http://site5818851.rickhoppe.com/despite-convention-the-blogBLOG RSSFri, 15 Apr 2022 02:39:51 GMTFri, 15 Apr 2022 02:39:51 GMThttp://site5818851.rickhoppe.com/despite-convention-the-blog/happy-birthday-dadMy father was such a slave driver.  He made me frame a house, pour and finish concrete, tell the truth, drive a tractor, string fence, hang drywall, fell trees, clear brush, plant corn, harvest soybeans, fix my own car, run electricity, handle an ax, bait my own hook, handle firearms safely, pick apples, manage cattle, shoot varmints, treat my elders with respect, and to always take life like a man.Thanks you, and Happy Birthday, Dad!  We miss you.Mon, 15 Aug 2022 02:06:45http://site5818851.rickhoppe.com/despite-convention-the-blog/happy-birthday-dadhttp://site5818851.rickhoppe.com/despite-convention-the-blog/veteran-suicide-22-per-dayThis is not just for the veterans out there.Last year, in the US, there were 45,861 suicides. 45...thousand. A suicide rate of 4.6 per 10,000 population.Every day, 17 Veterans take that way out; out of listening to the voice, out of feeling suddenly that you don’t matter, out of not wanting to always fear.17 per day. Almost 6300 per year. Veterans make up just under 6% of the US population. A rate of 31.6 per 10,000 veterans, 7 times the civilian suicide rate and 20% of all suicides.Mon, 15 Aug 2022 01:50:38http://site5818851.rickhoppe.com/despite-convention-the-blog/veteran-suicide-22-per-dayhttp://site5818851.rickhoppe.com/despite-convention-the-blog/comfortable with violenceThomas Wolfe wrote "You can never go home again".  I think he's wrong.  Rick's rule number 48 says "You CAN go home again.  It just won't be there."  My favorite coffee cup has a saying on it...."I am comfortable with violence”.I don't know exactly who wrote this, he calls himself "Salty Dad", but he hit it on the head.  The following, whether you ever believe it or not, is who we are.  It's not a song of sadness. It is, at its base, a song of survival, and fulfillment.   I believe that anMon, 15 Aug 2022 01:50:18http://site5818851.rickhoppe.com/despite-convention-the-blog/comfortable with violencehttp://site5818851.rickhoppe.com/despite-convention-the-blog/death-to-yammerheadsThis picture is of the street kids, the orphans, of Kabul, who used to hang out near our villa in Central Kabul. This photo was taken on Christmas Eve, 2011, some 10 years ago.  I would imagine that all of the older boys are carrying guns for the Taliban, and the younger boys and girls have become playthings for senior Taliban officers, and the little girl who is just a blur as she played on her skateboard is just as likely to be a "bride" to some 45 year old asshole, if she's even alive.Mon, 15 Aug 2022 01:49:58http://site5818851.rickhoppe.com/despite-convention-the-blog/death-to-yammerheadshttp://site5818851.rickhoppe.com/despite-convention-the-blog/most-honest-political-ideologyI am not a conservative, but I am a rational anarchist.“A rational anarchist believes that concepts such as ‘state’ and ‘society’ and ‘government’ have no existence save as physically exemplified in the acts of self-responsible individuals. He believes that it is impossible to shift blame, share blame, distribute blame…as blame, guilt, responsibility are matters taking place inside human beings singly and nowhere else. But being rational, he knows that not all individuals hold his evaluations,Mon, 15 Aug 2022 01:49:16http://site5818851.rickhoppe.com/despite-convention-the-blog/most-honest-political-ideology