RIP Dad

Robert Don Dobbs
January 5, 1942 – February 24th, 2019

Here is a link to the obituary that my brother lovingly wrote


These are the words I spoke at the funeral to remember and honor my Dad.

*****************************************************************

I am a man with a life littered with bad ideas. Some of which unfortunately I have acted upon. Thinking I could get through saying these words may be another in that list. But here we go.

I'm Jeff Dobbs. Bob and Pam's son. Younger brother to Leslie and older brother to Scott. On behalf of our family thank you all for coming. It means a lot to us. I am certain Dad would be touched. But we all know he's laughing a little bit at the thought we would make such a spectacle. But you know what Dad, joke's on you, you left us to our own devices - and you know what happens when Mom and Leslie and Scott and I are left to our own devices! So a spectacle it is!

Because we love you. Because we want to honor you. Because even in this moment when things seem sad and the hurt and pain seem so strong, we want to remember all the ways you loved us. Yours was a life well-lived and a life to be celebrated with joy.

……......

There are more than a few running jokes in our family, but one sticks out perhaps more than any other.

"Bobby, stop, turn around!" Mom would yell as we drove through Yellowstone National Park, wanting to go back and see some wildlife. He didn't always stop. "No we've got to keep on going" he would often say. Of course, there was that time Dad famously did turn around. On the road to Mt Washburn. You see there was a mountain lion lying in the grass on the hillside. Well, ok, it turned out to be a mountain lion shaped and mountain lion colored rock, which we only determined after having turned around like a dozen times. And while a mountain lion shaped rock is not quite as exciting to look at as an actual mountain lion, it surely made for a better running joke.

Another running joke is that Dad loved to tell stories. And he liked to use, let's say, a lot of creative license in telling his stories. And, well, Mom likes her stories told with details that are, um, well, factually correct. Often Dad would be telling a story and Mom would interject, "But that's not how it happened!" Dad would then try to brush it off and keep going and after finishing his story, end with, "I like the story my way better anyway".

Well, related, I am famous in the family for having a pretty poor memory when it comes to my childhood. So let's just say that there are times when I will use, well, creative license in filling in some of the gaps in those memories. So, Mom, please forgive me if a detail here or there is not exact. I've asked Leslie and Scott to restrain you if you try to interrupt me. And if they can’t get it done, I’m calling in the grandkids. No but really, you know what, if it gets to be too much - go ahead and interrupt. Dad would get a real kick out of it. "See what I had to put up with all these years!"

……......

We drove a lot when Leslie, Scott and I were growing up. We drove A LOT. We'd go on epic 3-4 week vacations covering 7,000 miles going through New Mexico and Arizona then California and Oregon and Washington, up through British Columbia and Alberta and back down through Idaho and Montana and Wyoming and of course we'd linger in Yellowstone. Finally we'd return home through Utah and Colorado, back through New Mexico and finish up here in Dallas. Those trips make up such amazing memories for me and for our family. They really are central to who I am.

And on all those trips growing up, Mom, Scott and I were adventurers and hikers. We'd find a trail and off we'd go. And while we were off on our trails, Dad and Leslie would live it up together doing the things they loved, like eating Teton burgers and . . . well, mostly not hiking and taking in the park from the car. In fact we've joked that Dad should publish a book chronicling his particular brand of adventure, titled something like "The Best of Yellowstone...Without Leaving Your Car".

In fact those trips left such an imprint on me that after my freshman year in college, I found a summer job up in Yellowstone cleaning cabins. Ah the fresh mountain air and . . . . well, scrubbing toilets. And I spent the following summer at Snow Mountain Ranch in Colorado. And not to be outdone, Scott also went to work up in Yellowstone in college. Only, he never left. He's been in and around the Jackson Hole and Teton areas ever since.

Ahhhh, so much revolved around those trips. Dad behind the wheel for hours and hours and miles and miles. In the early years it was in a station wagon. Scott would climb in the back and make a little fort and hang out with his stuffed animals. Leslie would be sitting behind Dad and she would read or listen to her Walkman. And I would sit in the center, leaning forward with my arms and chin resting on the front seat taking in the changing scenery of the road . . . for hours and hours and miles and miles. Mom was in the front seat of course, and faithfully she would record all sorts of information about the fun and important things that happened - and then she would often pull out a newspaper or magazine article she had read and wanted to share with us by reading it out loud.

Dad behind the wheel. He knew where we were going, and he would get us there. That's not just in a station wagon or a van. That was his life. That was our life as a family. Dad knows the way and we know he will get us there.

……......

If I got into full-on memory sharing mode we'd be here for hours. Oh we'd laugh, we'd cry, we'd cry from laughing and . . . well they'd eventually kick us out of here because the stories could go on for longer than those road trips.

But just to circle back because Yellowstone and the mountains were so central to our family, and at the risk of repeating some of what was in the obituary, in 2000 Dad fulfilled a dream and bought his house up in Idaho. He and Mom had their Idahome. Oh did we as a family love that place. And our family? It had beautifully grown - with my Claire and Scott’s Kristin and Leslie’s Jeremy, all of whom Dad loved like his own. I mean let’s be honest there have been times when I wondered if he liked his son and daughters in law more than his actual kids!

And then of course over time we filled Idahome with grandkids: Jack and Jackson and Madison and Sydney and Autumn and Peyton and Audrey. As much as Dad loved the mountains, and as much as having a home where he could go to relax and enjoy those views meant to him . . . it was spending time with those grandkids that was the real dream come true for him.

Kids, your Papa, your Baba, loved you so very very much.

……......

I've had a rough few years. No need for details, but some of that spilled over to my relationship with Dad. In the past 9 months I’ve thankfully turned some things around. And in the past 6 months especially, I was able to be a better son to my Dad and share with him my struggles and let him walk with me in trying to make things right. It has been so good to have seen that relationship heal and grow closer.

Throughout my life, whenever Dad and I were saying goodbye after a visit, he would hug me and say "I love you, bud". I loved that. And in these last few months when he and I would talk, he would very deliberately make a point to say “I’m proud of you, son”. Oh those words were so strengthening. So comforting. So empowering.

There is nothing better than to hear your Dad tell you he loves you and is proud of you.

Last Sunday morning - the day Dad passed away, a pastor I follow on Twitter posted a Bible verse. It's been my favorite verse since college. It’s a verse that still stops me in my tracks. I treasured it that morning when I read it. And later that day after finding out Dad had died, I kept coming back to it again and again. 
Zephaniah 3:17:

The Lord your God is in your midst,

    a mighty one who will save;

he will rejoice over you with gladness;

    he will quiet you by his love;

he will exult over you with loud singing.

My Dad, when he passed from this life and passed into eternity, came face to face with his Heavenly Father. And he was greeted with this very rejoicing and singing. The God of the universe greeted Dad with rejoicing and singing. And I imagine like in the parable Jesus told in Matthew 25, Dad heard God say, "well done good and faithful servant".

There is nothing better than to hear your Heavenly Father say I love you, my son. I’m proud of you.

Dad has gone on ahead of us. But he’s still driving this family. He knows the way and is still showing it to us. And while we are left behind here for now, we know that we will join him when our times come. We look forward to that day!

But for now we are saying our earthly goodbyes.

Dad I love you, and I am proud of you.

Traditional Inaugural Saturday JOM is Down Open Thread

Let's open up a thread here in case any JOMers are having withdrawal pains while we are locked out from commenting there.

IT'S SUNDAY MORNING IN THE BLOGOSPHERE: JOM Comments are back up.

The 70th Anniversary of VE Day - Arsenal of Democracy Flyover

Recently I traveled with my family to Washington DC for my seventh grade son's field trip. Unbeknownst to the organizers, the field trip coincided with the 70th anniversary of VE Day.

A commenter here at JOM mentioned that there would be a flyover over DC on the anniversary, so the field trip was re-organized to take advantage of the opportunity to see it. So on Friday, May 8th the field trip took us to Arlington National Cemetery.  We timed the visit so that we ended at the Iwo Jima Memorial just before the flyover began, with a wonderful vantage on the lawn just below the memorial.  

The planes flew down the Potomac River and then turned as they approached the Washington Monument passing directly over the Mall. The flyover included over 50 aircraft from World War II and was organized with the planes flying in formations representing major battles and events in the war.

The next day, although the field trip was over, we headed out to the National Air and Space Museum near Dulles International where several of the planes were to land and be on display.

Before we go any further, I want to acknowledge that all the content below relies exclusively on my World War II obsessed son (we'll still call him hit and run jr), and his amazing knowledge of the planes and battles involved.  

The first formation - representing Pearl Harbor with the P-40 Warhawk:

 

The next formation represented the Doolittle Raid with B25 Mitchells:

The Battle of Midway with the PBY Catalina: 

The Guadalcanal Campaign was represented by the F4F Wildcat, the video here of it arriving at the National Air and Space Museum:

(Note: digital cameras have difficulty processing propellers, making them at times appear to be moving slowly)

Yamamoto Shootdown with the P-38 Lightning: 

The Ploesti Raid with the B-24 Liberator and P-51 Mustangs:

 

There was a formation to highlight importance of planes to Escort Bombers. This is a shot of a P-51 Mustang after it landed at the National Air and Space Museum:

The Big Week/Operation Argument with a B-17 Flying Fortress: 

D-Day with a C-47 Skytrain and a C-53 Skytrooper: 

Leyte Gulf/The Great Turkey Shoot with the SB2C Helldiver and TBF Avenger:

The Battle of the Bulge with an A-26 Invader at the National Air and Space Museum: 

 And the Final Air Offenive with the much anticipated B-29 Superfortress:

Unfortunately, in the thrall of the B-29 going overhead, I stopped the camera and missed the Missing Man Formation. 

The entire flyover experience was amazing.  Earlier in the week when we first visited the National Air and Space Museum, we had the privilege of watching a tour bus of Honor Flight attendees from Chicago unload and tour the museum.  

It was humbling to be in the presence of heroes such as they.

Link to Last Page of Post.

When Audacity Meets Mendacity

Tom Maguire over at Just One Minute:

THEIR Ability To Cope?!?

The NY Times ponders Team Obama, FoPo subdivision:

Mounting Crises Raise Questions on Obama Team’s Ability to Cope

Oh, I think those questions have been answered; why doesn't the Times worry about the rest of us?

The Times cares about the rest of us about as much as Obama does:

Obama on 60 Minutes

At PJMedia's The Tatler, Bryan Preston has this:

Obama to Appear on 60 Minutes Sunday

And Preston asks:

Will Steve Kroft ask tough questions, or give Obama a pass on everything again?

Preston is referring to a 2013 interview Kroft conducted with President Obama and then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton - in which the tough questions, especially around Benghazi, went unasked.

However, Kroft interviewing Obama has a history at this blog. In October of 2012, just before Obama's first election, Kroft interviewed then candidate Obama.

Here's the post I wrote at the time, in which we have this quote from the interview:

KROFT (voice-over): This week, during the biggest economic meltdown since the Great Depression, the candidates were forced to stop playing politics and to start talking about some of the major issues in this campaign. And 60 MINUTES was with both of them.

(on camera): Why do you think you’d be a good president?

OBAMA: Well, I think that when you think about the challenges we face, these are challenges that require us to look forward and not backwards.

(CROSSTALK)

KROFT: Why you? I mean, why do you think you would be a good president?

OBAMA: Well, I was going to get to that.

KROFT: Go ahead.

OBAMA: You know, I’m a, I’m a practical person. One of the things I’m good at is getting people in a room with a bunch of different ideas who sometimes violently disagree with each other and finding common ground and a sense of common direction.

Give Obama credit - he said that being good at getting people who disagree to come together was what would make him a good president. He has been horrible at it - he has been as divisive a president as any before him.

Obama has likewise been a horrible president.

Actually, in a way Obama has brought people together who sometimes violently disagree with each other. People on both sides of the political and ideological aisle agree Obama has been a horrible president.

So there's that.

Bo Kool

Tom Maguire calls Obama "Joe Cool".

I give you Bo Kool:

Obama Speaks on James Foley's Beheading

Rick Perry's Booking

A couple of pics is all.

Rick Perry was booked.

Here's the way he appeared to the grand jury that indicted him:

(thanks to Steven Hayward at Powerline for using that pic!)

Here's Perry - enjoying his booking more than perhaps those who are going after him are...

The Six Most Terrifying Words In The English Language

In the Age of Obama, the words strike terror in our allies, not our enemies.

Obama Rushed To End The War Without a Plan To Keep The Peace

The Obama campaign bragged about "ending the war in Iraq" back in the day.

The Obama-ended war now necessitates military intervention in the form of targeted air strikes.

So here we are . . . the fall cometh after such pride.

You made the wrong choice, America.

Obama Makes a Gutsy Call

President Obama met with his national security team in the Situation Room at the White House on Thursday, August 7, 2014. The President made a bold and risky move relating to the situation in the Middle East with the terrorist organization ISIS advancing in the Kurdish region in Iraq.

A gutsy call.

Weekend Update From The State Department

I'm just saying, State Department spokespersons Jen Psaki and Marie Harf look like they are straight out of SNL central casting.

SNL Announcer: "Weekend Update" with Jen Psaki and Marie Harf.

Psaki: Good evening, I'm Jennifer Psaki! But you can call me Jen. And the P is silent, by the way.

Harf: I'm Marie Harf! My last name rhymes with . . . hah, never mind.

Psaki: Scarf? You were going for scarf, weren't you?

Harf: Yes, that's it! Whew, thought I was going to throw up there for a second.

Psaki: And here are tonight's top stories!

My former colleague Alyssa Mastromonaco defines smart, savvy and fashionable.

Harf: Also in the news, #hashtags.

Foreign Policy In The Ditch

For Immediate Release                                                               June 20, 2014

Remarks by Somebody Somewhere at Some Fundraiser

2:53 P.M. EDT

SPEAKER: Thank you. Thank you, everybody. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Everybody, please have a seat. Have a seat.

It is wonderful to be here, wonderful to be among so many good friends. Thank you. Yes, we're here today to talk about the future. A future in which we save this country from the disastrous policies of the current administration. Nowhere are these policies more disastrous than what Obama has done in the area of foreign policy.

Look, we know the results of the Obama Doctrine when it comes to the foreign policy. It’s no secret. Basically his theory is, if you make America weaker, less involved and less important in the eyes of the world – if you “lead from behind” – the rest of the world will come to love us. That’s his theory. But we see how that has all worked out. We’ve never been less respected, less admired, less trusted. Our friends and allies don’t think we have their back, and our enemies don’t think they need fear us. We have less influence in the world than when President Obama was sworn in. The world is a more dangerous place, in many ways as a direct result of his foreign policy.

And so, I want you to imagine that our Foreign Policy is a car. Quite frankly Obama drove this car into a ditch. And it’s a really deep ditch. And somehow he’s been able to walk away from the accident, but the car is still down in the ditch.

So we’re going to have to put on our boots and get down into the ditch. We have to rappel down, it’s so deep down there. And when we get down there, it’ll be muddy and dirty and hot. We’ll be sweating, there’ll be bugs everywhere. But we have to make sure we get that car out of the ditch, so we’ll start pushing. We’ll be pushing and pushing.

Once we get down there and start pushing, who do you think will be down there? Obama. Oh, he’ll just be standing there, toking on some choom -- fanning himself. Now we know how the car got down there!

And we’ll say, “Why don’t you help?” And his reply? “Nah, man, I’m good,” and then he'll kick some more dirt down into the ditch. And his choom gang buddies will all laugh at us. But that’s okay. We’ll keep on pushing.

Finally we’ll get this car up on level ground. Finally we’ll get it out of the ditch. Now, the car is banged up. It’s banged up, it’s got a bunch of dents and it smells like hell. It’s got to go to the body shop. The engine will barely turn over, but we can at least get it to run.

And you know it'll happen. As soon as we’re about to get in the car, we'll feel this tap on our shoulder, and we'll look back, and who is it? It’s Obama. And he'll say, “Dude, gimme the keys.”

And we’ll have to tell him, “Go home Barack, you’re high. You can’t have the keys back.”

“If you want, you can ride with us, but you’ve got to ride in the backseat. We’re putting American interests in the front seat where they belong.”

I mean, I want everyone to think about it here. You ever notice when you want to keep a car on the road and out of the ditch, what do you do? You let a sober person drive it.

Thank you. And God bless America.

2:57 P.M. EDT

END

Americans' Trust In Congress

Back in July of 2010 I used the occasion of a Gallup Poll on the trust Americans have in various institutions, as related by a post Ed Morrissey did at Hot Air, to compare that trust in the US Congress with the number of Republicans serving in the Senate.

Well, this morning there was another Morrissey post that caught my eye. In a post about Congressional approval ratings, Ed writes:

Here’s the problem with this analysis of the poll, however — Congressional approval ratings always stink. These may stink more than usual, but the 90%+ reelection rate for Congressional incumbents is probably not in serious danger, except perhaps in the Senate, where the numbers don’t favor Democrats.

We've had a couple more elections since my 2010 post, so let's run those numbers again.

(click to enlarge)

My 2010 post summarized things this way:

When Republicans control the Senate, Congressional "approval" rises. When Democrats control the Senate, look out below. The notable exception was Republican control from 2003 through 2006, in which the index dropped steeply -- a movement the Democrats have seen fit to continue, to unprecedented depths ahead of the elections this fall.

The trend has continued, even in the blip of Republicans picking up seats in 2010 -- and the trust in Congress rose -- and losing seats in 2012 -- and trust falling again.

And . . . here comes 2014.

Vote Republican: help America regain trust in Congress.

Not a B+

From the WaPo (via AofSHQ):

The Obama administration will consider the new federal insurance marketplace a success if 80 percent of users can buy health-care plans online.

Well.

When asked in 2009 by Oprah to grade his presidency, Obama gave himself "a good, solid B+".

Part of his answer included this: "And I think that we're going to pass the most significant piece of social legislation since Social Security,and that's health insurance for every American."

That was 2009, this is now. And now, he'll consider it a success if 80% of the people who try to get Obamacare are successful.

For those scoring at home, 80% is not usually considered a B+, good, solid or otherwise.

What We're Discovering Is That Obama's a Dummy

In his press conference yesterday, Obama made a rather stunning admission:

"what we’re also discovering is that insurance is complicated to buy"

To paraphrase another Obama quote, I am absolutely certain that generations from now, we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment when Obama discovered that insurance is complicated:

The New Face of Health Care Reform

In Jim Geraghty's Morning Jolt newsletter, he discusses the Upton bill that would seek to fix Obamacare glitches (not of the website kind, the kind that have caused millions of Americans' health care plans to be cancelled, in contravention of all the times Obama promised they wouldn't be). Geraghty makes this observation:

Right now, Fred Upton is competing for the title of your favorite member of the Upton family, against his perennial favorite niece.

In fact, Fred has been working behind the scenes to launch a new HealthCare.gov website -- GOPHealthCare.com -- with his niece as the new face of health care reform:

Obama's Promise Was Always a Naked Lie

He's now fully exposed.

Obama(doesn't)care

Edie Sundby's op-ed in the Wall Street Journal here.

Goldman Sachs Loves Hillary Clinton

And Hillary loves them right back.

From Instapundit:

GAMEPLAN FOR 2016: Hillary Clinton “will use Goldman Sachs money to convince the country that her opponent will hand the government over to Goldman Sachs.”

We did it with Obama back in 2008. We're doing it again with Hillary: