Hey Animals - flush the freakin' toilet and wash your hands

I would like to talk about something that I have observed for a long, long time. As most of you know, I work in the restaurant business. What I do now could not be construed as being a chef, even though I do have a culinary arts degree. I am just a regular cook. I do not think of myself as an elitist or better than anyone else. I am just trying to earn a living in some very difficult economic times, but I truly do believe that I aspire to always better myself and improve myself and try to achieve what I can through the gifts that God has given me. I don't see that out of most people.

One of the issues that has bothered me over the last couple of years, is my biggest pet peeve I have seen at my current occupation dealing with Joe Public. You know, for most of my career I have worked at some really nice places where the patrons are generally from higher income levels. That does not make these people better than anyone else and what I'm going to talk about will be said by many to be a generalization, but this is something that I truly need to get off my chest and this forum is the perfect place to do it.

When I was a child, before I could even remember, certain things were instilled in me and ingrained in me as proper behavior and discipline -- manners. From a young age, most of us, as one of our first training habits, are taught to wash our hands. Usually during this time the parent will flush the toilet for the child, but shortly after being taught to properly wash our hands, we are taught the process of flushing the toilet after we utilize the bathroom.

All through my life, I have witnessed people who use public bathrooms who neither flush the toilet (urinal) or wash their hands after utilizing the facilities. This is truly disgusting. I have gotten to the point where I try to not touch anything when I'm in a public restroom during normal operating hours of business. Do parents honestly not teach their children proper sanitation when it comes to this issue?

Tonight, I went to the men's bathroom during the night. I honestly wish that we had an employee bathroom of our own, but most smaller restaurants do not offer a private restroom facility for their employees. When I went into the bathroom, I noticed a boy who must've been around age 5. He was using urinal. His father was in the first toilet stall and he was doing what men do standing up. Well I went over into the second stall to do what I had to do and as I was relieving myself, I heard the boy finish.

I guess the father finished also and then he proceeded to state, "Come on son, let's get back to our chicken." The son stated to the father, "Wait a second daddy, we need to wash our hands!" The father next stated, "You can wash your hands, but I'm going back to the table, come on your sister is waitin'" The little boy washed his hands and the father continued out of the bathroom.

That makes me sick and blows my mind. Apparently, the boy is going to have to teach his father a thing or two. Who ever taught the boy to wash his hands after relieving himself, thank you and thank God. Just think of all of the kids who would learn the terrible example from their slap happy pappy.

I have witnessed this so many times over the last couple of years. I bet half of the people in this area don't wash their hands when they use the bathroom. There is no excuse to not wash your hands and utilize proper sanitation habits. I don't care if you're drunk. I don't care if you're in a hurry. I don't care if you're just nasty. Proper sanitation is a responsibility. It is a way to keep the public healthy.

Anymore, I do everything I can to no longer touch the bathroom door with my hands. And I don't want to smell your urine or stand in it. Please aim to hit and flush afterward for Christ sake! I don't want to smell your mess. If you can't hit it standing up, then maybe you should squat like a woman. People talk about carbon footprint. How about cleaning up after yourself and reducing your germ footprint!!!

The Following is advice from the Mayo Clinic.

Hand washing: Do's and don'ts
Hand washing is an easy way to prevent infection. Understand when to wash your hands, how to properly use hand sanitizer and how to get your children into the habit.
By Mayo Clinic staff

Frequent hand washing is one of the best ways to avoid getting sick and spreading illness. Hand washing requires only soap and water or an alcohol-based hand sanitizer — a cleanser that doesn't require water. Find out when and how to wash your hands properly.
When to wash your hands

As you touch people, surfaces and objects throughout the day, you accumulate germs on your hands. In turn, you can infect yourself with these germs by touching your eyes, nose or mouth. Although it's impossible to keep your hands germ-free, washing your hands frequently can help limit the transfer of bacteria, viruses and other microbes.

Always wash your hands before:
* Preparing food
* Eating
* Treating wounds or giving medicine
* Touching a sick or injured person
* Inserting or removing contact lenses

Always wash your hands after:
* Preparing food, especially raw meat or poultry
* Using the toilet
* Changing a diaper
* Touching an animal or animal toys, leashes or waste
* Blowing your nose, coughing or sneezing into your hands
* Treating wounds
* Touching a sick or injured person
* Handling garbage or something that could be contaminated, such as a cleaning cloth or soiled shoes

Of course, it's also important to wash your hands whenever they look dirty.

How to wash your hands - It's generally best to wash your hands with soap and water. Follow these simple steps:
* Wet your hands with running water.
* Apply liquid, bar or powder soap.
* Lather well.
* Rub your hands vigorously for at least 20 seconds. Remember to scrub all surfaces, including the backs of your hands, wrists, between your fingers and under your fingernails. (I'm not even asking for this)
* Rinse well.
* Dry your hands with a clean or disposable towel or air dryer.
* If possible, use your towel to turn off the faucet.

Keep in mind that antibacterial soap is no more effective at killing germs than is regular soap. Using antibacterial soap may even lead to the development of bacteria that are resistant to the product's antimicrobial agents — making it harder to kill these germs in the future.

Just think, when you don't wash your hands, you are spreading traces of your urine everywhere. Personally it is an affront to me to know that you are putting this on your food or a door, table, chair, dishes, etc., that others must share. Is that acceptable?

With so many issues in our society dealing with highly resistant bacteria, such as MRSA, you need to realize that you could become a victim of something as easily as you could victimize someone else. You could end up out of work at the very least or in the hospital with a multi-thousand dollar hospital bill if you become infected with something bad from not doing something so simple. You don't have time to wash your hands? You don't have time not to!!!

Happy Thanksgiving 2010

Thank - to express gratitude, appreciation, or acknowledgment to

Give - to present voluntarily and without expecting compensation

Thanksgiving - to present voluntarily and without expecting compensation an expression of gratitude, appreciation, or acknowledgment.

It isn't about expectations of the future or gratefulness for the good experiences of the past. It should be an acknowledgment of gratitude for one's being (existence). It is the beginning of the holidays that show gratitude for making it through the experience of life for another year. This is a good time to reflect on the positives and negatives of one's life and acknowledge exactly who you are, what you are about, and what you want to present to others going forward. This is a day for renewal.

Peace Out,
Happy Thanksgiving,
The Hickory Hound

November Rant - The Audacity of Ignorance

Audacity - boldness or daring, esp. with confident or arrogant disregard for personal safety, conventional thought, or other restrictions.

Ignorance - the state or fact of being ignorant; lack of knowledge, learning, information, etc.

The Audacity of Hope - Our current President ran his successful 2008 campaign based upon a theme developed from the second book he authored entitled "The Audacity of Hope." The subtitle was "Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream." This message was inspired from a few factors, such as a sermon from Jeremiah Wright based upon a lecture by Dr. Frederick G. Sampson based on the G.F. Watts painting "Hope." When you boil it down, Obama's summation through Wright's message seems to be that even though this lady portrayed in the painting had so little and faced so much adversity that she continued to make music and praise God. Despite the massive impediments she faced, her faith and loyalty carried her forward on her mission to faithfully show her love to the almighty. That is an inspirational message of hope against all odds that we should all respect and appreciate.


That message of hope is one that I think of when I listen to the inspirational words of the late Jim Valvano (A Great Day - Laugh, Think, and Cry) receiving the Arthur Ashe award at the ESPY's and the announcement of the creation of the V Foundation back in 1993. He was ravaged by cancer. He had to have help to get up to and down from the podium. Yet, he had a mission and the moment energized him to a level that most of us can't achieve when we are totally healthy.

He was such a passionate and motivated man and he did a lot for the State of North Carolina. Sure he made mistakes during his tenure at NC State, but it was unjust the way that he was torn down and removed from his position by the petty, small minded forces who served their own personal interests. One thing is for certain, there will never be another Jim Valvano. He was unique.

The Audacity of Ignorance - Now we can get to the point. We hear people constantly bemoaning the fact that the good news isn't getting out there and progress isn't being shown by the media. Most of this is just bluster. I agree whole-heartedly that I don't want to be subjected to murder and mayhem, the dimwit momentum news, or trivial pop culture. Most of the so-called good news these people lust for more of is pop culture feel good material.

Our local scene has been inundated by wall-to-wall stories involving several murders and manslaughter type deaths that were way over reported, in my opinion, and show a tawdry side to our local culture that people with class and dignity find embarrassing. I understand the need to report the stories, but to carry some of these issues forward through needless conjecture and arbitrary ramblings does not present any factual account of the situation and does a disservice to the victims and the well-being of our community.

The real issue that we face in our community is how we are going to create and enhance jobs (or careers) and increase the incomes and well-being of our community. I don't think our local government can create jobs, but they can create an environment, which enhances the ability of the private sector to create jobs. Are we doing enough of that in Hickory and the surrounding metro area?

Frankly, I am sick of the idea that "Big Daddy" government has to control every aspect of our life. The Democrats promote the idea of the Government just cutting a check for every desire, but in the end they just cut the check to the people who control them. The Republicans (and our local officials) represent the party of "NO!" But, in the end they cut checks to their puppet masters in charge of the special interests that they represent also. Both parties represent "BIG" government. They want to involve themselves in every facet of your life and tell you what you can and cannot do and what you can and cannot have. They don't look for solutions. They look to promote personal interests and issues and control outcomes.

A Government of freedom and liberty is supposed to be governed of, by, and for the interests of the people and it is supposed to enhance our lives binding us in a positive way. It is not supposed to choose winners and losers. We have many issues on the local front where we need for local business and government to get on the same page, but we really don't see any positive relationship, and thus progress, taking place that enhances the interests of both sides of that equation. We see a lot of give and take and backscratching. There are deals that could be made in this community where the outcome of the goal (equation) could be greater than the sum of its parts, if people would work in each others interests instead of in myopic, shortsighted endeavors of one-upsmanship.

Let's set out a local Moonshot mission of one goal and do whatever it takes to accomplish that one goal. Pledge to check the egos at the door and call out anyone who pledges and then reneges. If we accomplished this one goal, then we would have something to market and actually have something that would sell itself. And this would re-energize the community. In my opinion, Conover is following this philosophy with the Conover Station.

I refuse to be a yes man to the company line. I am not here to trash the call centers. I am glad some people got jobs and I have heard some great reports about Fiserv, but call centers are not the answer to our prayers and the Telephone Customer Service Industry will not replace the tens of thousands of jobs we have lost. The facts are that we rank last in the State as far as per capita household income (by several thousand dollars) and all of the statistical analysis of highly respected analysts rank us in the bottom 10% of the nation (... Forbes, the Milken Institute, and the Gallup-Healthway survey as examples).

All of these messengers aren't picking on us. And to send out this "All is well" message in the face of a "Shock and Awe" Economic collapse reeks of the characteristics of Baghdad Bob. All is not alright and there are people in our community who deserve kudos for the efforts they are putting forth to turn things around. That is the positive message, but there are also a lot of people that aren't doing diddly squat and they think we are in a normal business cycle and eventually things will turn around on their own. They want short answers, simple solutions, and easy fixes. I think the people who pay attention understand that there are no silver bullets available.

Do you know the difference between ignorance and stupidity? Ignorance is when you do something because you don't know any better. Stupidity is when you know better, but you do it anyway. We have a lot of both in this community. Sometimes I think I am stupid for believing that anything will ever change around here. The worst part is that it seems that the leadership of our community want people to remain ignorant about the ways of the world. It is like the slave owners that didn't want their slaves to be able to read. And that is stupid, because in the end this type of attitude cannot establish the firm foundation needed to build and sustain a vibrant community. And in the end the Richy Rich control freaks are going to suffer from the poor Quality of Life issues just like the rest of us. That is the ones who don't decide to escape the debacle.

The Audacity of Ignorance reflects upon the intellectually lazy in our community (and other communities) who are proud of their disinterest and ambivalence toward the environment that surrounds them. You hear it all the time; "That doesn't effect me"... "I don't care about that." They think that they are entitled to everything turning out alright without personally investing in the equation and thus the outcome. The worst part is when these people, who do not invest intellectual capital into their own being or their environment, fearfully create roadblocks for those who do.

We cannot rebuild our community based upon survival techniques. We have to think about the future and not put all of our chips into the survival pile. We need to start thinking about whether we should be forcing future generations to accept reduced expectations. By not investing in our future, we are imposing our will upon a future society and culture that will be doomed toward failure. What kind of arrogance does that display and what right do we have to do that?

I enjoy Proverb 16

To humans belong the plans of the heart, but from the LORD comes the proper answer of the tongue. All a person’s ways seem pure to them, but motives are weighed by the LORD...

How much better to get wisdom than gold, to get insight rather than silver! The highway of the upright avoids evil; those who guard their ways preserve their lives. Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall. Better to be lowly in spirit along with the oppressed than to share plunder with the proud.

The predicament of an Ignorant Populace is addressed in the video below:

From Warren Pollock's blog
Aldous Huxley, social critic and author of Brave New World, talks to Mike Wallace about threats to freedom in the United States, overpopulation, bureaucracy, propaganda, drugs, advertising, and television.

The pattern pushing us deeper into a totalitarian regime. The strongest operative force is organization towards oligarchical-corporate-bureaucracy run by a handful of those who are entitled. The have-nots are embedded in both propaganda and false-ideology that operates below choice and reason. All the propaganda now being in the hands of a few agencies such as the democrats-republicans in power. The oligarchical minority are entitled to a high standard of living on the back of a dumbed-down majority of slaves.

A Great Day - Laugh, Think, and Cry

Thank you, Thank you very much. Thank you. That's the lowest I've ever seen Dick Vitale since the owner of the Detroit Pistons called him in and told him he should go into broadcasting.

The I can't tell you what an honor it is, to even be mentioned in the same breath with Arthur Ashe. This is something I certainly will treasure forever. But, as it was said on the tape, and I also don't have one of those things going with the cue cards, so I'm going to speak longer than anybody else has spoken tonight. That's the way it goes. Time is very precious to me. I don't know how much I have left and I have some things that I would like to say. Hopefully, at the end, I will have said something that will be important to other people too.

But, I can't help it. Now I'm fighting cancer, everybody knows that. People ask me all the time about how you go through your life and how's your day, and nothing is changed for me. As Dick said, I'm a very emotional and passionate man. I can't help it. That's being the son of Rocco and Angelina Valvano. It comes with the territory. We hug, we kiss, we love. When people say to me how do you get through life or each day, it's the same thing. To me, there are three things we all should do every day. We should do this every day of our lives. Number one is laugh. You should laugh every day. Number two is think. You should spend some time in thought. Number three is, you should have your emotions moved to tears, could be happiness or joy. But think about it. If you laugh, you think, and you cry, that's a full day. That's a heck of a day. You do that seven days a week, you're going to have something special.

I rode on the plane up today with Mike Krzyzewski, my good friend and wonderful coach. People don't realize he's ten times a better person than he is a coach, and we know he's a great coach. He's meant a lot to me in these last five or six months with my battle. But when I look at Mike, I think, we competed against each other as players. I coached against him for fifteen years, and I always have to think about what's important in life to me are these three things. Where you started, where you are and where you're going to be. Those are the three things that I try to do every day. When I think about getting up and giving a speech, I can't help it. I have to remember the first speech I ever gave.

I was coaching at Rutgers University, that was my first job, oh that's wonderful (reaction to applause), and I was the freshman coach. That's when freshmen played on freshman teams, and I was so fired up about my first job. I see Lou Holtz here. Coach Holtz, who doesn't like the very first job you had? The very first time you stood in the locker room to give a pep talk. That's a special place, the locker room, for a coach to give a talk. So my idol as a coach was Vince Lombardi, and I read this book called "Commitment To Excellence" by Vince Lombardi. And in the book, Lombardi talked about the fist time he spoke before his Green Bay Packers team in the locker room, and they were perennial losers. I'm reading this and Lombardi said he was thinking should it be a long talk, or a short talk? But he wanted it to be emotional, so it would be brief. So here's what I did. Normally you get in the locker room, I don't know, twenty-five minutes, a half hour before the team takes the field, you do your little x and o's, and then you give the great Knute Rockne talk. We all do. Speech number eight-four. You pull them right out, you get ready. You get your squad ready. Well, this is the first one I ever gave and I read this thing. Lombardi, what he said was he didn't go in, he waited. His team wondering, where is he? Where is this great coach? He's not there. Ten minutes he's still not there. Three minutes before they could take the field Lombardi comes in, bangs the door open, and I think you all remember what great presence he had, great presence. He walked in and he walked back and forth, like this, just walked, staring at the players. He said, "All eyes on me." I'm reading this in this book. I'm getting this picture of Lombardi before his first game and he said "Gentlemen, we will be successful this year, if you can focus on three things, and three things only. Your family, your religion and the Green Bay Packers." They knocked the walls down and the rest was history. I said, that's beautiful. I'm going to do that. Your family, your religion and Rutgers basketball. That's it. I had it. Listen, I'm twenty-one years old. The kids I'm coaching are nineteen, and I'm going to be the greatest coach in the world, the next Lombardi. I'm practicing outside of the locker room and the managers tell me you got to go in. Not yet, not yet, family, religion, Rutgers Basketball. All eyes on me. I got it, I got it. Then finally he said, three minutes, I said fine. True story. I go to knock the doors open just like Lombardi. Boom! They don't open. I almost broke my arm. Now I was down, the players were looking. Help the coach out, help him out. Now I did like Lombardi, I walked back and forth, and I was going like that with my arm getting the feeling back in it. Finally I said, "Gentlemen, all eyes on me." These kids wanted to play, they're nineteen. "Let's go," I said. "Gentlemen, we'll be successful this year if you can focus on three things, and three things only. Your family, your religion and the Green Bay Packers," I told them. I did that. I remember that. I remember where I came from.

It's so important to know where you are. I know where I am right now. How do you go from where you are to where you want to be? I think you have to have an enthusiasm for life. You have to have a dream, a goal. You have to be willing to work for it.

I talked about my family, my family's so important. People think I have courage. The courage in my family are my wife Pam, my three daughters, here, Nicole, Jamie, LeeAnn, my mom, who's right here too. That screen is flashing up there thirty seconds like I care about that screen right now, huh? I got tumors all over my body. I'm worried about some guy in the back going thirty seconds? You got a lot, hey va fa napoli, buddy. You got a lot.

I just got one last thing, I urge all of you, all of you, to enjoy your life, the precious moments you have. To spend each day with some laughter and some thought, to get you're emotions going. To be enthusiastic every day and as Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "Nothing great could be accomplished without enthusiasm," to keep your dreams alive in spite of problems whatever you have. The ability to be able to work hard for your dreams to come true, to become a reality.

Now I look at where I am now and I know what I want to do. What I would like to be able to do is spend whatever time I have left and to give, and maybe, some hope to others. Arthur Ashe Foundation is a wonderful thing, and AIDS, the amount of money pouring in for AIDS is not enough, but is significant. But if I told you it's ten times the amount that goes in for cancer research. I also told you that five hundred thousand people will die this year of cancer. I also tell you that one in every four will be afflicted with this disease, and yet somehow, we seem to have put it in a little bit of the background. I want to bring it back on the front table. We need your help. I need your help. We need money for research. It may not save my life. It may save my children's lives. It may save someone you love. And ESPN has been so kind to support me in this endeavor and allow me to announce tonight, that with ESPN's support, which means what? Their money and their dollars and they're helping me-we are starting the Jimmy V Foundation for Cancer Research. And it's motto is "Don't give up, don't ever give up." That's what I'm going to try to do every minute that I have left. I will thank God for the day and the moment I have. If you see me, smile and give me a hug. That's important to me too. But try if you can to support, whether it's AIDS or the cancer foundation, so that someone else might survive, might prosper and might actually be cured of this dreaded disease. I can't thank ESPN enough for allowing this to happen. I'm going to work as hard as I can for cancer research and hopefully, maybe, we'll have some cures and some breakthroughs. I'd like to think, I'm going to fight my brains out to be back here again next year for the Arthur Ashe recipient. I want to give it next year!

I know, I gotta go, I gotta go, and I got one last thing and I said it before, and I want to say it again. Cancer can take away all my physical abilities. It cannot touch my mind, it cannot touch my heart and it cannot touch my soul. And those three things are going to carry on forever.

I thank you and God bless you all.

Stop Flying!!! - TSA WARNS: SUBMIT OR PAY

Wake up!!! - $11,000 fine, arrest possible for some who refuse airport scans and pat downs - By John Lantigua - Palm Beach Post - 8:59 a.m. EST, November 20, 2010

If you don't want to pass through an airport scanner that allows security agents to see an image of your naked body or to undergo the alternative, a thorough manual search, you may have to find another way to travel this holiday season.

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is warning that any would-be commercial airline passenger who enters an airport checkpoint and then refuses to undergo the method of inspection designated by TSA will not be allowed to fly and also will not be permitted to simply leave the airport.

That person will have to remain on the premises to be questioned by the TSA and possibly by local law enforcement. Anyone refusing faces fines up to $11,000 and possible arrest.

The Hound: The TSA is part of the Federal Government so the Constitution directly comes into play. This is a violation of the 4th and 10th Amendments. The full-body scanners and feel-ups violate the Fourth Amendment to the constitution, which protects against "unreasonable searches and seizures."

Our government has NO authority to conduct these searches. The Constitution does not mention searches to be conducted by government. And the Tenth Amendment therefore leaves this area to the states or the people, in this case, the airline itself. I blame this on the Airline industry for allowing this issue to be taken this far. If the Airline industry is going to allow their customers to be treated like this, then they deserve to go under.

The customers need to tell the business owners that they no longer want their product. If they do this, then I will guarantee you that all of this will stop. Do you think that the government or airline industry want to see this commerce be decimated? I am sure some of the wacko authoritarians in our country love this, but people with common sense do not. Problem is that the people with common sense have stood back and trusted the anarchists to do the right thing, when common sense should have you knowing better.

If these types of hyper-security measures become the norm, then our great nation is lost and has been defeated by the supposed enemies of freedom that we are supposed to be protected from. The anarchists are winning. They are in control of this country right now. They are running Wall Street. They hold high positions in the government. They are consolidating control and too many people are clueless about what is going on around them.

No naked body scanners! No pat downs, when people have done nothing wrong! No touching peoples private parts! No harassing the Elderly or Children who just want to freely travel!

Benjamin Franklin stated Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. We have seen constant intrusion into our privacy and it is time to say enough!!!