Superbowl In Name Only

 This is the first Superbowl that I have been indifferent to in several years. The Green Bay Packers extensive injuries made showing up almost an exercise is futility, yet they never quit and had some awesome and inspired victories. My season pretty much ended with theirs.

I have a strong general disliking for classless egomaniac, cheating fuck, anti-role model, Tom Brady, and by association the New England Patriots.

I couldn't name a Falcon other than Matt Ryan since Devin Hester left, but I like their logo far more than the Carolina Panthers Hello Kitty/worst panther illustration ever/bad joke logo and they're almost local.

Colin Kaepernick polluted a national pastime with his ignorant, shortsighted, dumbass, pseudo-racist, BLM protests, and the NFL rolled over and let him. They fucking rolled over and let him, but FSM help the player who wears unauthorized shoelaces. We have to draw the line somewhere.


Football was once a manly sport. Those in the know called it Battle Cheese because it is as much intellectual as physical. Now it is a political business of millionaires hurting each other and whining about having to do what they get paid so well to do.

The thrill is gone. Dead and gone.

#NFL #GoPackGo #Superbowl #Patritots #Falcons #Kaepernick #BLM#playfootball #DILLIGAF #FUBAR #SNAFU

2017, More or Less.

#moreorless #2017 #ACunningLinguist #Kowulz #RockCowles # RockStains #Zen #love #attitude #gratitude #positivity #blog #truth #newyear

Year's End.

2016 has seemed like a long year! It didn't have Shingles and MRSA like 2015, but it wasn't quite a cakewalk either. We lost my stepdaughter, Jessica, but gained my granddaughter, Rhiannon. She isn't a replacement, but she is a gift. Health issues seem to have a lot of my life on hold, but I've still managed to get out and meet new people and make some pretty decent friends. The Packers have come back nicely after their own health issues and injuries. Big surgery, #37, coming up in late January and with any luck, I'll have more success this time and can move forward. My social life, mental well-being, and finances would all like a break. I'm so freaking glad we only have presidential elections every four years! I will continue to try to stand for our veterans, repealing cannabis prohibition and ending the War on Drugs, and defend all of our rights which are only protected by our second amendment rights, to hold our elected officials accountable, to embrace my friends & family, libertarianism, freedom, an open mind, and the opportunities we still have in this great country. We don't need government to fix it; it's ours, not theirs. We are promised nothing in this life and that is what it owes us. It's easy to let it slip by. I rewatched The Bucket List last night with my then visiting mother. It's a great movie and strong reminder that we are here to live, not just toil, age, and die. Instead of New Year's resolutions, make a bucket list and live like your life was temporary and fleeting. Have a glorious and wonderful new year. It is ours for the taking! Maybe 2017 will be the year I see double digit followers on my blog! kowulz.blogspot.com (ACunningLinguist.com)

Weren't You A Bears Fan?

I still hear it from my friends back home in Chicagoland. "Traitor!", "Blasphemer!", "Fair weather fan!". I grew up there (and Detroit) and lived across the street from Chicago Bears Cornerback, Virgil Ivers for a few years while I was in high school. Through him, I had the pleasure of meeting Walter Payton, Noah Jackson, and Alan Page. Back then professional athletes were still role models and all four were friendly and likable. After I got out of the Navy, I met Mike Singletary and he was a giant Teddy Bear. So even though I wasn't a football fan, I became a Bears fan.

About four years ago I started to pay attention to NFL games and discovered that football was indeed Battle Chess; far more than brute force, speed, and a quarterback with a cannon arm. After a year and a half of watching the Bears sabotage themselves, trade and release their best players, hire crappy coaches, and give up in the first quarter, I'd had enough. I don't get paid to be a fan and loyalty is a two-way street. 

Going down with the ship isn't a suicide pact. It's an archaic Naval tradition based on honor and honorable men. I bet they didn't come up with it themselves. Most likely the ship owners said you'll wish you were dead if you sink or ship and come back without it. We anthropomorphize ships, just like we do football teams. I'm not indentured to the Dutch East India Trading Company and I'm not willing to drown trying to raise a ship intent on sinking itself.
Unquestionable team loyalty is called statism. One group of folks who loved their uniforms and masters were called Nazis. They sucked the fun out of everything for everyone. They didn't get paid well to be fans either.

Blind loyalty to a place or country is called Nationalism. Everyone knows that just because you were born in Cleveland doesn't mean they have the best football team. Maybe once (maybe), but not today. Do you want to love football or the past? Do you think most of the Chicago Bears are from the Chicago Area?
Aaron Rodgers brought the game back to life for me. He is not only an amazingly skilled athlete, but a leader and a man of character. Watching him quarterback is a joy. He never quits, doesn't have major hissy fits, and doesn't blame everyone else. When the Bears cut their two best remaining players, running back, Matt Forte, and kicker, Robbie Gould, my emotional attachment ended.

I choose to love the game. I have a primary team I root for. I like other teams and players and sometimes two teams I like a lot play each other. I root for both of them and cheer when a great play is made by either side. I have hats for a half dozen teams that I like.

It's not that I am disloyal, I'm very much the opposite. I'm not a martyr, nor am I brain dead. My objective as a football fan is to enjoy the game. Team owners, coaches, and managers affect the game as much as the players. When they don't care, I cut my losses.
Would you rehire a plumber, year after year, who flooded your house with excrement and urine every time he was called?

The 1985 Chicago Bears will always be "my" team. Today I find a team that helps me to enjoy the game whether they are an underdog or Superbowl Champions. If they play with heart, I will cheer them on.

Rock Cowles
December 21, 2016

#NFL #GoPackGo #BearDown #GreenBayPackers #ChicagoBears #AaronRodgers #JJWatt #WalterPayton #MatthewStafford #OdellBeckhamJr #JoeFlacco 

People Need People

It's okay to not be okay. Tell someone you're not okay, feeling blue, lonely, lost, overwhelmed, or struggling. Really. Don't give your problems permanence.

Everyone says: "If you need anything, don't hesitate, I'll be there for you". Many of us mean it. I refuse to waste my limited time here on earth with relationships of convenience. If you are my friend here it's because you matter to me. I don't look for perfect people, instead, I value honesty, integrity, loyalty, and accountability.

I've heard people say, "Nobody looks like I feel." Chuck Chamberlain's response was that's because you're comparing their armor to your raw meat. Find people you feel safe being vulnerable with and let them in. Don't get bit by the same dog twice.

I try to do what I can for people. Sometimes that's just listening or being a sounding board or offering a friendly verbal kick in the ass.

People tend to be a lot more fragile around the holidays. We have a controversial new president taking office in January and plenty of folks across the board are freaked out and afraid. Be there for people. Don't wait for people to ask for help or to wait too long, volunteer.

Try to call at least one friend a day that you don't talk to regularly. The life you help save may be your own.

May is Mental Illness Awareness Month, but we need people year round. Please check on your friends!

How are you really doing?

Feel free to share elsewhere.

#peopleneedpeople #suicide #help #reachout #handup

Ending The War on Drugs and the Thirteenth Amendment

If you follow me on social media or know me in real life, you can't help but be very aware that I am a passionate and vocal advocate for repealing drug prohibition and ending America's failed War on Drugs. If you know me well at all, you know that I am a former police officer and this might seem to be a bit of a conflict of interest. Not so. When I took my oaths to be a police officer, a sailor, and a soldier, they were not to a particular law or set of laws, but to support and defend the US Constitution. it read;

"I, (state name of enlistee), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me.(God is optional here)"

What does this have to do with Cannabis and other drugs? The War on Drugs is not a war on chemicals or morality, but a war on freedom and the American People. In America, we become legal, consenting adults at the age of eighteen. We then have legal self-ownership. We have the right to make our own choices and to live with our successes and failures. Our nation is infested and overwhelmed with unconstitutional laws that are stripping us of our autonomy and reverting us to the status of wards of the state. On the one hand is Big Brother, watching over us and doing our thinking for us because we can't make intelligent, mature decisions for ourselves. On the other hand, is the Nanny State, providing all of our basic needs at someone else's expense, and making sure we don't harm ourselves.

The War on Drugs is destroying the fabric of America. It is statist government run rampant. It comes down to one thing; Self-ownership. The complete repeal of prohibition and an end to the War on Drugs. I think every time someone gets giddy because they have "allowed" limited medical marijuana or decriminalized simple possession making it "just" a civil offense with a fine rather than a misdemeanor or felony, we reaffirm that they had a right to tell us what to do with our bodies in the first place and they dig in harder about allowing more. 

California's recent legalization was not popular with a lot of advocates because it greatly limits manufacturing and other options leaving a lot of control in the hands of government and big business squeezing out small businesses and individual rights.

We are adults and we should never permit our government to treat us as anything less.

I do not currently indulge in the use of cannabis and haven't for years. I am one of many people who would greatly benefit from it in a lot of aspects. I have arthritis, fibromyalgia, nerve damage, heart disease, healing problems, neuropathy, sleep apnea, insomnia, and mild depression. Most of my medical care is through the VA. Everything they prescribe has severe side effects. Cannabis has no dangerous side effects and there has never been a documented fatality from cannabis usage alone.

People drown in bath tubs, and drink bleach, antifreeze, and drain cleaner. They choke to death on pen caps and yet we don't ask the government to ban them to protect us from ourselves.

They say consensual crimes are victimless. That is false. Because these activities between consenting adults have been made illegal, everyone pays. The laws do far more damage than the acts themselves. We turn people who hurt no one into career criminals when their record keeps them from gainful employment. Their spouses and children become dependent on a broken system when they are no longer there to provide for them. We create enormous profits that finance organized crime and turn neighborhoods into war zones. Problem users find difficulty getting help because of the stigma and legalities. Our prisons overflow with non-violent offenders with mandatory minimum sentences while dangerous violent offenders are turned loose. Our law enforcement is corrupted, militarized, and develop a Them vs. Us mentality. Racial discrimination runs rampant. Politicians are paid off by Big Pharma, Big Timber, Big Oil, Big Cotton, the private prison industry, and other special interest groups, and America loses. America loses. This is unacceptable.
The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime. It's about time we enforced it, rather than turning everything into a crime.

I am proud to be a member of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) and urge you to check them out and support their efforts.
www.LEAP.cc

Repeal Cannabis Prohibition

Castrated Nation

America has gotten soft. Castration, as well as self-castration, will do that. I am reminded of Hugh Farnham's son, Duke, in Robert A Heinlein's insightful novel, Farham's Freehold. A great read.

I don't want to be castrated by political correctness or the Thought Police. I don't want to be defanged by Big Brother or the Nanny State for thinking for myself. I served my country in the Navy and the Army as well as as a police officer. I still serve and protect. I am still under oath to protect the United States Constitution and our country from all enemies both foreign and domestic. I'm the last of the Baby Boomers. We were taught to be independent, to question authority, to think for ourselves, to stand up for the righteous underdog, to do the right thing even when no one is watching, to be proud of who we are as individuals and Americans, and to have a strong work ethic. TANSTAAFL. Much of that seems lacking in many of today's entitled, highly sensitive youth. We, as a people and as a nation, will not survive if we do not reclaim it soon! Sky Daddy might hand out Participation awards, but Real Life rarely does.

Many of the misguided liberal denizens of Academia have always tried to make the warrior class seem like mindless heathens. History is full of warrior scholars and those too afraid to get out from behind closed doors will always fear and demean them. The old military adage, "Lead, follow, or get the hell out of the way." comes to mind. If you choose to castrate yourselves and bleed to death on the side of the road, you have only yourselves to blame. I face my fears head on, with intelligence, courage, and conviction. If that makes me a monster, so be it.

If you are reading this and still clueless what I am rambling on about then read Ayn Rand's Anthem. It doesn't come with a free spine, but it helps. I am a Libertarian. It is not a party to me. It is the philosophy that a people with minimal government and maximum freedom has the most opportunity to excel in Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. We are not guaranteed happiness. Life has risks. Without it there is no gain, no progress, and little meaning. "Don't hurt people and don't take their stuff." It should be simple. No Safe Places, Time Outs, or Stress Cards required. Is Donald Trump my first choice for president? No, far from it. Is he the end of the world as we know it? No. Our government is not set up that way. Quit caving to the fearmongers. Exercise your Constitutional rights, especially the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms as it protects all of the others. Nobody is coming to save us. Take responsibility for yourself and your choices. Nut up.