Craig's Fire

“Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes … known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few.… No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.”

— James Madison, Political Observations, 1795 Read More…

A society or economy or country built entirely on the ethic of survival of the fittest simply will not work. Here are some examples…

A talented and strong employee stays employed due to his experience and capabilities. But what if he falls off a ladder next week, hits his head and loses a good part of his cognition? Would we then tell him to become homeless or that he does not deserve a job? Read More…

Readers of this post should first catch up by reading the first part.
After hanging with Ken (the Fisherman) for a day or two, he pulled us aside for a personal chat and said “you folks don’t belong here (in town). I have some people I’d like you to meet”. Heck, we figured anyone who was alright with Ken was fine by us, so we answered in the affirmative.
He took us on a long walk up the coast road……for those who know Negril, this is past the caves and cliffs where the road gets lost in the bush. At some point we turned into the bush, and walked down a rugged path into the hills. Read More…

Here is an interesting article on a man who made it in life – and then came to an understanding of what he had and what he didn’t.

Here is a paragraph which expresses well the way I feel when I’ve been on vacation in certain places:
“The tipping point came while he was on a three-week holiday with his wife to islands of Hawaii.
“It was the biggest shock in my life, when I realised how horrible, soulless and without feeling the five star lifestyle is,” he said. “In those three weeks, we spent all the money you could possibly spend. But in all that time, we had the feeling we hadn’t met a single real person – that we were all just actors. The staff played the role of being friendly and the guests played the role of being important and nobody was real.”

As mentioned, I often feel the same. In fact, Martha and I were sent to Jamaica on a FREE trip by one of our vendors way back in 1986…..and I was unable to enjoy myself due to the wide and obvious gulf between the residents and the tourists. That has held relatively true to this day…not that I don’t enjoy luxury (I very much do!), but I don’t like going places where I am the center of attention as opposed to just visiting. An example might be that I would prefer touring Montreal or London rather than being enclosed in a fenced “all inclusive” places which was secured from the locals “for my protection”.

I’m not judging those , obviously numerous, who can feel comfortable in those situations. I am admittedly over sensitive in many ways, and this is one of them!

Pizza – is most definitely one indication (beside beer) that God Loves Us.
But not just any pizza will do for Martha or I. We are most definitely full fledged Pizza Snobs. If you want to talk New Haven Pizza, Artisan Pizza, Vermont Flatbread or others more pure forms of the art…we are there! But Pizza Hut, Dominos (really, not too bad) or Papa Johns will not do… Read More…

(Note: This is an older story that I found and resurrected – the dog in the article has long since passed on)
You’ve heard the political rambling, the current events and all the opinions. Now I’ve gone completely looney and just had: A talk with my dog… Read More…

They know nothing!
I’m talking about the business media in general…and specifically, all those pundits always waxing poetic about facebook being the biggest competitor to google, twitter being a competitor to both, etc. Read More…

Or so it seemed.
I was quite young, not yet 16 years of age. I cannot claim that I was well versed in the politics of the day, but somehow did feel that it was wrong to pursue such adventures which were not related directly to our security. Read More…

Sure, those new Smart Phones from Apple, Google, Palm and others are very cool….but will they give up the ghost the first time you drop ‘em?
This amazing video shows that they may be tougher than we think! Read More…

Although Western Ma. is a relatively “thickly settled” area, we also have our share of real wild animals. Bear, Foxes, Coyote, Fisher Cats and even Moose wander these woods and fields!
Being on the edge of a couple hundred acres of conservation land, we tend to get some of our wild friends as visitors and guests quite often – yet they never fail to impress! Read More…