Saturday Song Share: Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson - Cleanhead Blues

"Where can I find that cleanhead man?"

German Youth Pushes Back

When cartoons given to Muslim immigrants explaining how the west treats it's women and homosexuals aren't working (yes, this is real)...

...the youth of Germany take it upon themselves to demand more from their elected officials:




Now the question: who will win, the public, or the politicians.

Passing the Test

Recently I read an interesting article about a retired Navy SEAL that still gets up at 4:30 every morning.

Not because he has to, but because that's how discipline starts.

I'll let him explain:

The moment the alarm goes off is the first test; it sets the tone for the rest of the day. The test is not a complex one: when the alarm goes off, do you get up out of bed, or do you lie there in comfort and fall back to sleep? If you have the discipline to get out of bed, you win — you pass the test. If you are mentally weak for that moment and you let that weakness keep you in bed, you fail. Though it seems small, that weakness translates to more significant decisions. But if you exercise discipline, that too translates to more substantial elements of your life

With the hustle and bustle of the holiday period with a career in retail, combined with the other social obligations associated with the holidays, I'll readily admit that my discipline has definitely slipped.  

This SEAL provides an interesting perspective on our first test of the day.  What we choose to do with it is up to us.

I hope to see you up and out there at 4:30.  I'm going to try and be there.

Hunting in Heaven

After a long week which included massive hours at work and an exhausting conference in New York, Mrs. YDP and I had a chance to reconnect over dinner last Friday night.  A fantastic Wisconsin fish fry was washed down with a couple of fine local IPAs, and the entire situation conspired to have me yawning before we left the restaurant.

I found my way to bed before 9:00, and was rewarded with nearly eleven hours of much needed slumber.  I was also rewarded with a fantastic dream.

In it, I was hunting with my current Yellow Dog, as well as my first dog, Blitz.  They operated like a machine, and I was astounded at how well they complimented each other, and how incredibly fun the two of them made our hunting.

Things made even more fun as I was joined by my buddy, as well as my cousins.  In fact, the only folks that were missing was my Grandpa, and my Dad.

That comes as no surprise.  Since Dad died, I've only dreamt of him a handfull of times.  Believe me, I wish it was more.  I still miss him every day, and it seems unfair that even my dreams conspire to keep me away from him.

Regardless, for a few moments that night, I was the happiest that I've ever been hunting.  

I'm not sure if God has a place in heaven for yellow dogs, but if He does, and if that dream is anything like it is going to be, I think I'm going to like heaven very, very much.

I Don't Trust Trump

I just don't trust the man.  I feel he lacks conviction in his position, and is at best an opportunist, and at worst a charlatan.  

I simply don't believe that he believes what he's saying.

Which leads us to the following.  While I'll admit that a couple of the quotes are the function of some crafty editing, there is still enough rope here to hang Trump from even the smallest conservative tree:



What is astonishing to me is that this kind of stuff is just coming to light now.  I would have been interested to see Trump supporting his position on partial-birth abortions on the debate stage.

Too little too late for the rest of the field?  We'll see...

Eagle Released from World's Tallest Building

Ever wanted to fly like the birds fly?  Thanks to Go Pro, an accommodating eagle, and the world's tallest building, you can get a pretty good feel for it.

Enjoy the ride.

Saturday Song Share: Glen Frey - Partytown

In honor of the late Eagle's passing, we go to one of his more obscure solo efforts:

We've Lost Our Collective Minds

Never before in the past 100 years have we been faced by a slate of political candidates this corrupt, this inadequate, and this flawed.  Every top candidate is repugnant.  Despite this, the machine that pushes one of them to the eventual highest office in the land keeps chugging along.

Leadership is flat dead.  Doing what is right is flat dead.  Being responsible and accountable is flat dead.  Those days are over, and have been replaced by perpetual outrage, immediate offense, win at any cost, and pithy tweets.

We truly get the government that we deserve, and what we deserve is quickly turning into a race to the bottom.  

The righteous are shunned, laughed at, demonized, and ultimately destroyed.  With that as the ultimate result, why would anyone of intelligence and capability ever run for public office?

This is the world we have sowed.  I abjectly fear what we will reap. 

Pardon My Absence

It has been crazy times here at the YDP household, and I such, my writing has floundered.  Between work obligations, travel, and a really blue funk, the inspiration to write just has not been there.

Oh, there are ample subjects:

• The Minnesota Wild are in free fall
• 2016 presidential election looks certain to deliver us an idiot
• Every day more news surfaces from Germany and the hell they've imported into their borders
• The stock market is a nightmare
• Lemmy, Bowie, and now Glen Frey all dead

The list goes on.

It all seems so overwhelming when considered in total.  The world feels like we're doing that slow swirl before headed right down the toilet.

We can either be a part of it, or stand by and watch it all happen.  I've been a spectator of late.  I hope to change that going forward.

Bernie Sanders Lives in a Fantasy Land

Math is hard for Progressives.  It is really hard for Socialists.

It is hard to believe that this guy is pushing Clinton for the lead on the Democrat side.

We live in scary times

US Humiliated by Iran

If you get your news from a left-leaning source, you may not even know this story.

A couple of days ago, two small US Navy ships ran into trouble and ended up on Iranian waters.  Instead of being rescued by their comrades, the sailors and ships were picked up by the Iranians, and the rest is the stuff of bragging boards across the world:

Those  are OUR GUYS.

Of course, this required a requisite apology:



And what are we going  to do about all of this?  

Not a damn thing.  

David Bowie's Last Video

With the knowledge of his impending death, Bowie made this as his final video.  

I'm not going to interpret - that's always best left up to those considering the art - but at least for me, this performance is powerful.

What a loss for all of us...

Blair Wash Interview - How to be a Man

Here is Vikings Kicker, Blair Walsh, acting like a man.

Sometimes how we react in adversity and failure is a better barometer of who we truly are than how we act during victory and success. 

Blair Walsh is a good kicker.  He chili-dipped one, and he owned it.

The Vikings, and Blair Walsh, will be back.

RIP David Bowie

A lot is going to be said today of this incredibly talented performer.  A couple of thoughts:

• Despite the over-indulgences of the 70's and a drug problem himself, he found his way through, all the while cranking out some incredible music.  Constantly.
• His changing personas throughout his career (Ziggy, the Thin White Duke, etc.) were quite something.  Perhaps imitated by others, but never successfully.
• Throughout his entire career, he not only stayed relevant, but edgy.  Name another nearly 70 year old artist that can say the same.

The world is a lot less interesting today.  What a life.

Cologne and Guns

Despite efforts of German politicians and the complicit media to bury the story, the horrific events of New Year's Eve in Cologne are coming to light.  For those still unaware of the story, over 100 women and girls were sexually assaulted (and a number raped) by hundreds of "immigrants"  at the mail train station in Cologne.  The predators simply surrounded their victims and did their will without any care.

Police were not around that anyone can report, or if they were, were overwhelmed.

This is a common pattern being rumored from Europe: new Muslim immigrants see western women and can't contain themselves and proceed to go about raping.  A simple Google search tells you all you need to know on the subject.

In America, we have many Muslim immigrants as well.  Why is it, then, that we haven't seen a similar event played out, say, at the Mall of America by our new citizens from Somalia?   

There are a number of possible answers, but I think the most applicable one is the Second Amendment.   The events in Cologne couldn't happen here, because eventually one of the victims in the crowd would have been armed, and our would-be rapists would ultimately be worrying about how to rape their 72 virgins.

Europe looks down us on disdain every time there's a mass shooting; calling us uncivilized, uneducated, and ignorant.  

Perhaps so.  But at least our women can go out on New Year's Eve without being raped by a mob.     

Fawlty Towers Commercial

Monty Python giant John Cleese has resurrected his character of Basil Fawlty for a new commercial in the UK.

It is classic Fawlty:



The commercial is actually a hat tip to a classic Fawlty Towers moment:


It's sad to see how much time has gone by...

Weeper in Chief

In an astonishing moment, President Obama, using his bully pulpit, wept openly for first graders killed at Sandy Hook.

Over three years ago.

The leader of the free world, the man with his finger on the nuclear button, the man calling our soldiers to war, the man who has seen and has been made aware of atrocities that nobody could image cried over kids killed three years ago.

Two points:

• I'm old enough to remember Nixon, and fully remember Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, and Bush.  The only one I remember crying, ever, was that W got misty on 9/11.  That's it.  All the war, all the tragedy.  No tears.  Until now.
• If Obama is still weeping over this shooting three years later, I suggest he needs psychological help.  Seriously.  He's not healing, he's not coping, and he's arguably not in a frame of mind to be competent for his job.

Note, I'm not one of those "big boys don't cry" people.  In fact, I am emotional myself, and like Jimmy V suggested, I often "laugh, think, and cry" to round out many of my days.  However, I'm not the leader of the nation, and I'm able to compartmentalize enough that a tragedy of three years ago still doesn't compel me to break down.

Either Obama is emotionally way too fragile, or he's acting.  And either way, he's far from presidential.

Putin must be laughing until he pees himself.

Gitmo and Guns

The president this week will use his executive powers for his political bidding.  First, he'll be releasing 17 more terrorists from Guantanamo Bay.  That will bring the total count left at the prison at 90.  

Second, he'll take steps to prosecute those who sell guns as private parties under the auspices of closing the "gun show loophole."  All this, despite it having a grand total of zero impact on any of the shootings over the past years, and perhaps ever.

Both are being couched as "making us safer."  For the guns, that's dubious.  For the Gitmo release, that's astonishing.

Obama is starting 2016 off with a bang.  What kind of bang, and how many die, is left to be seen. 

Saturday Song Share: Led Zeppelin - No Quarter

One of the best songs from one of the best rock bands of all time.  It cuts off early, but it's still worth it:

Happy 2016

What a whirlwind 2015 was!  Here at team YDP, we enter the New Year as the recipients of multiple blessings, and a lot of prayers answered.  That's a heck of a way to start.

I wish you a new year of similar blessings.  I hope we're able to enjoy it together.  Until then, God bless you, and enjoy the freedom of that the blank slate of a new year brings us.