In The Begining

I often have a hard time finding a starting place when it comes to the current political climate and writing about it. Other times I become so distraught with emotion that it is all but impossible to write, especially when one is screaming at the news monitor that, when I am at home, runs constant news.
I have never been so involved in politics in my life, as I am at this moment. I was a student politician in college, and ran in elections, became Class President and was on several councils. That was college though, and soon I found myself on Parris Island with everybody but me doing the thinking. Politics were quickly reduced to a chain of command that I memorized and could recall on demand. Politics were forgotten about.
That way of thinking continued for a long time. I have a business to run, two daughters, and countless projects and “to do” lists that kept me plenty busy. I didn’t have time to devote to activism. I voted, listened to the news, made my own personal opinion about this or that, and went about my life.
In February, 2007, then President George W. Bush presented his budget to Congress for FY2008. It was nearly 3 Trillion dollars. I happened to be, as fate would have it, doing my own personal budget on the kitchen table. I was literally deciding if I should make a truck note, or stretch it out another week in order to pay my mechanic, and pray nothing else happened that week to any of the trucks. When the news person announced the amount to be budgeted, my ears shot up like a dog hearing a strange noise. I realize we were in two separate wars, but still, what on earth could we as a country, possibly need 3 Trillion dollars for? I wrote out that amount like I was writing a check. People, if you have not done this yet, I ask that you do it now. Get a sheet of paper and write a “check” for 3 Trillion dollars. It looks like this…

$ 3,000,000,000,000.00

Go ahead, write that check, and see if you don’t feel that sickening feeling as you go past the ninth zero. There are twelve zeros there friends. That’s how much the President reckoned we needed that year. This is what woke me up. This is what sent me sailing, headfirst into the muddied waters of politics. Honestly? Things have only become worse.

Old Glory

Testing mobile email delivery of photos. This flag has hung on my porch longer than a few of my readers have been born. God Bless America!

Moving from Facebook, well kinda...

Because of a conversation with a friend last week, I have decided to maintain the majority of my political ramblings and commentary here on TimothyPruitt, my blog. My thinking here is multifaceted, but while I will never squelch my thoughts and opinions about this or any administration, I feel that Facebook, or at least my very close-knit group of friends and family tend to use the service to keep up with how everyone is doing, rather than use the service as a diving board for political rhetoric. In no way am I backing down from those that believe our government should continue to grow and allow our country to continue to grow dependant on handouts until we are a socialist union. I will fight, in any way that I possibly can, fight and out this abhorrent behavior until my heart beats no more.

When I have added a new post here, I will post a link and brief comment about what the post is about. To my continued, faithful, like-minded (and otherwise) readers, I say thank you! Thank you for being here and thank you for your support. If you are reading my blog for the first time, I welcome you and encourage your thoughts and opinions.

TimothyPruitt

The Firing of a War Time General

by: Timothy Pruitt

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has issued David McKiernan, the top US Commander in Afghanistan, his walking papers. The firing of a wartime Commander has not occurred since the controversial firing of Douglas MacArthur on 11 May, 1951 while commanding the Korean theater. While
McKiernan, a four star General, has been on the job less than a year, Gates says he is looking for, “fresh thinking” and “new eyes” on Afghanistan.
"We have a new strategy, a new mission and a new ambassador. I believe that new military leadership is also needed," Gates said.
Unnamed sources inside the Pentagon say that McKiernan has been labeled as over cautious and too conventional minded for the unique skills required for counterinsurgency. These feelings are apparently echoed in the statements of Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top commander of U.S. forces, who sees the Iraq and Afghanistan missions as more than killing the enemy, but protecting its population and helping to rebuild the local governments. Sentiments which seem to have hailed from the White House.
Gates praised McKiernan’s “decades of distinguished service”, but fell short of being overly critical.
Asked by reporters whether this decision would effectively end McKiernan's military career, Gates replied: "Probably." Douglas MacArthur was greeted with a hero’s welcome upon returning to Washington, and many Senators attempted to rally the retired General to run for President. The plan never got off the ground, as MacArthur faded away from public life.
McKiernan will be replaced by Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal,
the director of the Pentagon's Joint Staff who recently ran the special operations forces in Iraq. McChrystal takes over with his own share of controversy. McChrystal came under fire for his role in the delay of acknowledgment of the "friendly fire" death of Army Ranger Pat Tillman, a former NFL player, in Afghanistan in 2004, an incident likely to come up during confirmation.
McChrystal takes the lead as today’s USA headlines scream out about the five US servicemen killed by a fellow soldier at a Baghdad counseling center. No other media source seems to mentioning this, at this writing. This watermarks the deadliest bout of violence between US servicemen since the start of the Iraq war, and should echo through the halls of the Pentagon the urgent need of counseling, training, and just how bad an idea the stop-loss initiative was/is.
All this proves to me that all these West Point types and Politicians alike can’t see the damned trees because they are staring at the forest.
Wake up America!

Twitter Pruning

I thought when I first started my Twitter account that if someone followed me, I would automatically follow them. That sounds fair, doesn't it? It did to me as well. I wondered why I saw so many uneven accounts, or what I call uneven anyway, where an account has 500 following but only 250 followers. I understand that a bit clearer today. To begin with, we aren't all at Twitter for the same reason. If our reasons don't mesh at all, they may actually conflict, and in the end, keep us out of some streams.
Twitter is a direct reflection of society as a whole and reacts in very much the same ways that society acts in that it has cliques, groups, and little reactionary ebb and flows of emotions. People, on Twitter, the same as in a physical setting, automatically know that when greeted with a large group of people for the first time, the odds are high that some, if not most of them, will not become friends with either each other or you.
As I settle into Twitter, I am both looking for my comfort spot, my "place", my niche, and explaining my reason for being there. While I am a businessman, I have no wares to peddle. While I am a blogger, I don't overtly push this or any of my blogs upon anybody. I don't need to network for my business to survive, nor do I feel an overwhelming urge to collect Friends or "followers" as a competitive sport. I have no need to appear supremely important, nor do I have an intense desire to align myself with any politically obsessed group. I do, however, enjoy being active with anyone or groups of peoples who are willing to maintain the simplest of human social skills. I do not care what color you are, if you are female or male, single or married, gay or straight, what your IQ is, or even what you are selling, so long as its not the only thing that I hear about from you. Which leads me directly into today's topic; Pruning my Twitter list.
I pruned my Twitter list today extensively. I did not do this out of malice or anger for anyone or anything in particular, but rather as a reaction towards what my stream was either lacking or seeing. I set out to make a few rules that I intend to follow while on Twitter. Well, how about one rule.

1. If you follow me, I will follow you.

There are exceptions however;

A. If you ask me to nominate you for anything, anywhere, I will un-follow you. If you have to ask for an award, you don't deserve it in my opinion, and its my vote you are asking for, I will do with it what I choose, including refraining alltogether.
B. If you never reply to any tweets directed @YOU. I know people get busy and one or two may slide by for a day or maybe even two, but never bother replying when I see you Tweeting all day? Bye!
C. If ALL you ever Tweet is about your blog, your MLM scheme, Get Rich Quick Ideas, and never take a breath. Adios amigo!
D. If your Tweet is so full of #Hashtags that it no longer resembles the english language, I'm cutting you free. If you don't know what that means, you have nothing to worry about. UPDATE: I'm now one of those people, so if it bothers you, you may unfollow me.
E. If you RickRoll me with a tiny.url I will ditch you. If I wanted to play those games, I'd hang out at /b/ on 4Chan.
F. If you inundate my stream with Blip.fm (or any music stream app) links, I will drop you. I'm on Blip.fm as well, but I don't feed my Tweets from Blip, so I don't want your feeds either!
G. The least heinous thing you can do to get dropped is to drop me. I don't get mad, sad, hurt or upset. It just means things didn't work out between us. We have different goals, ideas, direction, that's all. No hard feelings friend, go in peace.
1. An exception to this subrule is; You are extremely funny, wise, give good ideas, Make me laugh, You are interesting, that kind of thing.

Another thing about me that you might find strange is that I can't stand bots. If you can't take the few seconds to click on my profile and give me a benefit of a doubt, then maybe I don't need to follow you. This hatred of bots probably comes from the IRC network where bots would actually run the channel. You could get kicked off chat simply for saying the days secret word. That was stupid.

I know this post makes me come across as some type of jerk, but I really am not. If you are following me I am very glad to have you do so. I don't think I am better than you, nor am am I less than you. I will respect you and respond to you as long as you do the same. I look forward to many happy Tweets with all of you.

Tim
These are subject to change without notice.

Why we shouldn't need a blogging code of conduct

Bloggers everywhere got a kick to the gut when a CNN iReporter falsely reported that Steve Jobs was rushed to the hospital with a severe heart attack.

CNN's iReport, Original Story

"Steve Jobs was rushed to the ER just a few hours ago after suffering a major heart attack. I have an insider who tells me that paramedics were called after Steve claimed to be suffering from severe chest pains and shortness of breath. My source has opted to remain anonymous, but he is quite reliable. I haven't seen anything about this anywhere else yet, and as of right now, I have no further information, so I thought this would be a good place to start. If anyone else has more information, please share it." - johntw

CNN was quick to withdraw, and right to do so. Could it be any more vague? How could anybody take something written this way seriously? It wreaks of ruse.
I was a student journalist in college, and this "piece" breaks nearly every rule they taught us. This isn't a story, its gossip fodder, and it belongs in "The national Enquirer", and poorly written even for their standards.
A statement quickly surfaced that said, in part,

“iReport is an entirely user-generated site where the content is determined by the community. Content that does not comply with Community Guidelines will be removed. After the content in question was uploaded to iReport, the community brought it to our attention. Based on our Terms of Use that govern user behavior on iReport, the fraudulent content was removed from the site and the user’s account was disabled.”

The key word here is user-generated, meaning John Doe public. We don't know who this person was that generated this false iReport, or why. Some have speculated that its sole purpose was to undermine The Apple Corporation, and shake an already unsteady stock market. The false news of Mr. Jobs untimely demise caused Apple stock to drop several points and cost its shareholders a great deal of money. While some were screaming for the iRorter's head, and calling for a SEC investigation, (There actually was one), let us not lose sight that it was an iReport. By their own definition an iReporter is a CNN end user. I don't think the problem is with the person that filed the fake Jobs story, but rather with people who use the iReport forum to get cutting edge, breaking news. Did the iReport give facts or names to back up the story? Did anybody follow up on them if they did? If this story caused so much strife that it affected Wall Street, am I to actually believe that not one single trader on the floor had the foresight to check the stories authenticity? Maybe I'm being naive, but I would have made at least one phone call before I sold Apple short, and I'm not even a fan boi.

Had I clicked on the guys/girls iReport and seen a video of Steve Jobs on a gurney clutching his chest, then maybe I would have thought, "Hey, I think Steve-O just had a coronary!" but I don't think that was the case. So how did this story gain so much momentum? Perhaps because of the stories roaming the net about Jobs having pancreatic cancer.

We don't need a code of conduct for bloggers. What we need is plain old common sense! Those old adages of, "If it doesn't feel right, it probably isn't", "If you can't say anything good about somebody, don't say anything at all." or the like, hold true even when blogging.

Whoever said parenting was easy was obviously either an idiot, or not a parent.

Whoever said parenting was easy
was obviously either an idiot, or not a parent.

Being the father of two children has been both the most rewarding experience of my life, and the most frustrating, and both at the same time.

I love my kids
beyond reason, and would stop at nothing to protect them. I am an
overprotective Dad, and that fact does not bother me in the very least. I get a
lot of moans and groans when my response to, “…but Dad, the other kids are…”
is, “No.”. I always explain my reasoning, which is more than I ever got as a
kid. The “No” had better have been reason enough for me, because explanation
beyond that evolved my Dad’s voice going up several decibels, and always made
me wish I had not questioned it. I can still remember, “That look” in the
rearview mirror I would get if I asked too many questions on the family outing.
“That look” would be all it would take to shut me up immediately. I guess I
just didn’t have the huevos to talk back to Dad beyond that.

Something has changed in the last several years. I have heard it called the generation gap,but I remember my parents talking about how disrespectful we were in comparisonof them. I shiver to think that my Dad or my Father-in-Law would come back andwitness how kids act today. I know for a fact that had I rolled my eyes at myold man the way my 12 year old did at me the other day, I would still benursing a sore head, if not worse. I remember thinking at maybe not 12, but atperhaps 9 or 10 that my Dad could easily kill me. Come on, for Pete’s sake, he

TOLD me he could. He would say, “I brought you into this world, I can take you back out of it.” Holy cat crap Batman! That scared the feces out of me. You see, I really thought that my Dad had the ability to kill me. I thought that just any day I would do or say the wrong thing and one of those huge arms would come out of nowhere and crush me, “like the little fissure that
I was.”

My 12 year old has developed an attitude, and her grades have slipped below par, so I’m a bit upset. I know she’s a “tween” and her hormones are running rampant and she’s crazy headed, but corrective measures have been called into play. I have had to take the position of “Mean old Dad” and ground her, take away her iPod, her PSP, her Nintendo DS, PS2, Cell phone (and thus text messaging capabilities), CD player, TV, DVD and her iMac. All she can do now is homework, chores, read and draw. I’m barking at her like a drill instructor while she washes dishes, clothes, cleans house, her room, and everything else I can find for her to do. The thing is, the only person that has their feelings hurt and that it seems to be bothering….. is me!

Being a Dad is both the most rewarding thing and aggravating thing I have ever done, hands down.

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