The Rodney Dangerfield of World Dictators

Moral Relativism...to the Extreme by Eric Power

Hitler performing the Macarena. Yes, he
 invented it too! What a hipster!

You know who gets absolutely no respect these days?  The Nazis. I mean sure they did some bad things, I get it. But what about all of the good things that Hitler did?? Not just for Germany, but really, for the whole world. Let's look at a few of them here.

The Strawpocalypse! Strawmageddon! It's StrawTastrophe!!!

The Final Straw by Eric Power

Well, now! My Father’s Day 2018 was quite the eventful one. Yes indeed! We took our first step onto the “Butler County Donut Trail” with Milton’s Donuts in Middletown, Ohio. I may be a tad biased, but they make probably the most exquisite tasting donuts ever. .Seriously. They’re phenomenal. Then we had some great fun at a Dave and Busters-style place called Scene75 with some video games and laser mazes. And then for lunch, we indulged in a nice guilt-ridden lecture from a California wannabe environmentalist at a local restaurant in the area. I thought they served burgers, but hey, I guess I read the menu wrong.  So here’s what happened.

The Guiding Hand of God

 ***UPDATE***

I recently found out more information about my wayward passenger back in June.  I've thought about Charles and my short time with him quite a bit since I met him. Always wondering how and where he ended up, and if he was ok. A few days later, I had the bright idea to look him up on whitepages.com; and there was a man with his name listed in Maineville. His address was literally 400 ft from where I found him. Doh!  My day and Charles' could have been a lot quicker if I'd just done that one simple thing. But as I said in the article below, that was not God's plan. 

This was not just a simple pickup-and-rescue operation in His eyes. I fully believe that He was showing me, and others involved, that to help others is to help yourself, as well. 

So, I would stop by his house during the course of my route; it took a while for me to be there when someone was home, but eventually a lady answered the door. I asked her if a Charles Reed lived here. She said yes. I showed her the picture on my phone and asked if this was him. At this point, she put two and two together and realized that I was the one that found him. She shook my hand and said thank you so much. I assume she is Charles' daughter but she never actually told me that. She told me that the police said UPS found him lol. Oh well, that probably helps me in the long run. 😉  Charles is 84 years old, and suffers from dementia. She told me that as a child he lived on Lincoln Avenue down in Cincinnati's Walnut Hills neighborhood. She said that she had never heard his wine bar story before and that made her laugh a little. Her daughter was mowing the lawn when he took off on his adventure. He is currently at the Cincinnati VA awaiting a more permanent placement. Over the three years that Charles has lived with her, he has become increasingly more difficult to care for at home and she is making the tough decision to put him in a place where he can get the proper full-time care that he needs. God bless you Charles, may the ones who care for you be kind and gentle, and have the ears to hear and the eyes to see as God wants them to. 

  The Guiding Hand of God by Eric Power 

     God puts us where he needs us to be at that exact moment. We may not realize it at the time, but I believe this to be absolutely true. A hundred alternate decisions could have been made differently to put me in a place other than where I was at 4 pm this past Thursday. I could've been slower and finished my route later; I could have done the Regency Subdivision (affectionately referred to as the H's, because all of the streets begin with the letter H) before the Village on the Green neighborhood above it, which I had considered doing. At the end of my route, I could have exited the subdivision from one of the other two access points. Had any of those things been slightly different, I never would have crossed paths with Charles. But Charles needed a helping hand; so God nudged me here, and prodded me there, steering me this way when I really wanted to go that way. This is how I ended up meeting and assisting the elderly Army Vietnam Vet. 

My Time With Charles

I surreptitiously snapped a photo of Charles while we were
waiting for the mysterious van to appear

I pulled over as I saw him, and before I even thought about it, I was hopping out the door. This, too, is rather unlike me, as I am not a very impulsive guy. Usually I ponder things to death before acting. Sometimes this is to my advantage; other times it causes the moment to pass, and I miss an opportunity. I asked him how he was doing. He was walking with a hefty looking suitcase that was probably about as old as he was. He would move the suitcase forward and put it down; then he would walk with his cane about 2 steps and then repeat the process. It was agonizingly slow and it just broke my heart watching him. I'd never seen him before today, and he definitely stuck out, wearing his jacket with a shirt underneath and his pajama bottoms and fuzzy house shoes. All this in high-humidity 80°+ Ohio weather. I asked him if he needed some help with his suitcase; he replied that that would be fine, because his back was hurting him terribly. I asked him where he was headed, and he told me he was meeting his sister at "the wine bar on Gilbert". This seemed odd to me, since the only Gilbert I know is near downtown Cincinnati. He said he lived on Lincoln (another street near Gilbert Ave) but he couldn't tell me which town he lived in. He seemed somewhat disoriented and not sure how he came to be in Maineville. So I offered him a ride up the street to see if we could find the "wine bar". In truth, I was heading towards an urgent care facility in the area that I thought could probably give some assistance. 

This is where things took a strange detour. As I pulled into their parking lot, a man in a car pulled up and asked if I was the one who was helping the elderly gentleman out. Surprised, I said I was, to which he replied that the Warren County Community Services van was looking for him. Whoops. Apparently I screwed up somebody's day by picking up their rider. The guy said he would call the driver and let him know where I was; he would meet me and pick Charles up from there. Awesome, right? My mystery jump-seat rider had some back story after all. So, Charles and I waited, and waited and...well, we waited some more. We passed the time with some chitchat; I asked him about his Vietnam Veterans hat that he was wearing. That's when I discovered that he was in the Army over in 'Nam. I thanked him for his service and told him about my dad, who was in the Army fighting the same war. I asked him if he was thirsty. He said he was; luckily, I had stopped at Kroger and bought a 32-pack of bottled water earlier that day - yet one more thing that I was planning to do at another time. I pulled one out of my cooler for him. He guzzled it down pretty fast!  I'd imagine that walking in the heat really took it out of him. 

At this point, maybe a half an hour after my conversation with the guy who was calling the WCCS van for me, there was still no sign of my relief pitcher. I decided to call the WCCS to see what was going on. According to Doty, they didn't have a van in that area at that time. Apparently they didn't even have any record of my passenger!  So now what? And who was that guy talking about?!? She wondered if he was homeless; I told her that I didn't think that he was. Even though he said he didn't live in town, my suspicion was that he did and just couldn't remember the fact. They suggested that I call the police to see if they could help. Before doing so, I asked Charles if he was okay with that idea; in his altered state, I didn't want him freaking out if the cops showed up. I've had some experience with people suffering from dementia, and that was an issue for them. He said that was fine with him. After calling and telling the Hamilton Township official my story over the phone, she told me that I could wait for an officer to meet me, or I could just drive him there myself. Well I'd had enough of waiting for people to show up, and since my last two stops of the day were right across from the station, I figured that it was better to just go to them. Also, I thought it might be better for his mental state to not ride in the police cruiser. I was still worried about how he might react to the police. He may have said it was okay right then, but when they showed up, the whole situation could have changed. So we drove down the street to the station, helped Charles and his suitcase out of my truck, (he had some trouble navigating my steps) checked in at the desk, and waited in the lobby. A few minutes later, a friendly officer came out and she began talking with him, also getting very little usable information from him. At this point, it seemed that my time with Charles had come to a close. I talked to the officer for a few minutes, telling her of my experience with him and giving her my contact information in case they needed to follow up with me. I shook Charles's hand, said that it was an honor meeting him and told him to take care of himself. He smiled and said thank you. I finished my last stops and my 4 o'clock day was finally finished at 6 o'clock. And I'd do it all again if it happened the same way. 

Reflections

Lately, things have been such a grind. Work is so crazy-busy, we've been trying to buy a car, moving, replacing our water heater that's been broken for some time,and all of the other craziness of day-to-day life, etc. etc. etc. ad infinitum. Throw in the darkness and doubt that goes through your head at any given moment - do I measure up, am I a good enough husband/father, can I hold it all together?? - and this can lead to a pretty rough week. They say when you're going through Hell, you just keep on going and don't look back. Good advice, indeed. But sometimes, I forget that I should look up and around every now and then. As you trudge down your own path, others nearby might be going through their own private Hell; maybe, if you give a helping hand, you can both get out of Hell together a little bit sooner. With that realization, I think Charles helped me that day as much as I helped him. 

Then again, was it Charles or myself who needed the help that God wanted to be given?  Maybe it was Doty, who strangely answered the phone a half hour after closing time, on her way out the door, who seemed absolutely astounded that I went out of my way for this stranger. What struggle is she coping with in her life? Maybe the help was for the officer who came out to meet us. Someone who sees the worst in humanity on a daily basis, and needed a refresher by seeing someone helping his fellow man for no personal gain. We may never know the wide reaching effects our actions may have, no matter how simple we think they may be. To slightly misquote U2, "He moves, in mysterious ways."

As for Charles, I hope and pray that they are able to find his home or family, if he has any. If nothing else, I hope I provided some respite from the heat in my truck. My thoughts and prayers are with you Charles. Godspeed, my friend. Thank you for reading this account of my personal story, and God bless. 

Galations 6:2

2 Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.

Ted Cruz Is The Zodiac Killer?!?

But I Saw It On The Internet!! By Eric Power

The similarity is striking....! Ok no, not really.

I take back everything positive I've ever said about Ted Cruz. To think that he is so diabolical that he could actually be the Zodiac Killer, who started his murder spree in 1968, (some say as early as 1964) when Cruz was born in 1970. I mean, really, you just can't get any more evil than that! Killing people before you were even a twinkle in your Daddy's eye. I mean, isn't that the Republican way, after all??
Bad, Cruz, bad!!!



Okay, clearly, this story is preposterously and obviously false.

The Case For A Constitutional Revival

I'm going to cut right to the chase. In a nutshell, I think that Donald J. Trump is a living, breathing nightmare. If it comes down to Trump and Hillary or Sanders, I am stating unequivocally and without regret, I will not vote for the Donald. I cast my last vote for the (slightly) lesser of two evils for the last time in 2012. Never again.

The Refugee Dilemma: Should We Host Them Here?

Wolves In Sheeps' Clothing? By Eric Power

There's much to be said lately about the relocation of Syrian refugees into our country. Most of it involves shaming people for being cold hearted and uncaring. Another, thankfully smaller, portion involves blind racism against anyone who remotely resembles middle eastern ethnicity. So where does the real debate lie? I guess it really comes down to this question. Do you trust the administration and more specifically, the bureaucracy, to properly vet the refugees?  

9-11-2001: A Remembrance; A Look Forward

A Reckoning is Coming by Eric Power

14 years. 9-11-2001 was 14 years ago today. At times it seems like it was a thousand years ago and other times, like it was yesterday. God bless all those who perished and the families they left behind. God bless our soldiers who still fight to this day, this never-ending war against Evil. An evil, like ISIS, that has distilled itself into a demonic purity. Raping women. Children. Crucifying them.

Drowning Christians in shark cages, while videotaping their deaths. Immolation, decapitation; nothing is taboo for these cretins. This battle has never been more clear than it is today, yet it seems so muddy in the way that we compromise and negotiate and turn our heads from what we should be taking notice of. It's the epitome of irony that on this anniversary of 9-11, we are on the precipice of a deal with Iran, which will effectively hand to them the nukes to vaporize Israel, all the while claiming it will stop them from reaching that goal. Our "government" is crafting this suicide pact while the Iranians are publicly screaming for the death of our nation, as well as Israel's.

Defund Planned Parenthood! How Can This Continue?!?

Normally, I take great enjoyment in producing my articles. From the formatting, to finding pictures, blending humor with my written word and my picture captions, and providing links for the evidence that I've researched. With the topic today, I just can't do my usual production. There is no humor to be found in this issue, and no related pictures that I care to caption. I can only write of the raw emotion that comes from learning of this particular subject.Here is a link to the Center For Medical Progress, the organization that has done the investigative exposé, to see the videos in question. This is something I was strongly compelled to write, from a few different sources; I wasn't about to say no. Please take something away from this! I've never really been one to ask people to share my posts; I'm asking you to please share this one.  It's vitally, crucially important on a national scale that this conversation starts happening, sooner rather than later. Thank you!

Update: 8-20-15 I've recently created a Pinterest board for my blog; apparently the only way to pin something is for there to be a picture within the link for it to "pin". So I've added one picture to appease the Pinterest devil. Ugh. 

Lions Over Lambs by Eric Power

     

The recent events involving Planned Parenthood and the video documentations of the vile practices that occur there have, quite frankly, left me thoroughly despondent about the future of our society and mankind. I just can't fathom how to combat this perfect, pure evil that would make Hitler and Stalin envious.
Furthermore, the pitifully tepid response that the videos have gotten from our country, as a whole, is horrifying and quite revealing of the downward spiral into Hell that our culture finds itself in. If something such as this cannot pull us back from the brink of darkness, then I surely don't know what will. The videos are unspeakably horrific, each one released more grotesque (either in word or deed) than the last. I can't imagine how it could get any worse; are they puréeing them for smoothies?? Soylent Green??? (I apologize for that mental image...but what could possibly be left?!?) We can't be bothered to care about babies being chopped up by these vampires and sold to baby part ghouls, but somehow the national fur flies when a lion in Zimbabwe is killed during a hunt by some dentist from Michigan. If it didn't involve such a ghastly, macabre state of affairs, it would be laughable. When I recently came back from my self-imposed exile of news/current events and all things political, I thought it was bad then! It has deteriorated rapidly since September of 2014 and continues to do so with no sign of slowing, let alone halting. ISIS torturing and slaughtering Christians by the thousands, mass riots in America, movie theater and church massacres; it is quickening to a breakneck pace towards absolute damnation.

There's No Place Like Home

Home Security In The (Crazy) Modern World by Eric Power

Since October, I've been working for a major package delivery company in the residential delivery division. In my eight months on the job, I've made some rather interesting observations. The house is always the last one on a very long street. It's always the apartment on the third floor (no elevator, mind you) at the very end of the hall. It's always the dining room table or an equally heavy item that has to be delivered to the house atop a steep hill with 35 steps to the summit. The packages that require a signature are never home. MOST dogs are all bark and no bite; they lighten up once you throw them a Milkbone. Last, but certainly not least, I've noticed that more than a few people are completely oblivious about their home and personal security. 

Living In An Upside Down World

Fluid Reality by Eric Power

I'd like to make an announcement. I've decided it's time to come out and identify my true self. I want you all to know that I self-identify as a Martian. I know the struggle! The thin atmosphere. The cold, cold nights. I stand in solidarity with

The New ME!

my Martian brothers and sisters! Now I know what you're thinking. "But his parents are human!  He looks human! He is human!!" And you are correct. But that doesn't matter anymore. All