Yesterday (Wednesday) was possibly the third most fun day in my life.

The first most fun ever had was when a Naval Dental Surgeon, three sheets to the wind, managed to break an unbreakable needle off in the roof of my mouth during a cavity expedition. The only thing that kept me out of the brig after slugging him was his blood test, which came back at .13 BAC.

The second most fun was the day I got my upper plate. Twilight sleep, my butt. They put me completely under, yanked what was left of my upper teeth, and mis-placed a temporary denture. My gums healed funny, not all of the parts of my teeth were removed, and they forgot to mention that “temporary” meant I needed to revisit them in six months to have a permanent appliance installed. (I finally had a permanent plate made, about three years ago, after a couple more sessions with an oral surgeon to fix what the temporary plate screwed up. I’m fine now, thanks for asking.)

Yesterday I had a crown installed. For whatever reason, I’m still jumpy with needles in my mouth. The added bonus of still feeling everything once the drilling started was special. I mentioned it to my dentist, and she added more anesthetic. As it turns out, my body like the anesthetic and processes it very quickly. No, the teeth don’t numb – just the jaw and tongue. So, the drilling went on with several breaks for me to gather in my “mind over matter” abilities, until another batch of nerves was hit. Yesterday afternoon, I felt as if I had gone five rounds with Ali – my jaw just plain hurt. However, the temporary crown is in place, and the permanent one is scheduled.

My permanent plate and this crown were done by what have to be the best dentists in the world. Dr. Ed Babits (denture) and Dr. Karen Hilsabeck (crown) practice in Phoenix, and TMBWitW has been seeing Dr. Babits since forever ago. So, once we got married, I started seeing them. My mouth has been in the best shape ever since then.

Just thought I’d share with you all.

Thank you for stopping by, God bless you all, Wear Red on Fridays, support Warriors for Innocence, and write in Cary Cartter for President in 2008!

Tag: Write in Cary Cartter for President in 2008

With age comes great wisdom and, sometimes, a memory that is like swiss cheese.

Some time ago (okay, it was a month ago) I let you all know that an interview on Political Pistachio Radio had been rescheduled for Saturday. If you check the comments of the previous post, at least one of my loyal readers remembered.

I did not.

Doug Gibbs tried to e-mail me on Friday. I didn’t check my e-mail on Friday. Saturday morning I started attending a series at church called “The Truth Project” – a fascinating tour of what the world wants everyone to think. It was a three hour session, and when I finished I was scheduled to go to a remodel project that I had started Friday evening. Well, I checked my voice mail when I got out of church, and there was a message from Doug. He had called, with a twinge of panic in his voice, to remind me about the show.

I called him back, and we chatted a bit. I thanked him for reminding me (actual words: Doug:”You do remember you are scheduled for the show today, right?” me: “Now that you’ve mentioned it, I remember the conversation where we rescheduled…”) and headed for the job site; when the time came I sat down and took a break from the first phase (painting – and a face shield was employed after the first drop of ceiling paint landed square on the contact in my left eye – everything had a satin finish to it after that) and had a great interview with Doug. Wild Phil called in and asked a terrific question. Check out the archive, provided BlogTalk Radio has the sessions listed…

Wild Phil, it was great talking to you. Doug, I promise I will never forget again. I’ll start blogging about my appearances from the time I make the commitment until the day of the interview.

(Note to lefties, libbies, and the msm: this is called character growth, where someone makes a vow to improve themselves. it is not flip-flopping on the issue of scheduling.)

And the rest of you who listened in – thanks for listening! If you have any questions for me that we did not address on the show, drop me a comment here or an e-mail. I may not get right to the response, but it will be answered!

If you are the host of a radio show, BlogTalk or otherwise, I would not object to appearing on your show. I’m not afraid of the questions, as Saturday’s show demonstrated, just understand that I don’t have a bank of advisers filling me in on all the details of every issue in the world. I do, however, have two things most politicians appear to be lacking: common sense and the willingness to work for a living.

As for the rest of the weekend: church Sunday morning, and more painting Sunday afternoon. I’m watching MEG today, and I’ll be starting phase two – flooring – tonight. First order of business – remove the twenty year old shag carpeting that is currently being used as drop cloths…

Thank you for stopping by, God bless you all, Wear Red on Fridays, support Warriors for Innocence, and write in Cary Cartter for President in 2008!

Tag: Write in Cary Cartter for President in 2008

It’s Friday. Go here, buy a shirt, and show your support.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

Thank you for stopping by, God bless you all, Wear Red on Fridays, support Warriors for Innocence, and write in Cary Cartter for President in 2008!

Tag: Write in Cary Cartter for President in 2008

I have been very seriously thinking about my bid to be written in as President of the United States. While I have made it very clear that the main thrust of my campaign is to let the Career Politicians in Washington know that We the People are sick and tired of the games they play, in word and deed, the reality is that campaigning for a political office is about one thing, and one thing only: How Much Money Can I Raise?

Being elected is more a case of being able to raise funds. What fund raising has to do with leading a country, I don’t think I will ever really grasp, but there you have it. Fund raising bothers me on several levels. First, is the begging involved. Or, actually, the salesmanship. And, by salesmanship, I mean “baldfaced lying to people with lots of dollars and no sense.” Second is the disposal of the left over funds.

Of course, to run a national, touring campaign, you need money. If you have an election staff, they all expect to be paid. Very well. Except the volunteers, who are convinced that they are needed and they need to work for free. Can you imagine a multi-million dollar corporation asking it’s workers to donate their time and own money to make the owners successful? Yes, I have asked for volunteers, but everyone, including myself, would be volunteering. No one is paid, since there is no fund raising.

Whether successful or not, any left over campaign money is the candidate’s to dispose of as they wish. Yes, that means that a successful fund-raiser who is not elected and does not spend all the funds raised, could pocket all the left over money.

This means that, if not nominated, the second place candidate in a party could wind up with millions of dollars to line his or her pocket.

Maybe I’m approaching the campaign from the wrong angle. Instead of wanting to serve my country, with leadership that does not owe it’s existence to any special interest group, I should instead be running a fund-raising campaign with the knowledge that I cannot be elected, and retire on the proceeds from my donors.

I could be rich! I could do all the things I want to, without having to work another day in my life! And to think, all that money would be tax free!

And, of course, I would then lose all the respect that I believe I have built up in the on-line community, in my family, and in my circle of friends. Worst of all, I wouldn’t be able to shave ever again, because I would not be able to look at the guy in the mirror.

Where would be the motivation to serve as President simply to serve the country? Heck, running for President has served some families very well. I can think of a certain Senator from Massachusetts that has ridden on the coat tails of his dead brothers for many many years now. Do you realize that by the time January 2009 rolls around, we will have had 24 years of Bush and Clinton? That means that people under the age of 26 have no cognitive memory of any other President. Can you imagine another eight years of Clinton? Yeah, there’s a military/financial package this country can’t survive.

I started writing this fully intending to announce that I was not going to run anymore. I have just finished convincing myself that I do, indeed, need to continue to run, unless a truly independent candidate, who is not a Career Politician, can make a run. Help me spread the word, will you?

Thank you for stopping by, God bless you all, Wear Red on Fridays, support Warriors for Innocence, and write in Cary Cartter for President in 2008!

Tag: Write in Cary Cartter for President in 2008

Remember that little question? A lot of the liberals today are quaking and bleating that we can all get along, and to do so would make the world a better place.

The short answer is “no.”

The longer answer is “NNNNOOOOOO!!!!!!!”

The reason? Let’s think about it for a minute, in different areas of the public scene:

POLITICS:
Well, we all get along, so no one disagrees. Good for incumbents, bad for innovation. Since everyone gets along, and there is no disagreement, everyone votes the same way. With the exception of the President, politicians are installed for life. Since the President has been doing such a great job since everyone got together and talked out their differences, let’s go ahead and let the President serve for life also. No new bills are introduced, no laws are passed, the Supreme Court dies from boredom. All the lawyers die from starvation, since everyone agrees and gets along, and no one is suing anyone else. Wait – what happens when an incumbent dies? No young politicians have been in training, since the incumbents were doing such a magnificent job, so now there is no one to replace the deceased statesman.

FINANCIAL:
On Wall Street today, everyone agreed that all the stocks were quite attractive. No single stock was singled out, as there is no reason to make a particular stock feel differently from any other stock. Volume was zero, since no one wanted to buy or sell their stocks, in order to avoid making any particular company feel compelled to change their course of action. After all, everything is perfect the way it is, right? And, in order for you to sell a stock, someone else has to disagree with your assessment of how it will do in the future and want to buy it.

RELIGIOUS:
All religious groups have come to agreement. All citizens of all nations are members of the same religious group, in order for all people groups to live in peace and harmony one with another. Since no one needs to be recruited, the focus is now on strengthening everyone’s faith. All meetings of religious groups are identical, so as to avoid any misinterpretation of the message. Dissension is unheard of, discussion of differing points of view is prohibited.

ENTERTAINMENT:
Everyone must view the same movie before a new movie is released. Can’t be watching things out of order, that might change your viewpoint. All game platforms are the same, manufactured by the same company. (Badly manufactured, by the way. But, since they are the only company, and their stock is doing so well, they don’t feel the need to improve, or even release any more games.) Everyone plays the same video game, and everyone has the same level of ability. Game competitions are a stupefying gathering of equally talented players, and all games end in a draw. The prize is always split between all the “first place” winners. Any truly breakout players are drawn aside, and instructed in the fine art of total agreement on all sides. Further outbreaks result in banishment from the tournaments. After careful consideration by the entire population of the world, tournaments themselves are banned, since they only encourage and foster competition and the desire to prove oneself to be better than another, or, at the very least, to let you see how you stack up against the other players.

TECHNOLOGY:
Everyone uses the same computer. Not the same machine, but the same type. The same software. The same browser. Everyone’s blog looks just like everyone else’s, since everyone now thinks exactly alike. Even the entries are the same, and traffic has dropped to zero, since everyone already knows what every blog is going to say. Everyone drive the same type of vehicle. Police are not needed to enforce traffic laws, since everyone drives the posted speed limit and obeys every law on the books. There aren’t really that many laws on the books anymore, since everyone has agreed that limiting anyone is not acceptable.

So – can we all get along? Yes, but forget trying to get everyone to agree. Disagreement is the reason there are changes, and why we continue to move forward in our development.

At the same time, we must have change in order to avoid stagnation. Which brings me to my point: Make a Difference. Write in Cary Cartter for President in November 2008.

Thank you for stopping by, God bless you all, Wear Red on Fridays, support Warriors for Innocence, and write in Cary Cartter for President in 2008!

Tag: Write in Cary Cartter for President in 2008