Buffalo Dave

As the age of the internet begins to mature, it is becoming ever more apparent that communication skills are one of the most important skills a person can acquire.   People are complaining about how the income gap is widening between the “haves” and the ”have nots”.  If you look more closely at it, I think you will find that these lines also split people based on their communication skills.

It could be a reflection of the level of education a person achieves as well.  Obviously as a person’s education level increases, their communication skills also tend to increase along with it.  The two items are somewhat correlated even though they are different.

The thing that brought this to my attention was the fact that you see search engine results improving based on quality.  For Google at least, it is becoming apparent that they are actually figuring out ways of using filters to determine some level of quality about any given website.  Although they obviously aren’t 100% accurate, they are certainly much better than they used to be.

This is a trend that is bound to continue.  Not only will you see it continue online, but you will also see it happen in many other areas in life.  The salesman with the best communication skills will sell more product than his counterparts.  The politician with the best communication skills will quickly rise to power as is evident with president Obama.  The business man with the best communication skills will climb the corporate ladder much faster than others.

Doesn’t this just make perfect sense?

Shouldn’t we then encourage our children as much as possible to better their communication skills on every level?  Shouldn’t we discourage them from writing to each other using abbreviations for words instead of writing complete sentences with proper grammar?   Shouldn’t we try to make ourselves good examples for the children around us to learn these habits?  Shouldn’t we demand that our schools deny diplomas to students who cannot write in complete sentences using reasonable grammar?

Parents and educators alike are accepting sub-par performance from children and young adults when it comes to communication skills.  Students, regardless of age, should be expected to speak English and write English very well.  Neglecting this basic and fundamental prerequisite to a better life is truly a disservice to that child.  We should not let them down.

The Colts will host the Jets again.  This time it is for the AFC Championship though.  The Colts could have knocked off the Jets a month ago when the Jets last went to Indy.  If you remember though, the bonehead coach of the Colts decided to pull his starters and essentially throw the football game half way through the third quarter.

Can you imagine how stupid that coach is going to look if the Jets pull out a win?  He will be the bonehead of the year.  In my opinion he already is.  There is no way he should have thrown away the opportunity to go undefeated the whole way.  This team could have rewritten NFL history.  They could have set the ultimate record.

So, as much as I want Indianapolis to win this game, I won’t be completely disappointed if they lose.  At least then the Colts’ coach will be exposed for making the bonehead call of the year.  With the way the Jets’ defense is playing, anything is possible.  This is yet another reason why a team should try to win every single game and not take anything for granted.

More bullshit flows out of Washington than out of Western New York farmer’s manure spreaders.  Obama shows that he has declared war politically and is in no way trying to unite anyone in this country.  Instead he chooses to reward those who support him politically at the expense of those who did not.

This time it is over healthcare.  The healthcare system reform being pushed by the Democrats calls for new taxes to fund the system.   The average American worker is going to pay these taxes with one exception.  If you belong to one of Obama’s favorite labor unions, you won’t have to pay it until 2018. 

Once again, political corruption runs rampant.  How could you call this anything but corruption?  It is absurd to suggest that one group of citizens be made exempt from these taxes because of union affiliation.  If this were truly about negotiated wages and benefits, then it would have to apply to every single worker in America regardless of union affiliation or not. 

Every single non-union American also works for a negotiated wage and benefit package.  It is called free market capitalism.  It is not a legalized form of organized crime that unions represent.  It is illegal to extort money from people if you do it in the traditional method.  But, apparently it is legal if you do it under the guise of a labor union.

Politicians will be politicians.  How could any decent person want to become part of this loathsome bunch of hypocrites?  These guys are power mongers hell bent on taking as much power away from us average citizens as they possibly can.  As far as I am concerned, we should fire all the sons of bitches.  I think we do a better job of governing ourselves on a local level than we do on a federal one.  Fire them all and return power back where it belongs.  It belongs in our hands, not theirs.

This Obama administration is over the top with this one.  Policies like this that are obviously cut along political lines will most certainly cause unrest among the people.  I am sick of it and I am sick of all the people who think that policies like this one are somehow good for this country.  They are not.  Open your eyes.  This man is not leading this country in the right direction.  He is dividing it more than ever.  This president is causing very deep wounds in the social fabric of this nation that will take a generation to heal from.  Vote him and his entire team of “we know what is good for you” politicians out of office.

These people who elected Obama were so worried about what other countries thought about the United States.  While they were so worried that someone in Europe might not like us anymore, they elected a man who is making us hate one another.   Let history paint Barack Obama as it should; the most divisive presidential failure in our lifetime.

Actually God had nothing to do with it.  Whoever did though is my hero.  There are so many freaking cool shows on there.  If you are a history buff like I am, there is no doubt that you know exactly what I am talking about.

I love learning about World War II on there.  It reminds me of all of the cool war stories I heard from veterans that frequent the VFW post that my dad used to hang out at.  Dad is a Korean War vet.  I have uncles who fought in World War II, Korea and Vietnam.  So, I can relate to the stuff they talk about on these shows.  I have heard stories about Iwo Jima, sinking Jap submarines, the invasion of Okinawa, dancing with Betty Grable at a USO event and getting drunk all over the world.  This one Vietnam vet told me about how intense it was to be a door gunner flying over a hundred miles an hour skimming the tree tops in Vietnam in a Huey.  Cool shit huh?

The other day I was watching this debate about whether or not the Jewish people were actually militaristic when they fled Egypt.  The theory is that maybe they weren’t actual slaves but instead were kind of employed by the Egyptians to help them build their massive stone projects.  It is hard to tell how much validity there is behind that theory, but it is interesting to think about. Then they went on to speculate about how the Jewish people actually escaped the Egyptian Army.  They made more sense of it than the legend in the Bible does.

I also really like watching the show about Abraham Lincoln’s presidency.  There are so many fascinating things about that era.  Back then, you could actually walk up to the White House, knock on the door and ask to see the president.  How weird is that?  Can you imagine what would happen to presidents in this era if that was still the policy?  Pretty much every one of them since Dwight Eisenhower would probably have been whacked.  Now you can’t even send a letter to the president that will actually be read by him.  My, how times have changed.

What are your favorite shows?