Stockton High School, Class of 1918 (Carpe Diem, Photo)

Last Saturday my wife and I went to Ripon, CA, a small town near Stockton, California, to visit our nephew and his family.  We explored an antique shop in the small downtown, and I found the photo below, of the graduating class of Stockton High School, 1918 -- a hundred years ago to the month!

I often look at and buy old photos in antique shops.  People in other epochs interest me.  They are so much like us, minus the technology.  The young people in the 1918 photo below were all white save one hispanic or Filipina girl with a Minnie Mouse bow in her hair (just to the left in back of the chalkboard), and one black girl on the far right.  World War I was still raging in Europe, and wouldn't end until November 1918.  Looking through the crowd one sees fashions and hair styles of the early 20th century:  detachable collars on the boys, hair parted down the middle, sailor tops on the girls.

If you want to gaze into the faces of these students, download the picture and view it in actual size.

These young people had turbulent times in front of them:  the Great Depression, World War II, the Korean War.  However, most of them would live to see television, commercial air flights, the moon landing, and the first heart transplants. If they died at age 75, they would live to see 1975 (age 18 + 57 years = 75).

Markings on the back of the picture:  John Fisher, written in fine-quilled ink pen.  In pencil:  "Don't forget the robe."

All these students are dead now.  They lived their lives and disappeared, just as we will do also.  Carpe Diem!

The magnificent old building was built in 1904 and torn down in 1966 - a waste of a historic structure.  The school also served junior high school students, and my brother and I want to 7th (me) and 8th (Bro) grades there in 1956-1957.  We were the Stockton High Tarzans, colors blue & white.

To see the complete picture, click on the image.

The Left's War on America: Three Key Battlefronts

The far left (aka Democrats) are assaulting American culture on many fronts.  Here is a list of some of those points of attack:

1.  Importing a new electorate:  Larry Elder said that the Democrats haven't won the white vote since 1965.  White people tend to believe in our Constitution, our Judaeo-Christian culture, our Democratic Republic, our economic system of capitalism.  They also tend to vote Republican.  Since the Democrats cannot win by depending on the white vote, they are very big on "the browning of America," importing new voters through illegal immigration.  These new voters tend to vote for Democrats by overwhelming numbers.  The Democrats latest insistence on DACA amnesty is merely another Dem attempt to import new Democrat voters.  Leftist memes that were created to suppress resistance to this importation is to laud "Diversity is our Strength."  Even RINOs like Lindsay Graham give voice to this fraud, with the absurd notion that the less we have in common with new immigrants, the stronger we are.

2.  Demonizing White People:  On Twitter and other social media, leftists are becoming increasingly flagrant in their open hatred of white people.  College professors encourage white suicide, blacks state that all white people are "racist," and even call for their murder.  Some universities offer courses on "dealing with whiteness."  All white progress is described as being the result of "white privilege" rather than of industry and hard work.  A New York College has offered a course entitled "The Abolition of Whiteness," and the University of Wisconsin-Madison has a course entitled "The Problem of Whiteness."  Many, if not most white college graduates come out of their Marxist learning center with a pronounced feeling of guilt and self-hatred for being white, and ready to self-flagellate by voting left.  Clearly, there is a leftwing race war being fomented against white people.

3.  Gender-Bending, or the Effeminization of the American Male:  The left is now attacking "toxic masculinity" and pushing feminism onto American males.  The Fashion Industry is pushing dresses and high heels for men, and male models display these abominations online.  Men who wish to dress up like women are applauded and encouraged, their faces plastered on the covers of fashion and movie magazines.  "Caitlin" Jenner is a man who had his penis chopped off so he can become a "woman," and the left would love for all other white men to do the same, psychologically at least. Men who don't want to date other men (who are dressed as women), are castigated as 'bigots."  Turning men into effeminate wimps is just another front in the left's psychological warfare against the right.  "Transgenders" are the left's latest pet group, and girly-men are allowed to compete in women's sports where their natural testosterone makes them champions in women's track, wrestling and other sports events.

Maxine Waters, As She Appears to Me (#Photoshop)

Remembering Those Who Die, New years Eve, December 31, 2017

As the year draws to a close, I think about the friends I lost this year.  That's another negative about growing old (I was 73 in November), your friends and relatives begin to die and you wonder when your turn will come.  Not that I'm afraid of death, I really don't fear it at all.

The first friend passed away at age 85 in January, one Lou Woods.  Lou was a far-left Green Party member, and it's amazing that we ever became friends.  I did his taxes for years, and he took a shine to me, always inviting me out to lunch.  He finally got sick and so old that he couldn't afford treating me to lunch, so I began paying for our lunches myself.  Our favorite place was a Japanese restaurant in Cupertino called Kikisushi.

Lou had a pacemaker and his kidneys were failing, and I took him to the doctor at Stanford Medical Center a couple of times.  When his doctor told him he had only a few months to live, he began cleaning out his government provided apartment in Saratoga.  I helped him.  In November 2015 I finally had to leave him alone there, dumping things into the trash receptacle outside his door.  I walked across the green lawns of the development, littered with the brown leaves of fall, wondering if I would ever see him again.  I did, as he lived through 2016,  In November 2016, I drove him to the polls to cast his ballot for Bernie.  Soon after he collapsed and was put into a hospice near Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Gatos.  I went to see him, but he was asleep and I didn't disturb him.  His daughters soon had him transferred to another hospice near Sacramento.  I learned in early January 2017 that he had passed away.  Kikisushi will never be the same to me now.

The second friend to die about a month later was Kenny Chavez, a musician and flute player with whom I practiced and gigged for around five years.   Kenny was only 68, blind in one eye, and loved beer.  When we weren't playing music in our rock band, he could be found just sitting quietly in a corner sipping a beer. He apparently suffered a massive stroke, and died in the hospital that very night. 

The third close friend who died was Gary Elmo Potts, a fellow San Jose State finance graduate from the Class of 1972.  We worked our first finance jobs together, as internal auditors for Fireman's Fund Insurance Company in San Francisco. Two young guys who liked to hang out at Henry Afrika's famous bar (now gone), and who once explored the Palace of Fine Arts in the middle of the night, dressed in suits.  I hadn't heard from Gary in quite some time, so googled him in an attempt to find his whereabouts.  The first thing that popped up on my computer screen was his obituary.  He had died suddenly about three weeks before, in May of 2017.

Death is a part of life, and I find myself thinking about it often these days.

Roy Moore: Vote For Him Anyway

Roy Moore, who is running for office in Alabama as a US Senator, has been attacked late in the game with accusations of sexual improprieties.  Improprieties of 40 years ago.  Through all those 40 years of serving as a judge and office holder in Alabama, these charges never came up, were never alleged, were never discussed.  Why now?

"Why now" is because the dirty Democrats are desperate for political wins.  That despicable Party has never been more unpopular with the American people.  So up pops the Washington Post with a propaganda coup against Moore, at the last moment, when it is too late to run someone else or remove Moore's name from the ballot.

The Washington Post has used this dirty tactic before, against Arnold Schwarzenegger in California, against Herman Cain, against Donald Trump.  The smear is always late in the game and targeted at Christian and Evangelical voters, to keep many away from the polls.  The tactic will also cause the cancellation of prior endorsements and the drying up of donations needed for advertising and other costs.  All because of a he said - she said scenario that is unprovable after 40 years.

Don't fall for it.

If the dirty Dems can suppress enough of the conservative vote, their socialist candidate may be able to sneak in.

Moore is accused by one woman of dating her when she was 14.  Moore denies it.  Another four women claim Moore tried to date them when they were 16 and 17 -- however, the age of consent in Alabama is 16, so even if true, Moore broke no laws and the related morality or immorality is entirely subjective.

Having doubts about Roy Moore?  Forget them and vote for him anyway.   If Virtue Signalling is needed, the RINOs and establishment Republicans will supply it.  You don't have to.

DIGGING FOR RACISM #Photoshop

A Couple of Timely Photoshops

Use if you like.

Harvey Weinstein's Ancestral DNA Test Surprises No One (#Photoshop)

Harvey Weinstein pictured next to one of his ancestors.

Colin Kaepernick Takes a Knee (#Photoshop)

I have been a strong 49ers fan for many years.  No more.  They and the rest of the NFL can go straight to hell.

Evil In Las Vegas: 58 Dead In Shooting Massacre, 500+ Wounded

Another monstrous psychopath has mass murdered a large number of people, this time in Las Vegas.  A man in the Mandalay Bay Hotel broke out two windows in his suite, stuck a rifle out the window and opened fire on a large crowd of people.  The people were attending a country music concert, and easy targets from the shooter's elevated perch.

ISIS, the Muslim terrorist group who specializes in murder of innocents, has stated that the shooter was a recent convert to Islam.  However, this has not been verified at this point.

The biggest question in my mind is this:  how long before the Democrats begin making political hay out of the tragedy?  I expect they will call for banning of guns, one of their favorite goals, and will find a way to blame the tragedy on Trump.

If it is found that Islam and Muslims were a factor, expect nothing to be done about it.  Guns may be banned, but Muslims will not be.