I SURRENDER HODGEPODGE!

     THAT IS IT! I SURRENDER! I am running up the white flag to winter. We have run out of space to put the stuff! Also, I did not think that I was going to be able to participate in this weeks Wednesday Hodgepodge for a number of reasons. Fortunately, if not belatedly, here I am. Thank you Joyce for another series of though provoking questions.

1. When did you last have to interact, either by phone or in person, with someone in a government run agency? On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate the experience? (10 being fabulous and 1 being pass the Tylenol)

     I can't remember the last time I had to interact with a government employee. Many times I have received excellent service. However there have been times when I needed the Tylenol. Like any other bureaucracy there are good, dedicated, caring workers as well as useless uncaring drones who fall at the other end of that scale.

2. The current governor of Wisconsin is considering a run for President next time around. Walker attended Marquette University, but never graduated. In terms of any candidate running for the office of President (not asking here if you agree or disagree with Scott Walker's politics) would the lack of a college degree influence your vote or no? Would that be a factor in your support of any candidate running for public office, even a role less weighty than President?

     Formal education is just one of the factors I use to evaluate a candidate for any office. It is not a deal breaker if they don't have a college degree. Many people in government have advanced college degree's from Ivy League schools and are no more than credentialed morons. There are other people who are less educated who are significantly more competent than the aforementioned morons. 
     I evaluate a candidate on how they performed in other endeavors. Have they ever run a business successfully? If they served as a governor of a state, were they able to deliver government services efficiently and eliminate wasteful spending. Were they able to lower taxes and increase government efficiency. Are they people with high moral integrity who live according to their stated principles?
     So I don't think that a lack of a college degree is an automatic disqualifier.

3. When did you last visit a place or site named for George Washington or Abraham Lincoln, and what was that place or site?

     In the mid nineties I visited the Washington and Lincoln Memorials in Washington D.C. I was a chaperon on a college Criminal Justice class field trip to our Nation's Capitol. 

4. February 16th was President's Day in the US, but did you know it was also National Almond Day? I didn't think so : ) Do you like almonds? If so, what's a food/dish/recipe you enjoy that contains almonds? 

     I enjoy almonds alone. I love Almond Joy candy bars. I enjoy almonds as part of a vegetable salad. So, yes, I like almonds.

5.The television program Saturday Night Live celebrated it's 40th anniversary this past weekend. Were/are you a fan of the show? If so what has been your favorite (or one of your favorite) skits, sayings, or characters that came out of the program?

     I have never been a fan of the show. I have watched it on occasions but I wasn't a fan.

6. Anything purple within ten feet of you? What is it?

     Yes, a fleece blanket throw.

7. Back in December I asked you to submit a question for a future HP as part of a giveaway I was hosting. I grabbed this one from those entries, submitted by Zoanna who blogs over at Penchant for Pens. Thanks Zoanna!

     

She asks, "How often do you make your bed, and how do you like to make it-pull the covers all the way up over the pillows, tuck the covers in around the pillows, or place all the pillows on top of the covers?" 

     On those rare occasions when I do make the bed I use either method. I don't have any particular preference.

8. Insert your own random thought here. 

     ICYMI, the barbaric group known as ISIS recently burned a captured Jordanian pilot to death and used it to send a message to the world. A couple of days ago that same vile godless group decapitated 21 Christian Egyptians on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea and disseminated the take of that atrocity for the world to see. They killed those men because they are Christians...no other reason. They sent this as a message to "The people of the cross" AKA Christians.
     The Deputy Spokesperson for the U.S. State Department, Marie Harf, said at a news conference that we cannot kill our way to victory. We cannot defeat ISIS by killing them. The way to defeat these barbarians is to provide them with better governments, more good paying jobs among other things.
     These barbarians have declared war on us.  You don't defeat an enemy committed to your destruction by giving him a better job. If this is the level of thinking in the U.S. Government, we are doomed! God help us!