. We are being passed by because we aren’t sensational. That doesn’t mean we are unimportant! We count too.

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