Medary.com

We will let you live, politically, for a little while longer.

We still do not trust you, however. You have the next two years to earn back some small measure of trust from the American People. Your task is to:
Reduce the size of the Federal Government;
begin to balance the Federal Budget;
bring Medicare and Social Security into actuarial sanity.

Do those things, and we will let you retain your political lives beyond 2011.

As for you Democrats . . .

Discover religion, and then pray to whatever deity you find that we might be merciful. Because you will not be forgiven for what you have done to this country.

You will not be forgiven.

Make no mistake . . . while I have voted Republican in the past, my allegiance is not to the Republican Party. My allegiance is to the American people--ALL of the American people. The Democratic Party has long ago betrayed the American people in its quixotic quest for some utopian world that will never be (ruled, of course, by the mandarins of the Democrat/liberal persuasion, naturally). The Republican Party, while suffering from a more garden-variety and venal corruption, has retained--in my opinion, of course--a connection to the real world which the Democratic Party has long ago dispensed with as being banal and inconvenient. The Republicans have always been merely the "Stupid Party." In the long run, this may, strangely enough, be the thing which saves them from the political death the Democrats have now so richly earned for themselves.

But neither of the two major American political parties are essential to the continued existence, health, safety, and happiness of the American People.

You Can Both Be Replaced. And maybe both of you should be.

Beware the wrath of the American people. You do not own this country. We do. It is well past time that the American people reminded you, in your K-street lobbyist offices and Congressional staffer watering holes and New York newsrooms of this simple fact. It is our country. You simply work here.

And for what you have done to this, the greatest country ever in the history of humanity, You will not be forgiven.

Democrats. They're monomaniacally focused on Rich vs. Poor. Rich people are bad. Selfish. Undeserving of their wealth. Thieves. Poor people are poor because the rich have oppressed them. Remove the oppression and everyone will have all their needs and wants met. (This is, parenthetically, straight from communist dogma. But let's let that go for now.)

The problem isn't Rich vs. Poor. The problem is The Powerful vs. The Rest Of Us.

Too large a concentration of power--regardless of what form that power takes (money, political power, information power, force of arms--any kind of power) is both intoxicating and inexorably corrupting of those who wield that power.

We see the sorry result of too much money and political power with the current United States Congress, which only thirteen percent of Americans currently approve of. The Nancy Pelosi/Harry Reid-led, Democrat-dominated 111th Congress is, by popular sentiment, the worst Congress ever--well, the worst since Gallup has been asking the question, anyway.

The key concept and unique brilliance of the American Way over all previous political systems ever tried by humanity in history is (or was) the dispersal of political power as widely as was humanly possible, while still holding together a single political unit. Ever since the American Revolution, those who lust after political power have steadily re-assembled the various elements of political power again into a single, unitary government--the exact result the American experiment was intended to prevent. (Bonus question: "Who's being 'un-American?'")

The same people who are so vehemently shouting for the redistribution of wealth, for the rich to "pay their fair share," should be asked "what about the redistribution of power? What power are YOU, the politically powerful, going to give up to those who have none--the common people, the regular citizens, the people who get up, go to work, and come home every day, just trying to get by in life? What about them?"

Money is not the only form of power. Remember that the next time a Democrat decides to demagogue the "rich vs. poor" issue.

"Progress" and "Government" are not synonyms.
And yes, the breathtaking final chapters of our transatlantic cruise are still forthcoming . . .

If you were a nation or non-governmental organization hostile to the United States of America, and not particularly inclined to play world politics by Marquis of Queensbury rules . . .

. . . would you not be seriously considering arranging a series of serious, perhaps fatal accidents for Julian Assange and any other person known to be associated with Wikileaks, if you had the capability to do so?

What better way to make the USA look even worse than it does right now than to arrange a hit on Assange and the Wikileaks crew, and pin the blame on the Americans?

Or have I been reading too many spy thrillers again?

The 21-Day Mediterranean & Atlantic Explorer Cruise (And more!), October 26-December 1, 2010, Holland America Prinsendam

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Six

(Remember to click "read more" if you're looking at this from the main medary.com page to get the whole article!)

November 12 (Friday, Day 18, Livorno, Italy) -

Gary on a train

Gary, Snookums and Filbert were the first off the ship and took a cab to the train station with four other people on this misty, drizzly, windy day. The driver wanted €20 for the ride and Snookums tried to get it down to €15. He immediately responded, “Take the bus”. Needless to say, we paid the €20 and took the cab to the train station. (Snookums had done the Internet research and read that people paid €8-€10 for the trip to the station so she thought that we were being swindled, but the price must have gone up since the driver was adamant about it.) We got there around 8 AM and the train left at 8:10AM. We bought and validated our tickets and settled in for our 1:23 ride to Florence. We decided to take the $19 per person roundtrip train rather than the $99 Holland America bus transfer to Florence for the adventure of it.

More after the jump . . .

The 21-Day Mediterranean & Atlantic Explorer Cruise (And more!), October 26-December 1, 2010, Holland America Prinsendam

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Five

(Remember to click "read more" if you're looking at this from the main medary.com page to get the whole article!)

November 7 (Sunday, Day 13, Athens, Greece) -

Guards--evzones--at the Greek Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

We met for breakfast at 7 AM and Charlotte’s knee was bothering her a lot so our plan of doing the “hop-on/hop-off” was a good one. (Charlotte will have her knee scoped in December to fix her problem so she should be as good as new for our 2011 cruise.) We took the Metro to the start of the bus tour and enjoyed sitting in the open top of the double-decker bus for the next 90 minutes while hearing about Athens. Most stores were closed since it was Sunday and the museums were closed due to the election so it was very quiet other than some of the street vendors selling shoes, socks and other assorted new items displayed on blankets laid on the sidewalks.

More after the jump . . .

The 21-Day Mediterranean & Atlantic Explorer Cruise (And more!), October 26-December 1, 2010, Holland America Prinsendam

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Four

(Remember to click "read more" if you're looking at this from the main medary.com page to get the whole article!)

November 5 (Friday, Day 11, Flying to Athens, Greece) -

Athena, the statue

We woke up and Pat took us to the Stuttgart airport. We got to the gate in record time and our flight to Zurich boarded on time. We landed in Zurich for our 1-hour layover but had to go through security again since that was how the Swiss Airlines gates were laid out. We forgot that the free bottles of water that we stowed in our backpacks from the Stuttgart to Zurich flight were in there and, of course, they were confiscated. By the time we got to the gate we had about 25 minutes.

More after the jump . . .

The 21-Day Mediterranean & Atlantic Explorer Cruise (And more!), October 26-December 1, 2010, Holland America Prinsendam

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Three

(Remember to click "read more" if you're looking at this from the main medary.com page to get the whole article!)

November 1 (Monday, Day 7, Stuttgart, Germany) -

We went to the gym with Pat and while she had her personal training session, we completed our own hard workouts. Pat had a 1:00 meeting that ended up lasting until 3:15. While she was gone Snookums made 7-layer bars for Jane’s health class (?!?), changed a light bulb in the wall sconce, did laundry and helped Filbert prep for his green curry stir-fry dinner. Both Jane and Grace had their end of season soccer parties at 5:00 but at different locations (naturally). Grace walked to hers but Pat had to drive Jane to hers. Everyone finally got home by 6:15 and loved Filbert’s dinner, especially Pat who didn’t have to cook.

Lenny came home from work around 7:30 and after he ate he broke out the various alcohol treats. Filbert, Pat and Lenny really liked the Edradour Cream Liqueur from Scotland’s smallest distillery that Pat and Lenny just visited. Then there was a drink made from black vodka and two fruit juices, one red and one yellow, that when poured in a shot glass looked like the German flag.

Did the two-day Stuttgart photo blackout end with pictures of Pat? Of Lenny? Of the very colorful and rapidly changing German fall foliage? Of any of their cute-as-a-button kids in mid-argument with each other? Heck no! It ended with a picture of alcohol, of course!

Deutschlandershot

More after the jump . . .

The 21-Day Mediterranean & Atlantic Explorer Cruise (And more!), October 26-December 1, 2010, Holland America Prinsendam

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Two

(Remember to click "read more" if you're looking at this from the main medary.com page to get the whole article!)

October 29 (Friday, Day 4, Zurich, Switzerland) -

We woke up at 7 AM for our free hot beverages and after a very leisurely morning, we ventured outside around 10:15 AM. We decided to do the walking tour of Zurich as described in the city map. We visited Fraumünster (Church of our Lady) with its Marc Chagall stained-glass windows added in 1970. Then we headed to the lake in order to find out when our free boat tour was going to leave and stumbled on a farmer’s market that promptly shut down at 11 AM. There were many flower vendors, produce vendors, cheese vendors, bakers and a few other assorted vendors (fresh pasta, fish, spices).

Backerei (Bakery)

More after the jump . . .

The 21-Day Mediterranean & Atlantic Explorer Cruise (And more!), October 26-December 1, 2010, Holland America Prinsendam

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part One

(Remember to click "read more" if you're looking at this from the main medary.com page to get the whole article!)

October 26 (Tuesday, Day 1, Flying to Zurich, Switzerland; $1.00 = 0.98 CHF) -

This journal should start on Monday, October 25. That’s when we got called at 8 PM with a recorded message from American Airlines saying that our first of three flights was cancelled. High winds in Chicago prevented the plane from getting to Kansas City which meant we didn’t have a plane to use. Snookums was put on hold and while waiting for 20 minutes, she found other flight options that would work. The customer service representative booked our first option which meant we had to leave an hour earlier than originally planned. Snookums called the shuttle service and re-scheduled our pickup for 6 AM.

That's why we have no introductory photo. Oh, wait . . . we HAVE to have an introductory photo. Unfortunately, I (Filbert) left all my old photos at home after cleaning off my laptop's hard drive. (Not to worry, there are multiple backups, back at the Palatial Abode.) So, here's a random picture I've downloaded from the Internet on the very day (morning, afternoon, night, whatever) that I posted this first travelogue post:

You have to be flexible when you travel, you know? This is, supposedly, the first photograph ever taken that contains the image of a human being.

More after the jump . . .