Dragonwatch

Bad Day At the Beach

2011-07-06T07:27:00.002-05:00

The retired FDNY firefighter who generally leads the charge for anything 9/11 related, who is also a Red Knight member, lost everything to a fire in his home 7/5/11. All the boys and girls are lining up for the heavy lifting.

His wife and five kids are pretty much homeless, but cared for, and sheltered.

One who gives so much up front deserves to get some of it back.

Busy, Busy, Busy

2011-07-05T22:37:00.002-05:00

Sharpening the knives,

Test the alarm system,

Clean and load the guns,

Nothing serious here, but there was a murder a block away, with no motive and no suspect.

Awkward, that is.

Something bigger than myself....

2011-07-04T12:48:00.003-05:00

/Yesterday I took a little ride of about 360 miles to escort the National 9/11 Flag to the oldest Fourth of July Celebration in the country. Seventeen of us rode to Raleigh to meet the flag and escort it to the Celebration. We were joined by about four hundred friends I have never met and returned to our area in one long line. We had Police escort the entire trip and various fire departments along the way saluted the flag as it passed. A great trip, with great company. Including Iron Mutt, coolest dude on the trip.

I wanted to tell TLOML how many bikes came, I looked in the mirror, and the headlights were out of sight, on the Interstate. A fellow Red Knight stood up on the bike (on the road) and couldn't see the end of the line.

I consider it interesting that the "dirty old bikers" that so many look down on, were the very ones who love this country enough to endure the ride. 95F for eleven hours. I almost collected a heat related injury at 70mph, that for the record, would be a bad thing.

I had so much fun that this morning when I got up, I felt like I had spent the night face down in prison with my cell open.

Orators and such

2011-07-04T12:36:00.003-05:00

I have been told that in the time of our country's founders, the man who needed notes to speak from, sort of like a dead tree teleprompter, or who didn't know the passion to speak from his heart about his subject,

was deemed a liar or mentally defective.

Just sayin'.

Democratic Dragons

2011-07-03T04:50:00.003-05:00

If you have ever read dragon lore, you know that they are: old, powerful, greedy, conniving, treacherous, and generally a pain in the rear.

Does that sound like some politicians in the news?

At first glance the Congressional Minority might look like they are trying to help those less fortunate than themselves, don't be fooled. The congress critters are buying votes with our money. They are falling into the trap of allowing the indigent voting themselves unlimited benefits. Historically this has been the end of Democratic government.

I know this argument has been made before, but in your household, when do you stop borrowing? Would you borrow the money to party the weekend away, and then borrow to make the payment, and then borrow to refinance the loans, and so on.

That's exactly what the US government is doing.

Note to Congress: You can't borrow your way out of debt....ever!

Giving people those things to people that they should provide for them selves is a disincentive to productivity. I have friends who have a house hold income above 150k, who are waiting for Obama Care for insurance. The "he" of the pair looked at me with a long face, with a voice like he was talking to a child, and asked "Don't you want everyone to have insurance?". My reply was, "Sure, if they pay for it!".

All my life I have known people who wouldn't work tasting pies. They would rather pay for a party than a dental appointment or checkup. Self described victims of some system that hates a poor man. I have lived and worked around people who would rather by a beer, and party all night, rather than care for their children. The children, by the by, are produced accidentally and required to do the house work.

The "victim class" have a sense of entitlement partially because they are bone deep lazy and also because they are taught the life style by the liberal government.

The worst thing the government can do is feed the "hungry man", because he will sit down at the food source and wait for the next meal. He will not feed himself, because it's easier to let some one else do it for him. I'm not condemning the hungry, I'd do the same, most likely. Giving someone something, however, makes it less likely they will search for other opportunity.

The Democrats sing the song "if you have more then you should pay more", how is that logical? That's class warfare, this country was founded on the premise that there are no classes. If you want more, do more. Since the beginning of humanity the most productive have had the best lives, providing the incentive to the rest of the culture to work harder or smarter, to secure those blessings for their loved ones. Unfortunately there have also been the "I want that and you should give it to me" crowd.

The point?

The political elite are mortgaging our children's future to secure their future. They have no need of good financial policy, they, for the most part are already rich. Rising interest rates will make them richer. We on the lower end of that scale will get poorer. They are the lenders, the rich who can invest for a return, we are the borrowers who have to borrow to have a place to live and a way to get to work.

There is enough empirical evidence to guide the decisions in this country. There is enough history to prove what will happen. We are no smarter than the leaders of old, quite the opposite, there is none so blind as he who will not see. Witness Jordan, Syria, Egypt, and Iranian upheavals.

There is an end, and we are rushing toward it like a train wreck.

Dude!!!! What are you thinkin"

2011-07-01T10:04:00.004-05:00

4 suspects dead in police shooting in Miami area

Published - Jul 01 2011 07:06AM EST

MIAMI — Authorities in Miami-Dade County say police shot and killed four suspects during a confrontation after they got out of their vehicles wearing ski masks and carrying guns.

Miami-Dade Police spokesman Alvaro Zabaleta says the robbery bureau was investigating Thursday evening in the southwestern section of the county when they learned of suspicious activity.

Several suspects were identified and due to their criminal history, Zabaleta says the department's special response team was called in.

According to Zabaleta, the suspects arrived in the area wearing ski masks and carrying guns. A confrontation occurred as the men got out of their vehicles. Shots were fired and four suspects were killed.

Zabaleta says none of the police officers were injured.

No other details were immediately available.

Who needs details? Idiots confront cops with guns wearing masks.

Idiots get shot lots.

Cops reload, take pictures, get garbage off streets.

Normally, I don't carry a gun, though after my time in Florida City last fall, I do now. Scary place, don't leave anything in your car, don't fill up at a stop and rob(the name fits) after dark, don't go to Walmart unless you are of Cuban decent. I know of one guy stopped for driving the speed limit, then advised to drive like everyone else (speeding) or get shot for being a gang banger, or pulled by every cop in Dade county for suspicious behavior.

From a while back,,,

2011-06-30T10:24:00.005-05:00

I filled my truck the other day and set a personal record of three hundred and seventy five dollars ($375) with three quarters of a tank left in the back tank. Thank the good Lord I only drive that monster when some one else is paying for the fuel.(Old truck, I now travel in a motor home that gets 7mpg)

As you can easily imagine I am more than slightly tired of that.

There fore, as whining with out a proposed solution is &itching, my proposal!

Barter; raise the price of food and technology to oil producing countries. Make a barrel of oil currency or more firmly tie it to the markets. The royalty that is getting rich from oil while their subjects are living in mud huts needs to hear the growl of their peoples stomachs. When the growl gets to the throats and the volume is sufficient to shake them awake. Things might get a little better. (Libya, Jordan, Syria, Iran, Saudi, are you listening?)

Another proposal needing a close look is ACTUALLY becoming self sufficient, rather than just talking about it. A recent study, (through a crystal ball perhaps, I have no idea how this was done) says we have more undeveloped oil reserves than the rest of the world put together!!!!! Let’s stimulate the economy by building refineries, and perfecting technology to recover this oil without destroying the environment.

We are the supposed greatest nation in the world,

time to prove it again.

If we can put a man on the moon and build the Interstate System (technology and engineering), surely a profit producing national project isn’t beyond us.

This may be a repost, I didn't look back, but in light of recent events, it looks like I was right.

Whoda thunk it.

Trying to live....

2011-06-30T09:48:00.003-05:00

and getting by .....so far.

When people ask me "how are you today?"

I generally answer, "I woke up this morning."

The nice folks are generally confused by this response, or answer "that's a good thing". They are correct, it is good, in fact, it's a requirement. I tell them that as long as you don't open your eyes to bright lights and concerned faces in the ER, it's a good day.

Everything else is gravy.

All of us will come to that day when we don't wake up, and that is the natural end of a long life.

Yes, there comes an end.

Be sure it doesn't get there before you have told your family that you love them, and you affairs are in order so as not to be a burden. Move on as an honorable person, and leave as good a memory as you can.

Presidential Dragon

2011-06-30T09:10:00.003-05:00

Here we go fans, is the POTUS ready to tell us all to "shut up and drink the cool aide" ?

It seems that way.

Daily we hear of errors in names, birth days (his daughters), statements about the economy that are later reversed because he is confused. Sounds like he doesn't care enough anymore.

Big surprise, right.

Not really, he didn't care to start with. He cares about himself more than anyone else, followed by his family. The family part is NOT a criticism, that is as it should be. He uses the words: I, me, my, more than anyone in office should. I had hoped to see the POTUS be someone who cares more about the country and the Constitution than himself.

Not happening.

HE doesn't do it all himself, he didn't kill bin Laden, the SEAL's did. HE actually does very little, his team does the heavy lifting, he just takes the credit.

Remember when I said I thought he was actively trying to destroy this country? Look at all the change, dollar lousing reserve status, government spending up (not just because of war), telling congress that he can engage in war on his own.

We, as a nation will be climbing out of this hole longer than I will live.

I find myself fondly remembering Jimmy Carter, we survived four years with out a President while he held office, we could have done better with out this twit.

The long road a winding

2011-06-30T09:03:00.003-05:00

I have noticed a few things lately; most of the folks on my blog list have quit posting, my motivation to do more posting has waned, the political arena is full of the "usual suspects" who are depressingly predictable.

All that being true, I don't have to stumble, I only have to step over the obstacle and go on.

New Grill... mount

2011-05-11T19:31:00.004-05:00

We went to the local building supply the other day and saw a tailgating grill as above. The only thing I didn't like was the price, $300!

I immediately went to conniving mode and started running the idea through my mind. I took advantage of the first opportunity to visit a local muffler shop (run by friends) and get a little pipe work done.

We, the entire family, are beach engineers. We carry a load of things with us to make the ocean side more comfortable, tents, large coolers, grills and enough food for a small army. All this takes space and it's nice to have it outside and easily available rather than in the bed of a truck or back of a jeep. The answer to the problem is a cargo carrier, that can be used for other things as well. Like fishing, for example. The thing about fishing is the rod, long spindly thing that is easily broken and terribly awkward. The solution is a rod rack or rod holders.

My cargo carrier has long been modified to carry fishing rods.

Now, it has additional duties. I took a little trip down to the pipe bender boys and in short order had a tube bent to a right angle with a piece of tubing welded to the long side perpendicular to the tube. A short piece from the scrap bin that would insert into the welded tube would be the base for the grill. A short drive to Harbor Freight for two PTO pins and a trip to a fab shop for a 1/8 inch steel plate was all I needed to finish the job.

I slid the tube over the top of an existing rod holder and drilled a hole for a pin to hold it in a storage position, rotate it and drill it for a cooking position. Weld the plate to the mounting tube and repeat. Place the grill, one that I already had on the plate and drill the feet to bolt it down, and you have this.

It has had a field test that worked out well, and is about to get another. Cost, a little over $36.

Does it look as cool as the other? Only if you look into your wallet first, then it looks better.

The next question is.... what next?

DAV Ride

2011-05-10T07:28:00.003-05:00

One of the things I missed this last job was riding the bike. I didn't have a good way to haul it (working on that), so it didn't go along. Eight weeks with no scoot, sucks!

Howsomever, I am riding a lot more and have located the Facebook site that allows me to find out who is riding where.

Saturday the local DAV was having a fund raiser, a poker run from a local bike shop to a local dealership, via the scenic route.

TLOML didn't care to ride so I asked the youngest to ride, as a healing for a difficult time. She agreed and after getting her up early, for a Saturday, we went for breakfast and then signed up for the day.

The total was about 116 miles with an eclectic group of folks that only have one thing in common, motorcycles.

I didn't win anything, at least I don't think so, we didn't hang around to see. We were tired, sunburned, and ready to go home, so I gave my tickets to someone who would donate anything I won back to the fundraiser and called it a day.

Now it's time to check on the next one

Warranty?????

2011-05-08T07:30:00.004-05:00

I went to the village torture chamber, uh, excuse me.... Dentist for an overhaul the other day. You know, the usual, fill the cavities, clean the roots, and replace the crown that disintegrated when I chewed a french fry.

Yep, bit down on a semi crispy potato stick and developed a mouth full of eggshells. I took the gross mass out of my mouth and tossed it out the window. No problem, after all, I'm not going to save it for several weeks and a four hundred mile trip for show and tell when having it repaired.

Wrong! That would be exactly what the warranty on the crown requires!

Notably, I had never even considered that there was a warranty on one of these things, or that it is only good for five years, not to mention that it has to be inspected every six months. Now lets toss in the idea that the insurance company doesn't want to cover it unless it is over five years old. The highly trained medical professional that I pay for all this, failed to mention any of the above.

Must have been a busy day.

This device will cost $982.

I've driven cars that cost less, and they lasted longer. Interesting to me is the crown adjacent to the expensive hole in my head has lasted for thirty years with no problems.

Let's see, I have no input to the choice of suppliers, no information regarding the warranty, no idea that this isn't a permanent fix, and no idea that the "lab" has had quality control issues.

However I am financially responsible.

As expected no one will assume responsibility for the failed component, by default it comes to me.

Imagine that!

The remaining pleasure was the "deep cleaning". Deep is a relative term, African gold mines are deep, some oil wells are deep.

Digging in my gums with sharp metallic objects is deep when I walk into the room.

Six or so syringes of numbing later,a very nice young lady spent an hour scratching under my toenails from inside my mouth. I thought I was going to have to clean blood out of my boots.

The cavities, I hardly noticed, a little drilling a little probing and four hands in my mouth at the same time, no problem there.

At the end of the morning, a bill for $1600 and a small bag of floss and toothpaste.

Don't you just love our health care system?

New title

2011-05-03T06:38:00.003-05:00

I am now a full time employee, salaried and sitting at home, for a short while.

I just finished a stint at a plant in the south, testing their primary containment. I had eleven techs working with me, and supposedly for me.

Supposedly, because the little dears seldom accept the authority of any human living or dead.

It's a good thing they don't let me carry a club, or frustration might have led me to make a mistake. Not really, but I can dream, can't I?

We were testing the leakage from primary containment at design pressure in Loss of Coolant Accident conditions. The testing itself is pretty simple, put air in a pipe and see if it stays, if not, it's a maintenance problem.

The complexity comes with the accuracy required. We are testing in Standard Cubic Centimeters per Minute, and the Leak Rate Monitors are very expensive and accurate. The effects of temperature and changes in pressure will drive you to distraction. You can actually warm the plastic test line with your hand and change the leak rate. The leak rate tech needs to be able to understand the changes and decide when the leak rate is stable enough to take data.

All my problems were due to the personnel who were on the job. Slippery individuals that they are, some want to wander around when they should be available, that would be with out communicating with me. Not to mention, I had a few who were actively trying to undermine me as supervisor. Don't forget the one who didn't show up, or the one who showed up to get a badge, and get paid mobilization money, per-diem, and hours for getting a badge, just to "drag up" and go to the next job. We were staffed at sixteen techs, and ended with twelve.

The name of the game is roll with the punches, and we pulled it off. After several painful, for me, conversations with the little lambs, we got settled in, did the job, and left a good memory behind us.

Now I have to see if I can build a team and find us some more work.

Bin Laden dead?

2011-05-03T06:21:00.002-05:00

Ok,,,,

Seal team six, one of the most storied and best trained spec ops groups in the world, who have been refining the "smash and grab" for forty years, have strolled into a compound and whacked the highest value target around.

The body is respectfully buried at sea, so there can be no shrine, and coincidentally no body.

Very convenient, don't you think?

It might have been better to grab the bad guy and wring him dry then bury him at sea, the end result would be the same, except Al quida could be disassembled from the top down.

If I can think of that scenario, I'm sure the pros can too.

Sorta' makes you think doesn't it?

High Crimes and Misdemeanors

2010-09-01T14:36:00.003-05:00

Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu, whose county lies at the center of major drug and alien smuggling routes to Phoenix and cities east and west, attests to the violence. He said his deputies are outmanned and outgunned by drug traffickers in the rough-hewn desert stretches of his own county.

"Mexican drug cartels literally do control parts of Arizona," he said. "They literally have scouts on the high points in the mountains and in the hills and they literally control movement. They have radios, they have optics, they have night-vision goggles as good as anything law enforcement has.

"This is going on here in Arizona," he said. "This is 70 to 80 miles from the border - 30 miles from the fifth-largest city in the United States."

He said he asked the Obama administration for 3,000 National Guard soldiers to patrol the border, but what he got were 15 signs.

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer condemned what she called the federal government's "continued failure to secure our international border," saying the lack of security has resulted in important natural recreational areas in her state being declared too dangerous to visit.

At this point the President of the United States has committed the crime of malfeasance. A deliberate failure to perform his duty to this nation. He is subject to impeachment and removal from office for failing to perform duties assigned by the Constitution.

The party of rants, violence and lies.....

2010-08-27T11:50:00.003-05:00

SALISBURY, Md. -- A gunshot shattered a glass door Wednesday at a Salisbury office of the Maryland Republican Party, according to a party statement.

The party published the statement on its website, indicating that a single gunshot shattered the front door at the office early in the morning.

Salisbury police officers discovered the shattered glass after midnight and reported that the office had been vandalized.

The statement indicated that a party staffer found a bullet in the office.

If you have any information regarding this continuing investigation, contact Salisbury police by dialing 410-548-3165.

In these days it is entirely possible that someone from that office, or a friend, fired a shot to get a little notice for the GOP.

Even so, the person responsible needs a little jail time.

I am willing to believe a frustrated Demi could no longer restrain it's self. This would not be the first violent attack by the pacifist party. Stand by for more demonstration of unhinged politics.

Obama is working under the table again.....

2010-08-26T07:17:00.002-05:00

Ashley Carson, executive director of the Older Women's League, wrote in a blog post in April that Simpson is targeting Social Security to fix the deficit even though it "doesn't contribute" to the country's debt problem. She also accused Simpson of "disgusting ageism and sexism" in characterizing those who oppose cuts to benefits as "Gray Panthers" and "Pink Panthers."

In his email to Carson, which was sent Monday night, Simpson said he is defending Social Security, not trying to undermine it, and referred her to information showing the program's long-range shortfalls.

He went on: "I've made some plenty smart cracks about people on Social Security who milk it to the last degree. You know 'em too. It's the same with any system in America. We've reached a point now where it's like a milk cow with 310 million tits! Call when you get honest work!"CNNMoney.com

OK, Dude, I've been doing honest work for forty four years, and you were a politician! What did you pay in?

OH, wait! Congress has made a tradition of "borrowing" (yes, those are sneer quotes) from the Social Security Fund, virtually since it's inception, and filling the coffers with worthless IOU's. Now the IOU's are about to come due, and you don't want to pay up! When I finally reach my retirement age, that continues to rise, I will have worked and paid into the system for fifty three years. Does that offend you that I expect some benefit that Congress has promised me for that entire time?

Do you think reducing the manpower of the federal government by laying off Social Security will reduce the deficit? Could it be that repaying the debt to those who paid for your schemes will cause a rise in the National Debt?

Will any borrow and spend politician, please, explain to me how spending a borrowed dollar in some trickle down scam, can ever be recovered in it's entirety? With interest? Can't happen.

Obama routinely places the most divisive people available in positions that will cause trouble. In this case he has recruited at least one person who would curtail our ability to recover what we have already paid in to the government. I would actually be satisfied with that amount that was deducted from my pay checks, the money that I worked for, but I will never see it.

Now you want to criticize some one who lobbies for the elderly, does that make me your problem?

Yes, Dude, I AM part of your problem.

Royalty....or so they think

2010-08-24T07:33:00.002-05:00

The president has spent the day watching DVDs and playing the board game Taboo at Blue Heron Farm, the spacious $20 million estate the First Family rented, at a cost of somewhere between $35,000 and $50,000 a week. Sitting on 28.5 acres in the Chilmark section of the island, the farm has its own private section of Squibnocket beach, four living residences including a white Victorian farm house, a gym, a swimming pool, an outdoor basketball half-court, and a putting green. From the drudge report.

Hard times, not for the first family.

I guess we should all scrimp a little so Barry and Mo can have a little time off. The First Muslims are too stressed to attend to the nations business for more than a few days before going away to unwind.

What happened to Camp David? Not good enough?

It almost makes me wish for Jimeah Cahtah back. Not quite, but he did use Camp David to keep Yasser Arafat off the streets for a while.

The excesses of this troop of would be rulers just floors me. I am seeing notes in the news that some are beginning to see that Barry doesn't intend to run again, that perhaps his attempt to destroy America is only a resume line for his speaking tour after leaving office.

It's almost unthinkable that the president of this nation would attempt to reduce us to a banana republic, then use the high office he has held to profit from the destruction. But, Hey, he's a Democrat, it's OK.

I could just cry....

2010-08-14T08:27:00.002-05:00

I was day dreaming on Auto Trader, looking at Aston Martin's.

Some poor dude is selling a $160K, 2003 DB7 with 50,000 miles, for $60K ,,,,,

because his wife wants "something new".

What the dude needs to do is buy her a Hundai.

A comment from an article found on the Drudge report

2010-08-09T09:45:00.002-05:00

nataya wrote:

The costs to the American taxpayers of Michelle Obama's trip to Spain are being understated.

In addition to the Air Force Two airliner that took Michelle and her daughter to Spain, there are numerous other aircraft that accompany the First Lady when she travels any distance from home base: there are the escort aircraft (fighter planes), there is at least one C-47 that must cart the bullet-proof limousines for the First Lady and her guests and the special cars used by the Secret Service, and there is a cargo plane to take the jet fuel over to Spain for the return trip back to The States. (we do NOT buy local jet fuel for the president or First Lady when they travel abroad). We also have to pay a per diem -- $273-a-day federal per diem for five days -- for each of the 70 Secret Service agents who must accompany a First Lady when she travels; that per diem is in addition to the lodging and food expenses (paid by the taxpayers) for the 70 Secret Service agents traveling with Michelle.

The costs to the American taxpayers for Mrs. Obama's "private" jaunt are stupendous and outrageous.

Was there NO place within the United States that Mrs. Obama would find interesting or worth visiting?

She COULD be touting America as a tourist destination; instead she is making a clear statement that there is nothing worth seeing in the United States.

She COULD have been spending American dollars to boost the American economy; instead, she boosted the Spanish economy. Gee, thanks, Michelle.

We have been LECTURED by President Obama about the need of EVERYONE to sacrifice during these stressful economic times. I guess Michelle Antoinette didn't get the memo. She is living higher off the hog than she ever dreamed possible.

My hope is that after the 2012 election, Mr. and Mrs. Obama will be free to travel anywhere they want to as PRIVATE citizens paying their own way.

Royalty needs not explain, all us little people need to suck it up and defer to them.

I have a couple of questions.....

2010-08-08T07:43:00.002-05:00

The Obamassiah exhibits some odd behaviors for a politician. Perhaps he is above giving, at least, lip service to the will of the people. Perhaps he is blind to the consequences of being an idiot. Perhaps he just doesn't care.

The last part is what concerns me. A politician that doesn't care about the next vote has a plan.

The great one disregards the media, cracks on some of the reporters, and disrespects a Senator that spent more time in a POW camp that Barry has in the Senate. Poor PR if nothing else. His arrogance is on display daily.

Note to Barry: Arrogance does not sit well with "we the people".

He has championed a health care plan that will bankrupt many households, and disguised it as less expensive than what is available now. Many believe it is socialized medicine. I made that mistake as well. It is actually government controlled insurance that we will have to pay through the nose for. It will eventually, probably, expand to be come the very industry it demonizes.

Why?

For the money. If costs to the consumer go up, and the cost as well as the availability, of those services are regulated at a lower rate, remember insurance and doctors are ripping us off, who gets the difference?

The premise that the government will take in money is directly opposed to the projected cost of the bill. That is the excuse for the tax increase that comes with the bill and the taxes that will follow.

Barry has espoused "bailouts" of banks and automakers from the pockets of taxpayers. Would the collapse of banks and employers have triggered a depression?

We will eventually find out.

What is certain is the interest on the debt this nation has incurred is about one third of the gross national product. I am told when the interest on the debt exceeds the GNP our money is worthless, because the government that backs the currency is insolvent. Actually it's worse than that. If 100% of our income is owed to taxes to cover the debt, how do we live? If 100% of our taxes are owed to intrest, how does the government keep it's promises and obligations to the people?

He is in favor of "immigration reform". The expression is a euphemism for an amnesty for people who have committed various crimes by coming to this country or staying too long. That doesn't make them bad people, but lawbreakers. They also work, they take jobs that might be available to the 9% of citizens that need them. There are many degreed engineers who would gladly mow your yard or clean your house to put food on the table.

Well, not gladly, willingly.

Why do we want to give citizenship or work visas to foreign nationals when our natives are out of work. I wish I could find the article that put immigration at 100K a month, that would be 1.2 million a year. Who would be the hero if, perhaps, one third of that number of jobs were created. I'm pretty sure the Oval office would have some self congratulatory statement on the subject.

He has reached the pinnacle of ambition for a community organizer, where else could he go? Is one term enough to satisfy an ego large enough to have it's own gravity well?

I think not.

Mister Hussein Obama has a very interesting resume. If you brush past the education, lack of a certificate of live birth, voting "present" on almost every bill before him, and a complete lack of performance in the Senate, you will find that he worked for an organization run by sixty's radicals who sought the violent overthrow of our government. You will also find that he attended a church pastored by a racist who hates America. If you have ever associated with those sorts, you will know that they will not tolerate a dissenting opinion in their presence. Additionally most people go to church to worship and learn how to live from their Pastor, not just for appearances.

It might be for appearances, which would be slightly better, but then which is disingenuous?

Barry is a mole.

Indoctrinated by the radicals in ACORN, coached and sponsored by those well versed in politics, and presented as a candidate to change the face of the nation.

They got that part right.

This nation would be very hard to dispose of from the outside, however it could be done by economic means from within. The Democrats have been trying that for years. The greatest changes come from within. A nation torn apart by joblessness and a divisive leader, toss in racist sentiment, will not emerge the same.

Barrack Hussein Obama does not act like he wants to run for office again.

Is that because he can't win, or because he doesn't plan to allow another election?

Those are the questions.

As was stated before, this is the greatest nation on earth, he wants to change it.

Don't you remember?

2010-08-07T08:19:00.003-05:00

Way back in 2008 the soon to be first lady made the statement that the pie is only so big, and some will have to take a smaller piece, so others will be able to get more.

Now we know who the "others" are.

That would be "she who must be obeyed" and forty or so close friends and family. That would not include the nearly seventy security folks. This was a "mother and daughter trip" per a White House spokes person.

Thank God it wasn't a family outing.

$375K, per the Drudge report. Somebody got themselves one humongous piece of pie.

Everyone I know is tightening their belt, and the White House staff is on over time planning trips for the first spouse. Eight this summer, or so reports say.

The next extravagance is the designer coat, from the UK, whass'amatter Mo-chelle, US designers not good enough for you?

The sense of entitlement is staggering.

Just so you know...

2010-08-05T07:39:00.002-05:00

If you mix Whipped Cream flavored vodka with an orange soda, it tastes like a creamsicle that will punch you in the head.

Update on the work break

2010-08-03T22:11:00.008-05:00

This has been a busy summer, very interesting, like the Chinese curse.

TLOML had a lumpectomy the day before I had to leave for work. If I live to be a thousand I will never do anything harder. Still the bills have to be paid. They were substantial, all covered now. God be praised, the mass was benign. Laser treatments (???) and medication and things are better.

We have done some kitchen up grades, and a major cleanup in the garage. If you think that was a minor thing, then you haven't seen my work bench.

We took a weeks vacation in Mexico, pictures below. We climbed some pyramids, swam in underground rivers, rode ATVs in the jungle and walked on the bottom of an inlet in hard hat dive equipment. We enjoyed some local foods, liquors, and entertainment.

The clan will have a new member in September, courtesy of my stepson and his love. She is the sweetheart he has been waiting for, or if he screws it up, he's an idiot.

One of my son-in-laws is changing jobs, so his soon to be ex-coworkers gave him a farewell party that left him at his door step at four in the morning, in his socks and boxers, falling down drunk, covered in ranch dressing and deli meats. ( WTH???) I don't think I will ever party like that.

An apology to myself and any reader lingering out there

2010-08-03T10:19:00.003-05:00

These days I'm living my life in a blender, on puree. You might imagine the blur of the world passing as you peer out from your own Daiquiri.

I admit to a little sense of helplessness, as I watch the highest elected official in the land dismantle our nation.

Because of this, I have recently just shook my head and wondered how any one can still believe this amateur can remain in office.

I will start again to voice my opinion on these pages as an outlet for my frustration.

I should have been doing so all along.

If you were not terrified of government before.....

2010-08-03T10:09:00.002-05:00

Now would be a good time to start.

From Congress a chart of the health care bill. If you can make anything of this you are way smarter than me.

http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press/tx08_brady/pr_100728_hc_chart.html

Except for the massive increase in taxes and government intrusion into your life.

A thought

2010-06-01T07:49:00.001-05:00

All men are dreamers,

Some only at the moment of their death.

Endeavor to persevere....

2010-03-11T22:34:00.004-05:00

this is the Democratic Party method.

In my state liberals and northern transplants tried to get liquor by the drink. Every time they tried the preachers and the boot leggers would get together and vote it down.

They persevered, and succeeded. No one will start the effort to repeal the law. There is too much money to be made.

The same applies to health care reform (gubbmint take over), they will continue down this ruinous road until it is in place.

As Ronald Regan said, "the closest thing to eternal life is a government program".

If we can hold them off until November, vote out everyone who even mentions it without spitting on the ground, we might be able to hold it off for a few years.

Send them all home.

Quiet drone...

2010-03-11T11:12:00.003-05:00

sit down, shut up, and do only what you are told.

In another step toward a totalitarian world, the Obamasiah has committed to regulation on fishing, which could include, disallowing recreational fishing.

Previously the CHOSEN ONE has stated that "the right to keep and bear arms can be managed." His minion has committed to the Useless Nitwits small arms treaty. Discussions with every whack job in the world for any reason what so ever.

The entitlement mentality will destroy this democracy, as it has every other democracy. There are only so many beans in the can, when they are gone, if you continue handing out beans that have been borrowed, eventually you will reach the point that you can borrow no more, then what?

The health care "reform" and bailouts are a disincentive to being productive, responsible, and self sufficient. "I don't have to know or do anything, the gubmint will do it for me."

If our Congress critters will postpone the spending until the election season, they will see what we the people want.

Until then the Obamasiah, will continue to destroy our way of life as fast as he can.

God is telling me I'm Fat

2010-03-09T20:16:00.002-05:00

Like I didn't know already.

I have my excuses, like work, like something hurts, like I'm a whiny baby.

This morning I walked down to the street. It was a beautiful day and warm. I looked down the street and saw an interesting profile. Looked like a weight machine. I wondered what kind of shape it was in, so I strolled over.

Mumh, looks Ok.

I went home and grabbed a two wheeled dolly, and, uhh, recycled it. It has two weight stations, one for fly's, presses, and curls. The other for leg extensions, pull downs, rowing and other things I will discover, surely.

I cleaned out the garage, washed the unit and drug it in, first work out and I didn't even use the machine.

As the good Lord has provided, so will I work.

Looks like I'm out of excuses.

Break between jobs, sucks huge

2010-03-09T10:32:00.004-05:00

It’s been an interesting couple of months.

Kind of like being set on fire, but not quite.

Thanks giving and Black Friday. The struggle with the gift buying thing until Christmas.

Major family blowup, the girls, the rest of the family is OK and the one to blame (mostly) refuses to accept any responsibility, as expected.

I wish I was as perfect as she thinks she is.

My truck was stolen from my driveway, dumped in the woods a half hour away. Recovered the truck, the insurance company has it, we aren’t sure if it is worth having back.

Rednecks driving your truck that they have stolen don’t tend to take care of things. “Drive it like you stole it” is more than a line in a bad movie, for some folks it’s a way of life.

They made out with a thousand dollars worth of cameras and GPS units. The truck was recovered four days later, and the local PD saw it was recovered, the “investigation” pretty much stopped. It took a month, and several conversations with station chief to get a call from the “detective”, or is that defective, I forget, and it could go either way.

My son moved to a friend’s house, and took his wide screen TV with him. I went shopping for a TV without adult supervision. I found a Phillips 52 inch HD LCD that was great. It wouldn't fit on the book case, and looked like a huge, evil mushroom sitting on an end table. The result was an avalanche of remodeling that has only just been completed. That would include some new furniture, hardwood floors, painting and tile in a bathroom, then move all the furniture.

I have taken up paintballing as a hobby.

Sometimes the only way to get rid of stress is to shoot someone.

Nonfatal, in this case, but you can’t have everything, I guess. We run around the woods in camo, shooting kids and women, getting shot in turn. It’s lots of fun, if you can stand a few welts. Like the “t” shirt says, “If you can’t stand the welts, stay out of the woods!” We have a few Iraq veterans, they are the people you watch the most, (i.e. shoot them first if you can) because they will get you, if you don’t get them.

I got my truck back from the body shop on Friday, everything appears to be OK, but we are watching closely. One result of the theft is a monitored security system in the house and a driveway alarm, with remote controlled lights to come.

The Love of My Life is having health issues, excisional biopsy coming Wednesday, this after several noninvasive attempts to determine the nature of the shadow on an X-ray. She has had several procedures done in the Shamans office that scared the mortal life out of me. All is well so far, but we have far to go. This is all preventative, or diagnostic in nature, and we hope to stay in that realm.

I have to leave for work the day after her surgery, and will be back in May. I’m hoping for a job of several months duration this summer to help with bills and the move to a motor home for work. I would actually like to get a job overseas for a couple of years and rent the house.

We'll see.

What the Hell is going on,

2010-03-01T15:12:00.002-05:00

This is the letter sent to several offices around town. I was shocked by the lack of response. Silly of me I know.

And why haven’t we heard about it? I found out this weekend that there has been a rash of break ins’ and motor vehicle thefts in my neighborhood.

How do you suppose this came to my attention?

That would be when my truck was stolen from my drive way.

It was mentioned in passing by the responding officer. I live within walking distance of a police station. I never see them around, but I know where the office is. What I see on my street is drivers cutting through from College to Shipyard, at speeds up to sixty miles an hour. I have seen motorcycles go by so fast that you could only guess at the color of the bike. I don’t spend a lot of time in the front watching traffic, but it doesn’t take long for someone to blow by like they are going to a fire. The exception would be the Police Dept. I never see them. I have called the Police to my home and asked them to sit in my drive and clock speeders. They won’t do it.
This afternoon my wife and I started looking to see just what we could find regarding crime in our area.

Not very much.

The wife did several searches, had a bash with Google, and couldn’t find any report of my vehicle being stolen, or the other two being ransacked. We did find five motor vehicle break-ins and one theft, in our neighborhood.

I can’t call that a cover up, but the word sure didn’t get out.

I subscribe to the “newspaper”, and my wife reads it thoroughly, daily. We had no idea that there had been any problem close by, not to mention just down the street. That would be eleven property crimes, five this weekend. There have been twenty eight autos stolen in the last month in our district, thirteen recovered, who knew? Certainly no one in my neighborhood.

Why is that important?

Because when things start to happen you take extra precautions, as we do now.

Does the Star News have a crime reporter? If not, why not? If so, why aren’t they doing their job? I can sit in my living room and find out which restaurants in New York will allow me to use their toilets without being a customer , but I can’t find out about crime in my neighborhood. I know more about Haiti today than I can find out about my police department.

There are sixty two officers working from the Southeast Division Office, I had to walk in and ask. I did get a print out of the short title for the reports filed since Dec 1. It seems that if you are on College, Shipyard or Hollytree, you’re covered, otherwise you’re on your own.

There are some things I do know about our police. They are arguably some of the worst drivers in town. They might do better if they were paying attention, but most of the officers I see on the road are on the phone or computer.

I have been sitting at a traffic light at College and Shipyard and watched a car blow a red light by several seconds, it was in my line of sight and I knew the driver saw the light turn red soon enough to stop. The Police officer had his attention on his computer and never looked up.

Good job for the team dude.

I don’t even want to start with our TV “News Stations”, if someone isn’t on fire or laying dead in the street they don’t even notice. I hear more about John Edwards than crime in town, did anyone notice that the Enquirer scooped everybody? What does that say about reporting around here?

Crime reporting was once considered to be important, a public service, no more apparently. I heard the story regarding graft on the ABC board until my ears hurt, so what, politics as usual. It was, however, crime reporting, or at least embarrassing.

I actually got a call back from the Commander of Div. 6 (Southeast Station), a very nice Lieutenant. He did me the courtesy of researching the crimes and auto thefts in town. The situation isn’t as bad as it seems. It is, however, bad enough. The initial information I was given at the local station was twenty eight auto thefts this month, that’s almost one a day. There were several towed vehicles that were reported stolen.

Which drags up the question of why didn’t the people at the station know? I have been offered the opportunity to do a ride along, and I certainly will. I was informed that crimes in my area are down by forty nine percent, which is good, unless you happen to fall into the remaining fifty one percent.

It would be nice to have hard numbers for the amount of actual criminal activity. Ten percent of fifty isn’t bad, ten percent of fifty thousand is another matter all together. I will now be on the E-Mail list for the Div. 6 information on recent crimes. I also found out that the PD has a public information officer who reportedly sends out communications to the papers and TV stations.

What, exactly, is done with those items remains to be seen.

So, what do I want?I want PD to step up and be an example to other departments and drivers in the area.

I want the Star News to inform the subscribers of problems in their area, I want our local TV stations to leave the national news to the networks and get on the street to report the issues in our neighborhoods.

I’m tired of rumor mongers and mullet wrappers, I want reporters not “personalities”.

Up date: My truck was recovered five days later with relatively minor damage. The insurance has already paid me for the damage. Loss of electronics and such will cost me about a grand. The castle will get a monitored security system. I am contemplating unpleasantness for any future issues.

I.Q. test

2010-03-01T15:00:00.002-05:00

AP wire
updated 8:54 a.m. ET, Mon., March. 1, 2010

ORLANDO, Fla. - Rocky, a 700-pound grizzly considered one of the most gentle animals of all Hollywood's performing beasts, bites down on the neck of a veteran trainer.

Illusionist Roy Horn is severely mauled by a show tiger during a Las Vegas performance.

An elephant at an Indonesian tourist resort tramples its longtime handler to death.

And now the latest — a 40-year-old trainer at SeaWorld Orlando is drowned by a massive 12,000-pound killer whale named Tilikum, an incident that raises anew the question of whether some beasts, especially the biggest ones, have any business being tamed to entertain.
Descriptions of Tilikum, the 22-foot orca which has now killed two trainers, inevitably come around to his intimidating size.

Sorry, if you expose your vitals to a PREDATOR, you may become a chew toy. Neither you, nor your next of kin, should be surprised. Orcas are intelligent, not human. Any thing 100 times your weight, with corresponding appetite, has an unfair advantage in unarmed combat.

This is how it works.

2010-01-27T10:00:00.003-05:00

Choosing a wife
A man wanted to get married. He was having trouble choosing among three likely candidates.

He gives each woman a present of $5,000 and watches to see what they do with the money..The first does a total makeover. She goes to a fancy beauty salon, gets her hair done, newmakeup; buys several new outfits and dresses up very nicely for the man. She tells him that she has done this to be more attractive for him because she loves him so much.

He is very impressed.

The second goes shopping to buy the man gifts. She gets him a new set of golf clubs, some new gizmos for his computer, and some expensive clothes. As she presents these gifts, she tells him that she has spent all the money on him because she loves him so much.

Again, the man is impressed.

The third invests the money in the stock market. She earns several times the $5,000. She gives him back his $5,000 and reinvests the remainder in a joint account. She tells him that she wants to save for their future because she loves him so much.

Obviously, the man was impressed.

The man thought for a long time about what each woman had done with the money he'd given her.

Then he married the one with the biggestBoobs.

Men are like that, you know.

There is more money being spent on breast implants and Viagra today than on Alzheimer's research. This means that by 2040, there should be a large elderly population with perky boobs and huge erections and absolutely no recollection of what to do with them.

I don't believe a word of it!

First, no woman I've ever met would ever tolerate the man having two other "likely candidates".

Second, they would never tell him "it's because I love you so much", he's supposed to "know" with out her saying a word.

Third, she already knows that she is the "Hawtest Thang" he ever saw. so she doesn't need a make over.

Fourth, she would never buy him things that would distract him from her.

Fifth, although the woman is certainly competent to invest in the stock market and gain great returns, she wouldn't give it back, and the only thing she would buy is shoes.

Finally, the guy wouldn't give her money because he already knows all the above, and he knows who has the biggest boobs anyway.

If you don't send this to five OLD friends right away there will be five fewer people laughing in the world.

The Elephant in the Room

2010-01-04T18:19:00.003-05:00

I went to say good by to a friend today. She is the sister I always wanted, and tells me I am the brother she never had. Very high praise indeed.

She is the person who, as far as I know, has never done a bad thing to anyone. I have known her for thirty years, and will miss her for as long as I live.

She moved away several years ago and I lost track. A time or two I would run into mutual friends who would give me up dates. Like most people I was so busy trying to live that I lost touch with the very best people I know.

One friend told me she had developed breast cancer and another told me she was in remission. I didn't even know where to start looking to find her.

Just past the end of my nose would have been a start, but I was so busy.

While Christmas shopping I ran into a mutual friend who knew what was going on, the lady told me that she has bone cancer, that has spread to her brain.

TLOML and I resolved that I should visit and be quick about it, for that chance once lost could not be recovered. I called a friend today to start tracking her down, and found she was visiting her old home near here. I made a call and as quick as I could drove to where she was.

I held the speed down to something under a hundred. There was no reason to hurry, but I wanted to have as much time with her as I could. Walking in was as hard as anything I have done in a long time.

Manly image and expectations be damned. I wanted to be strong for her, well, I blew that one out my whatever. After a litte while I calmed down enough to feel her acceptance of her fate. She was not bitter or afraid. I hope that when my time comes I can muster one tenth of the grace she wears like a crown.

We visited for about four hours and I held her hand the whole time. We talked and laughed about all our old friends and things we had done. We spent our time catching up on all the things I had missed.

We talked about everything except the elephant in the room.

When I finally had to say good bye, and it was a final farewell, for I know I will never see her in this life again, we gently touched the subject.

I kissed her forehead and her hand and told her that I loved her and would miss her forever.

An angel will soon leave us and the world will be a poorer place with out her.

On A personal note

2009-11-22T22:37:00.001-05:00

The current debate on health care reform and whether or not to do Mammograms and self exams has struck a personal note. My ex wife discovered her breast cancer at the age of 47 by self exam. If she had followed the currently suggested guideline she would be dead.

She is not my favorite person, however, my son feels very strongly about the matter. The same thing might apply to me. I discovered my cancer, quite by accident, and I was outside the age group considered to be the most likely to develop. My oldest step-daughter was diagnosed with pre cancerous cells after her first child. The list goes on and on.

The Sixty Minutes “News Magazine” tonight was pure propaganda. The health care portion expounded on the money spent on the last two years of life. The doctor talked at length about a “bad death” while being kept alive by machines. I wonder what his choice would be if confronted with eminent death. It has been said “to know a man take him to the top of a volcano and hold him over the edge. Then you will know him.”

I think we might run a little short of volcanoes.

This is an orchestrated attempt to make us believe that numbers can decide who will live and die. It gives no credit to the human will to live.

There is another part of this debate that escapes notice. This is the largest tax hike in the history of this country. The total cost to my wife and I for our insurance is about$2400 a year. Under the government plan premium and deductable will be close to $14400. That will take 20% of my income.

How does this help me?

There are people who work and have insurance, who will have to switch to the government plan, put their goals away, and struggle to get by. When your disposable income, if you have any, is directed into the pockets of your rulers, you have no incentive to work, after all what do you get?

If my premiums increase by 300% where does the extra money go? Could it be I will be paying for the folks who will not work, or pay taxes. I will be subject to taxes for being overweight, jail time for not carrying insurance. I will have to submit information on my tax forms to prove that I have acceptable insurance and I’m not over weight.

What about the people who work off the radar. Paid under the table, pay no taxes, and Uncle Sam pays the bills.

Actually, the joke will be on them, the next step is amnesty for illegal aliens. When they are on the radar, and the taxes start, there may be a new migration, south this time.

The largest part of this issue is that of power, being taken from the individual and held by the government. The power to enfranchise those who will keep you in power, and the power to control every aspect of your life and now the manner of your death,

The power of life and death.

The entire issue is about power.

I'm sure there's a good reason for this

2009-11-09T11:23:00.003-05:00

Mrs. Michele Obama's Staff This has nothing to do with race but has to do with greed, egotism, and spending of over $1,500,000 PER YEAR in personal salaries by the first lady in a time of severe financial problems in the U.S. This is amazing!! From the Canada Free Press :First Lady Requires More Than Twenty Attendants July 7, 2009 Written by Dr. Paul L. Williams"In my own life, in my own small way, I have tried to give back to this country that has given me so much,"she said. "See, that's why I left a job at a biglaw firm for a career in public service, "... Michelle Obama

No, Michele Obama does not get paid to serve as the First Lady and she doesn't perform any official duties.

But this hasn't deterred her from hiring an unprecedented number of staffers to cater to her every whim and to satisfy her every request in the midst of the Great Recession.

Just think, Mary Lincoln was taken to task for purchasing china for the White House during the Civil War. And Mamie Eisenhower had to shell out the salary for her personal secretary from her husband's salary.

Total Personal Staff members for other first ladies paid by taxpayers: Mamie Eisenhower : 1 paid for personally out of President's salary
Jackie Kennedy: 1
Roseline Carter: 1
Barbara Bush: 1
Hilary Clinton: 3
Laura Bush: 1
Michele Obama: 22

How things have changed! If you're one of the tens of millions of Americans facing certain destitution, earning less than subsistence wages stocking the shelves at Wal-Mart or serving up McDonald cheeseburgers, prepare to scream and then come to realize that the benefit package for these servants of Ms Michelle are the same as members of the national security and defense departments and the bill for these assorted lackeys is paid by YOU, John Q. Public.

Michele Obama's personal staff:
1.. $172,200 - Sher, Susan (Chief Of Staff)
2. $140,000 - Frye, Jocelyn C. (Deputy Assistant to the President and Director of Policy And Projects For The First Lady)
3. $113,000 - Rogers, Desiree G. (Special Assistant to the President and White House Social Secretary for Mrs. Obama)
4. $102,000 - Johnston, Camille Y. (Special Assistant to the President and Director of Communications for the First Lady)
5. $100,000 - Winter, Melissa E. (Special Assistant to the President and Deputy Chief Of Staff to the First Lady)
6. $90,000 - Medina , David S. (Deputy Chief Of Staff to the First Lady)
7. $84,000 - Lel yveld, Catherine M. (Director and Press Secretary to the First Lady)
8. $75,000 - Starkey, Frances M. (Director of Scheduling and Advance for the First Lady)
9. $70,000 - Sanders, Trooper (Deputy Director of Policy and Projects for the First Lady)
10. $65,000 - Burnough, Erinn J. (Deputy Director and Deputy Social Secretary)
11. $64,000 - Reinstein, Joseph B. (Deputy Director and Deputy Social Secretary)
12. $62,000 - Goodman, Jennifer R. (Deputy Director of Scheduling and Events Coordinator For The First Lady)
13. $60,000 - Fitts, Alan O. (Deputy Director of Advance and Trip Director for the First Lady)14. $57,500 - Lewis, Dana M. (Special Assistant and Personal Aide to the First Lady)
15. $52,500 - Mustaphi, Semonti M. (Associate Director and Deputy Press Secretary To The First Lady)
16. $50,000 - Jarvis, Kristen E. (Special Assistant for Scheduling and Traveling Aide To The First Lady)
17. $45,000 - Lechtenberg, Tyler A. (Associate Director of Correspondence For The First Lady)18. $43,000 - Tubman, Samanth a (Deputy Associate Director, Social Office)
19. $40,000 - Boswell, Joseph J. (Executive Assistant to the Chief Of Staff to the First Lady)
20. $36,000 - Armbruster, Sally M. (Staff Assistant to the Social Secretary)
21. $35,000 - Bookey, Natalie (Staff Assistant)
22. $35,000 - Jackson, Deilia A. (Deputy Associate Director of Correspondence for the First Lady)
(total = $1,591,200 in annual salaries)

There has NEVER been anyone in the White House at any time who has created such an army of staffers whose sole duties are the facilitation of the First Lady's social life.One wonders why she needs so much help, at taxpayer expense.

Note: This does not include makeup artist Ingrid Grimes-Miles, 49, and "First Hairstylist" Johnny Wright, 31, both of whom traveled aboard Air Force One to Europe .

The reason is probably because she is so ill tempered the kids and dog avoid her, so they have to pay someone to be her friend.

The end of freedom

2009-11-08T03:06:00.004-05:00

Socialism has come to America.

The passing of the Health Care Reform bill will mean the loss of jobs and expansion of government. I will be much surprised if the National Debt doesn't skyrocket and bring about the collapse of the federal government.

Just so you know, insurance for the love of my life costs $161 a month. That's far short of the estimated cost of the insurance I will be forced to buy.

How does this help me, how does this help anyone?

This bill was passed against the desires of the majority of voters, in the middle of the night. How is this openness in government? How is this government of the people, by the people, and for the people?

We the people need to vote all the incumbents that supported this bill out of office. I have said for years that the congress is the new aristocracy, it's time to clean out the castle.

How would you know?

2009-11-08T00:25:00.004-05:00

CHICAGO (AP) -- They may have been the world's most famous man-eating lions, but it turns out they made other dinner arrangements from time to time.
Scientists have determined that the Tsavo lions probably ate about 35 Kenyans in the 19th century and not the 135 they've long been credited with devouring.
The Tsavo lions are both now stuffed and on display at the Field Museum in Chicago. Their killing spree inspired the 1996 movie "The Ghost and the Darkness."
Scientists from the University of California at Santa Cruz have studied the lions' bones and fur. They determined in a study released Monday that the lions probably killed about 35, although they may have had as many as 72 humans or as few as four.

Considering that the count was made by an engineer, on the scene, rather than by scientists more than a hundred years removed, and also considering the likely hood that those lions had been processing deceased natives since cub hood, I'm going with the original number.

I'm thinking that could have been more than a little light.

To: Annony Mouse

2009-11-08T00:11:00.003-05:00

Anonny Mouse has seen fit to pass gas in regards to a post regarding the rights of a state to pass laws that meet the approval of the residents. I was invited to leave the Union, and receive a flag. Then, if you can believe it, Mousey, resorted to personal attack. I would rather any attacks be in person, the better to respond appropriately. The disparaging remark about my intelligence was very hurtful, and probably too close to the truth, so my barbaric response should come as no surprise.

Though you don’t believe in my rights, I believe in yours. If you choose, feel free to submit everything to your federal masters. You can trust your government, ask any Indian, (sorry, Native American.)

A second nameless genius left a comment ambiguous enough to leave me wondering which side of the line he or she fell on. But the statement about “fat, old, white guys” really hurt my feelings.

So no publishing from me.

Present your case for your statements, sign your name, be a man or woman about it, I’ve been wrong before. Yes, Yes, I Know DW isn’t my name, but this is my forum.

From the Wall Street Journal, Nancy Care

2009-11-07T21:11:00.004-05:00

On Nov. 2, the Congressional Budget Office estimated what the plans will likely cost. An individual earning $44,000 before taxes who purchases his own insurance will have to pay a $5,300 premium and an estimated $2,000 in out-of-pocket expenses, for a total of $7,300 a year, which is 17% of his pre-tax income. A family earning $102,100 a year before taxes will have to pay a $15,000 premium plus an estimated $5,300 out-of-pocket, for a $20,300 total, or 20% of its pre-tax income. Individuals and families earning less than these amounts will be eligible for subsidies paid directly to their insurer.

• Sec. 202 (p. 91-92) of the bill requires you to enroll in a "qualified plan." If you get your insurance at work, your employer will have a "grace period" to switch you to a "qualified plan," meaning a plan designed by the Secretary of Health and Human Services. If you buy your own insurance, there's no grace period. You'll have to enroll in a qualified plan as soon as any term in your contract changes, such as the co-pay, deductible or benefit.

• Sec. 59b (pp. 297-299) says that when you file your taxes, you must include proof that you are in a qualified plan. If not, you will be fined thousands of dollars. Illegal immigrants are exempt from this requirement.

• Sec. 412 (p. 272) says that employers must provide a "qualified plan" for their employees and pay 72.5% of the cost, and a smaller share of family coverage, or incur an 8% payroll tax. Small businesses, with payrolls from $500,000 to $750,000, are fined less.

The first paragraph basically states that you will pay 17% to 20% of your total income for medical care. Rest assured that it will be reflected in your wages, and not in a good way.

The second says even if you have insurance that you are satisfied with, as soon as it changes, you will have to switch to the government option. Considering that they change at least yearly, you will be in a Govt. program.

The third says that you have to prove you are in compliance, or be fined, or go to jail, unless you are in the country illegally, then just continue to use the Emergency room for every sniffle.

The fourth says you must pay for your employees insurance, which sounds good, but a “Mom and Pop” business will likely close their doors because they can’t afford to dish out. If you think not, it happens every time the minimum wage goes up. I might be wrong, but having a job and no insurance is better than having insurance and no job to buy groceries and all the necessities of living.

Over all, this “plan” to provide health care is the biggest tax increase in the history of this country. It is a tax increase because I will be forced to pay for something that I don’t want, and subsidize people who want it but don’t want to work for it. The Feds will be entwined in every aspect of the insurance industry.
I predict that the insurers will either collapse due to interference, or be buried under a pile of money, later to blamed for “fraud”.

It is certain that the taxpayer will bear the burden, and be denied the benefit of making decisions in their own life.

If this passes we're screwed. I can't pay an additional 17% in taxes, and live any kind of life.

This is the perfect example of how out of touch the congress is with real people, they don't relate the dollar amount specified with a real wage. They mustn't consider the 15K a year to be burdensome.

I wish I could say the same.

Herding cats

2009-11-02T00:43:00.002-05:00

I've learned some new ideas about work ethics.

Not adopted, by the way, just barely tolerated.

Such as; One and Done, Nothing New After Two, Nothing For Me After Three, Nothing More After Four.

Poor poetry, and not addressed in the schedule.

The "nuclear professionals" working for me have readily embraced these lyrical tenants.

I have found it virtually impossible to snap the tap root connecting their butts to the chairs in the break room.

The "one and done" is one work order per day. If that is one 24", 45 degree Rockwell globe isolation valve rebuild, it's a miracle or an alien intervention. If it happens to be a three quarter inch gate repack, somebody is taking a nap.

Unfortunately all of us are on a twelve hour schedule, and the "nothing new after two" means if I get done by two, I expect to sit in the break room until six thirty.

Let me be plain here. When I am on my tools, and the man gives me a work order and a brief, I get off my hind quarters, and go to work. The time doesn't matter, fair doesn't matter, what some one has or hasn't done doesn't matter, I have a contract that says I will be paid for the hours I work, so I work.

Not so my little lambs. I have given the task brief, asked for questions, given out the work order and then watched for an hour as the bull session continues.

I could have cooked an egg in the palm of my hand.

I got a news flash killer, if you get done at two and you will not accept more work, then you need to go home. If you don't want to work, you don't have too.

Those little poems display the attitude of "pay me but don't expect anything".

There are other games, Question it to death, only deal with one issue at a time (each separate issue requires a walk back to the break room and a break), and of course, I'm not qualified.

If someone brings me a problem, I will find them an answer, please use the phone. Our income depends on doing a better job than any of a dozen other contractors, and doing it in a timely and professional manner.

Childish poems do not a professional make.

I try to hold my temper, and mostly I can. Sometimes it just slops over the edges, and then we get the eruption. When we have a plan, don't change the plan with out telling me. I really hate having to explain why no one can be seen working on camera FOUR HOURS after I have ushered the entire crew through the briefs and sent them to work.

They thought they had a better idea......WRONG! That one slopped over the edges.

When an older team member decided to ignore safety and his work partner decided to let him, that went bad quick.

I have two levels of counseling on these matters, "a word of prayer" and "we're all gonna' come to Jesus"!

Ignoring safety will get you to the "come to Jesus" meeting quick.

I don't have the power to discipline, or fire. I can write a bad evaluation, which may effect pay or rehire. Unfortunately we can't get enough techs as it is.

So, for now, I will try to keep forcing my little kitty's into doing their jobs.

Working for a living isn't so bad, trying to get the unwilling to do their part sucks.

Bad Dog....No Biscuit!!!!

2009-11-02T00:13:00.003-05:00

While little depends directly on Tuesday's outcome, the races are an opening salvo in 2010 midterm elections, when the entire House of Representatives, a third of the Senate and two thirds of gubernatorial posts are up for grabs.

Time to send a message to the congress critters,,,,

Stop Spending,

Start Listening,

We The People, have had enough of Government.

Get Out and Don't come back!

Vote them all out!!!! Really stir the pot!

Our legislators consider them selves to be our betters, change our governors or submit to them.

Yeah, what she said!

2009-10-31T03:54:00.003-05:00

The following letter read on Glenn Beck's show, is rapidly circulating around the country. Americans everywhere identify with this 53-year-old woman. She has given us a voice. Once you read this, you may want to forward it to all of your friends...

GLENN BECK: I got a letter from a woman in Arizona . She writes an open letter to our nation's leadership:

"I am a home grown American citizen, 53, registered Democrat all my life. Before the last presidential election I registered as a Republican because I no longer felt the Democratic Party represents my views or works to pursue issues important to me. Now I no longer feel the Republican Party represents my views or works to pursue issues important to me. The fact is I no longer feel any political party or representative in Washington represents my views or works to pursue the issues important to me. Instead, we are burdened with Congressional Dukes and Duchesses who think they know better than the citizens they are supposed to represent. There must be someone. Please tell me who you are. Please stand up and tell me that you are there and that you're willing to fight for our Constitution as it was written. Please stand up now. You might ask yourself what my views and issues are that I would feel so horribly disenfranchised by both major political parties. What kind of nut-job am I? Well, these briefly are the views and issues for which I seek representation:

One, illegal immigration. I want you to stop coddling illegal immigrants and secure our borders. Close the underground tunnels. Stop the violence and the trafficking in drugs and people. No amnesty, not again. Been there, done that, no resolution. P.S., I'm not a racist. This is not to be confused with legal immigration.

Two, the STIMULUS bill. I want it repealed and I want no further funding supplied to it. We told you No, but you did it anyway. I want the remaining unfunded 95% repealed. Freeze, repeal.

Three: Czars. I want the circumvention of our constitutional checks and balances stopped immediately. Fire the czars. No more czars. Government officials answer to the process, not to the president. Stop trampling on our Constitution, and honor it.

Four, cap and trade. The debate on global warming is not over. There are many conflicting opinions and it is too soon for this radical legislation. Quit throwing our nation into politically-correct quicksand.

Five, universal healthcare. I will not be rushed into another expensive decision that will burden me, my children, and grandchildren. Don't you dare try to pass this in the middle of the night without even reading it. Slow down! Fix only what is broken -- we have the best health care system in the world -- and test any new program in one or two states first.

Six, growing government control. I want states rights and sovereignty fully restored. I want less government in my life, not more. More is not better! Shrink it down. Mind your own business. You have enough to take care of with your real [Constitutional] obligations. Why don't you start there.

Seven, ACORN. I do not want ACORN and its affiliates in charge of our 2010 census. I want them investigated. I also do not want mandatory escrow fees contributed to them every time on every real estate deal that closes -- how did they pull that one off? Stop the funding to ACORN and its affiliates pending impartial audits and investigations. I do not trust them with taking the census with our taxpayer money. I don't trust them with any of our taxpayer money. Face up to the allegations against them and get it resolved before taxpayers get any more involved with them. If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, hello. Stop protecting your political buddies. You work for us, the people. Investigate.

Eight, redistribution of wealth. No, no, no. I work for my money. It is mine. I have always worked for people with more money than I have because they gave me jobs -- and that is the only redistribution of wealth that I will support. I never got a job from a poor person! Why do you want me to hate my employers? And what do you have against shareholders making a profit?

Nine, charitable contributions. Although I never got a job from a poor person, I have helped many in need. Charity belongs in our local communities, where we know our needs best and can use our local talent and our local resources. Butt out, please. We want to do it ourselves.

Ten, corporate bailouts. Knock it off. Every company must sink or swim like the rest of us. If there are hard times ahead, we'll be better off just getting into it and letting the strong survive. Quick and painful. (Have you ever ripped off a Band-Aid?) We will pull together. Great things happen in America under great hardship. Give us the chance to innovate. We cannot disappoint you more than you have disappointed us.

Eleven, transparency and accountability. How about it? No, really, how about it? Let's have it. Let's say we give the buzzwords a rest and have some straight honest talk. Please stop trying to manipulate and appease me with clever wording. I am not the idiot you obviously take me for. Stop sneaking around and meeting in back rooms making deals with your friends. It will only be a prelude to your criminal investigation. Stop hiding things from me.Twelve, unprecedented quick spending. Stop it now.Take a breath. Listen to the people. Slow down and get some input from nonpoliticians and experts on the subject. Stop making everything an emergency. Stop speed-reading our bills into law.

I am not an activist. I am not a community organizer. Nor am I a terrorist, a militant or a violent person. I am a parent and a grandparent. I work. I'm busy. I am busy, and I am tired. I thought we elected competent people to take care of the business of government so that we could work, raise our families, pay our bills, have a little recreation, complain about taxes, endure our hardships, pursue our personal goals, cut our lawn, wash our cars on the weekends and be responsible contributing members of society and teach our children to be the same all while living in the home of the free and land of the brave.

I entrusted you with upholding the Constitution.

I believed in the checks and balances to keep from getting far off course. What happened? You are very far off course.

Do you really think I find humor in the hiring of a speed reader to unintelligently ramble all through a bill that you signed into law without knowing what it contained?

I do not.

It is a mockery of the responsibility I have entrusted to you. It is a slap in the face. I am not laughing at your arrogance. Why is it that I feel as if you would not trust me to make a single decision about my own life and how I would live it but you should expect that I should trust you with the debt that you have laid on all of us and our children. We did not want the TARP bill. We said no. We would repeal it if we could. I am sure that we still cannot. There is needless urgency and recklessness in all of your recent spending of our tax dollars.

From my perspective, it seems that all of you have gone insane.

I also know that I am far from alone in these feelings. Do you honestly feel that your current pursuits have merit to patriotic Americans? We want it to stop. We want to put the brakes on everything that is being rushed by us and forced upon us. We want our voice back. You have forced us to put our lives on hold to straighten out the mess that you are making. We will have to give up our vacations, our time spent with our children, any relaxation time we may have had and money we cannot afford to spend on bringing our concerns to Washington .

Our president often knows all the right buzzwords like unsustainable. Well, no kidding. How many tens of thousands of dollars did the focus group cost to come up with that word? We don't want your overpriced words. Stop treating us like we're morons.We want all of you to stop focusing on your reelection and do the job we want done, not the job you want done or the job your party wants done. You work for us and at this rate I guarantee you not for long because we are coming. We will be heard and we will be represented.. You think we're so busy with our lives that we will never come for you? We are the formerly silent majority, all of us who quietly work, pay taxes, obey the law, vote, save money, keep our noses to the grindstone... and we are now looking at you.

You have awakened us, the patriotic freedom spirit so strong and so powerful that it had been sleeping too long. You have pushed us too far. Our numbers are great. They may surprise you. For every one of us who will be there, there will be hundreds more that could not come. Unlike you, we have their trust. We will represent them honestly, rest assured. They will be at the polls on voting day to usher you out of office. We have cancelled vacations. We will use our last few dollars saved. We will find the representation among us and a grassroots campaign will flourish.

We didn't ask for this fight. But the gloves are coming off. We do not come in violence, but we are angry. You will represent us or you will be replaced with someone who will. There are candidates among us who will rise like a Phoenix from the ashes that you have made of our constitution.Democrat, Republican, independent, libertarian. Understand this. We don't care. Political parties are meaningless to us Patriotic Americans are willing to do right by us and our Constitution, and that is all that matters to us now. We are going to fire all of you who abuse power and seek more.

It is not your power.

It is ours and we want it back.

We entrusted you with it and you abused it.

You are dishonorable.

You are dishonest.

As Americans we are ashamed of you.

You have brought shame to us. If you are not representing the wants and needs of your constituency loudly and consistently, in spite of the objections of your party, you will be fired. Did you hear? We no longer care about your political parties. You need to be loyal to us, not to them.. Because we will get you fired and they will not save you. If you do or can represent me, my issues, my views, please stand up. Make your identity known. You need to make some noise about it.

Speak up.

I need to know who you are. If you do not speak up, you will be herded out with the rest of the sheep and we will replace the whole damn congress if need be one by one.

We are coming. Are we coming for you?

Who do you represent?

What do you represent?

Listen. Because we are coming.

We the people are coming."

Amen!

The end of an era

2009-10-18T02:40:00.000-05:00

AD has warned that those who haven’t updated their blogs will be deleted. I don’t blame him, I need to do the same thing.

I also need to recover my interest in the changing face of America. Since the last election my interest has declined because I find it difficult to believe any one, much less the majority of voters, wanted a socialist president.

Lower case is deliberate.

This political creation has convinced me that Jimmy Carter is not the worst we could pick for this high office. Carter proved that the US could survive four years without a President. Obama may prove that we can’t survive four years of social programs.

I become more convinced each day that the most powerful, productive nation in the world is doomed because the indigent have learned to vote themselves unlimited benefits.

If you are physically unable to work, or care for yourself, a compassionate nation should help. However, if you have made decisions that continue to deprive you of the means to care for yourself or your loved ones, give up the twelve pack, jerk your panties up, wipe your nose, and get on with doing what you know is right and needful.

I have been around too many that their entire life centers around where they will party the weekend away, too many that would rather buy a beer, than milk for their child. If I have to feed the child, I want the little dear put under the care of someone who will teach them how to live. Harsh I know, but we need a defense against unlimited reproductive rights by the electively stupid.

Sorry for the anger, I’m in the mood to throw someone down the stairs,

repeatedly.

The significance of the collapse of this nation will be the death of millions from starvation, and the violence of nations unrestrained by the threat of a police action. The Useless Nitwits will have to leave Turtle Bay and go harass someone else. They have no teeth without us, and no tolerance for us. The banana republic we are about to become will certainly not be able to fund them.

I was doing some of the recurring training that is done at Nukes, and heard a woman say in this weird adoring voice, “I love Obama”.

I thought I was going to puke.

Glassy eyed, unthinking adoration.

If he was a preacher in a Midwest church (sorry Midwest, Jim Jones wasn’t a southern boy), his supporters would be lining up for cool aid. I remember that party, almost had to help clean it up.

I suppose I should focus on something more positive, perhaps the building wave of protest by Dems against their own leaders. I’m seeing more protests now than since Vietnam. I think it’s only going to get worse.

Our national leadership no longer cares what the constitution says, our president ignores it, and the Supreme Court looks for inspiration to interpret that document in nations ruled by government employees instead of elected officials.

Sad days indeed.

Raceism or guilty media

2009-07-11T08:28:00.002-05:00

Why did this article make national news,

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D99B48LG0&show_article=1

And this one did not.

http://whttp://www.ohio.com/news/50172282.html

I think I know.

Fallen Heroes

2009-07-10T08:57:00.001-05:00

When I bought my bike last year I thought I might do something in opposition to the over publicized, protected speech of a group of religious nut jobs. I would be willing to test the righteousness of their claims with trial by combat, even though that is a little out of style.
I finally decided on the Patriot Guard. I signed up and never got a notification of a need in the area.

That all changed yesterday.

I am now a member of the Red Knights, who rode escort for an area firefighter who was killed in Iraq. We were told there was a very slight chance some of those nut jobs might show up to spread their hatred. No one wanted to miss that.

Luckily, none showed their ugly faces. I did get to see the out pouring of emotion by my entire community for a firefighter, by people who didn’t even know him.

It was said by one of the Patriot Guard Riders, “the fire service really knows how to send off one of their own.” Several of these men rode hundreds of miles to stand with us. We appreciated them very much.

The forecast was suitably gloomy to fit the occasion, a soft rain becoming a downpour occasionally. The local departments raised a forty foot American Flag between two tower trucks on the road in front of the church. A dozen pieces of apparatus joined the escort. Every branch of the military was amply represented. The officers and men of his unit made certain that one drop of rain would not touch the widow or her family. The flag line and honor guard stood uncomplaining, in the rain, for three hours, to do honor to our brother. The police made sure the procession was not delayed.

The local people stood by the road, in the rain, and held American Flags, to show their respect for a man they had never met. They stopped their cars and got out to wave tiny dash board flags, and hold their hands over their hearts.

The family was visibly moved by the honor done their loved one.

The graveside service, in our National Cemetery, included full military honors, the bagpipe corps, and the ringing of the bell for his “last call”.

Thank God for the rain, or a lot of tough guys would have tarnished their image.

2009-07-07T20:42:00.001-05:00

We went to a flood last night

2009-07-07T09:31:00.006-05:00

My son called last night to ask if he could borrow my Jeep or Bronco to haul sand bags(???)

That's the first indication I had that something was going poorly for the stupids.

He told me the water was up to the registers in his old store and the District had called to see if he could help because the new manager was out of reach for some reason.

When he said "up to the registers", silly me, I thought it was creeping in that far. Actually it was covering the floor a couple of inches deep, with the water outside eight inches or so higher than the floor.

Per the news this morning, we erased our rain deficit for the year last night. Seven inches in a couple of hours.

The pictures above are of standing water, very important that is!

I and a couple of very nice young men, redirected traffic and pushed several cars out of the deeper water.

The white Lincoln will be on ebay soon as the man driving it tried to get out the door and then left through the sun (flood roof) roof. He was sitting on the top of the car when we went by.

I have a 4X4 diesel pick up that sits pretty high, and enough sense to turn around if it gets too deep. We plowed through slowly to the store to get money for sand bags. I parked on the side walk and talked to the employees through the door.

Sand bags were not going to help.

At that time I got a few lessons in how stupid some people are. Any one with any type of car that didn't float plowed along through the water, some of them with a wake a couple of feet high.

The drivers of cars we tried to redirect away from the deepest part, would look at you like you were trying to trick them, and then continue on until the water killed the engine or they started to float. Cars with low bumpers, had waves running up across the hood to the windshield.

They were still coming when we were done and finally went home.

The killer is I could see high pavement, and no one went that way.

The cars in the really deep water are in the street. The police actually blocked that road.

I enjoyed being an a$$hole for a little, when every other car on the street was in the center lane to stay out of the water, I got into it, had a clear lane, and thew some really high rooster tails.

I love me some tall truck.

Thieving Government

2009-07-06T18:23:00.002-05:00

I have been layed off for lack of work, a condition to be expected in my current career path.

So, unemployment?

Ain't happenin"!

It seems the new requirements that require income, in the claim state, in each of the last five quarters, will prevent me from ever filing a claim for unemployment payments, as long as I am a contract tech.

It will not prevent my employer from having to pay those taxes.

Thieving bastards.

Updates....

2009-07-06T18:02:00.004-05:00

The mother in law continues to decline. She doesn't wake up much and hasn't eaten in three days.

This can't last long.

Additionally, I was told the other day that several years ago she was told that she had ovarian cancer, and decided to take no action.

If this was her wish, then as bad as it seems we must honor it. DNR in place.

I participated in a memorial walk for four soldiers from our area that died in Bagdad. About two hundred and fifty walked to our local war memorial for a short service.

We were warned that the nutjob hate mongers who protest the USA were going to be there, I had a prepared message for them. I was gratified and disappointed that the cowardly bastards didn't show.

I don't need any jail time.

I was voted into the Red Knights, (does that mean you have to call me Sir DW? Probably not.)

The soon to be son in law is still alive, as previously noted he totaled the Love of My Life's Jag XK8. She cried over the car. It isn't just "a" car it was "THE" car. Just so you know, when the Love of My Life sheds a tear, I start looking for things to break.

Do not be the cause of those tears, it will not end well.

We have found a suitable replacement, in Utah.

Road trip upcoming. Anyone want to meet and greet?

All's well that ends.

Well.

Just when you think things can't get worse......

2009-06-26T17:20:00.004-05:00

Then they get terrible.

My mother in law has dementia, to me one of the most cruel of malady's. Your loved one slips away a little at a time, until the shell that's left is an object of pity, that doesn't know you anymore. The love of my life has been adjusting to that reality for a year or so now, not easy but doable.

A week or so ago the motherinlaws vitals dropped almost out of sight, she was recovering in the ICU with some testing, when someone did a CT looking for a stroke, and found a tumor the size of a tennis ball in her frontal lobe.

With that news, we basically threw everything down and ran for home. I put TLOML on a plane in Portland, Oregon at 17:30 on the sixteenth and ran for home. 3200 miles, in four days.

The MIL is losing body functions at a rate slowed by steroids and cushioned by dilantin.

The Love of my life is now trying to prepare herself, no hope there, and is wound tighter than a spring. There is some doubt if the MIL will make into the new week.

Amazingly enough, she is awake all night and sleeps all day. She is hard to wake, but manages with some help. Today they woke her and dressed her and put her in a wheel chair, when I walked in the room she recognised me.

It absolutely broke my heart

It's the only time that I could hug her and kiss her face, previously she did not react well to affection from me. Sadly that was never a big problem.

We had all the youngest there for pictures, it wasn't planned, it just happened. The tiniest came all the way from Japan with her mother (of course).

The MIL looks better than a lot of the residents, but we know it's drugs and can't last.

TLOML has been to fun places like the Funeral home to make arrangements in advance of the event, probably a good idea. It seems to be a little unsettling though.

What do you do with this?

I guess we will muddle through, it's not like we have a choice.

If there is a plus side to this, it would be that it will be quicker than dementia and, in a sense, cleaner.

Sad, but that's the best you can make of it.

I was talking about fishing....

2009-06-09T09:29:00.003-05:00

I haven’t thought of this story in a long time. A friend of mine is from the Land Between the Lakes in Kentucky. He invited me and another friend to do some snag fishing below Kentucky Dam.

I’m always ready to go fishing.

The process is simple. Take a fishing rod seven feet or less long, a sixteen ounce sinker, 140 lb line, and a 14/0 treble hook, then go to the river and whale the thing as far as you can.

Hopefully it will hit the river. When you feel the sinker hit bottom, swing the rod to the side, and occasionally you will hook a fish. The day I went, we used two rods, for three men. The result was more fish than me and a big man could carry to the parking lot. I was worn completely out and I only fished for part of the day.

It’s a popular pass time. The fly in the ointment can be the commercial fishermen.

The commercial guys buy the biggest flat bottom john boat they can, and a six horse power Johnson out board motor. They have one wash tub for cut bait, and another for fish. Their sinkers are two or three pound balls of lead. Those are kept in a bucket with the pistol. They will motor to the top of the boil below the dam, drop a bait from a two inch long rod and wait for something whiskered to show an interest. They then hand over hand it to the top of the water, accesses the danger, apply sedation with a small pistol as appropriate, and throw them into the wash tub.

Pistol?????........yep, pistol!

If you’re wondering why a pistol in the boat, consider what would happen if you hauled an unsedated catfish of,, say,, 100 lbs into the boat? Nothing good, you can be sure. Some times a tourist will see the big fish, and see just enough to be foolish and drag a pissed off monster into the boat,,, sans sedation. Said tourist will immediately be balanced on the windshield like an ungainly cat, whilst the fish swats every thing not nailed down into the river. The oh, so helpful river rats, between gasping for breath and belly laughs, are yelling helpful advice, like, “shoot ‘im”. Like the dude has a gun or it wouldn’t blow a hole in the boat.

The bank fishermen have a gun also, in their sinker bucket, after all they don’t want to get a leg broken, or get finned by a catfish.

The problem starts when a boat fisherman decides to fish the boil nearest the bank. The bank fishermen are shut out until he leaves.

They take exception to that, seriously.

A new boat fisherman decides that the bank fishermen are having better luck a hundred feet away, and they can’t do anything to him, so he’s going to putt over and drop a bait. Profanity and verbal abuse ensue. Threats and such fly back and forth. Still the boat guy doesn’t move off.

A small group of bank fishermen gather and discuss tactics, then spread out and get ready to cast. The boat guy is lulled into a false sense of security. When the boat comes into range, all the bank conspirators cast at the same time.

It sounded like a hail storm on a tin roof.

Remember all those 140 lb lines and 14/0 hooks?

The boat guy is caught, and the six horse motor starts to lose ground. Someone is about to get his butt kicked.

Boat guy panics and grabs his pistol first, after a couple of shots, the bank guys, not to be out done, grab their pistols and return fire.

These are .22 or .25 hand guns with a two inch barrel, kept in a bucket full of lead balls. Probably not target pistols to start with and likely abused for years, a hit would have been an act of Providence, who was bent over laughing hard enough to puke at the moment, not deciding anyone’s fate.

The unarmed people freak and streak.

Good idea!

The TVA guard hears the commotion and takes cover with my friend behind a parapet wall.

Boat guy finally grabs a bait knife and starts cutting lines to make his escape.

So my bud asks the guard, who is holding his .38 revolver in his best TV dude, “point in a safe direction”, grip…”What are you going to do about that?”

He replied, “As soon as they run out of ammo, I’m going down there and run them off!”

Who says fishing is boring?

Sotomeyor,

2009-05-31T17:42:00.003-05:00

The law has no color, no ethnic background, no personal history.

This country was founded on the premise that all men are equal, that premise has been changed by the will of the people to include all genders and races, as it should.

The law can have no preference, no "more equal than others".

The racial quotas created by the Federal Guilt mongers is counter to the literal reading of the Constitution.

We don't need ethnic experience to be just. We must all be compassionate to those in need, but not because of the color of their skin or their gender.

The First Kenyan

2009-05-31T17:37:00.003-05:00

I have deliberately avoided commenting on the election or its supposed winner. I know the American people are the sure losers.

The debt issue that was part of the election rhetoric has been tossed aside in favor of, what appears to be payoffs for election support. The Gaffs, goofs, and B.S. are horrible. All the supposed bi partisan airs in Washington are in the toilet. I heard the comment regarding "the Constitution gives the American people the right to keep and bear arms, I believe however that we can manage that right." That only means one thing to me, how about you?

The current appointment of a Supreme Court Justice, who immediately makes chauvinist and racist statements is an indicator of his intent.

His nomination of several politicians with tax and other legal problems indicates an inability to judge acceptable candidates, or he just doesn't care.

The media, as usual, bow to the most liberal candidate, no matter what their issues. If the media can't overlook or sweep the issues under the table, then what are they hiding that will fit under the table?

I have a conviction that if you run anything through the money filter and the ego filter, then the real reason for the act will be left on one of the filters .

God Help Us All.

Allergy

2009-05-29T08:55:00.003-05:00

I have developed a positive allergy to shoe leather.

Every time some jackass sticks a boot in my butt,

I get a positive rash and a bad attitude!

Remember,,,,,, I'm from the south, I don't do hurry up!

The china shop dwelling bovine hired to apply said leather, avoids me.

When I see him, I put him to work helping me with the heavy lifting

You just have to make your weakness your strength.

A step back in time

2009-05-29T08:52:00.001-05:00

This is a spooky place, particularly for a nuke.

It's the only place I've been where there is one working plant, two unfinished, one shut down, two entombed and one fast flux test reactor. That's just what I can see on the ride to work.

There is a high energy laser looking for gravitational "string" evidence up the road.

The stories of things found in the desert abound, they are questionable in the extreme, just based on money. You can ride to the tops of the mountains, and find the remains of buildings. There are pull outs that go to the foundations of structures, and their attendant parking lots.

Kind of makes you wonder what really went on in the day.

Elevator tactics

2009-05-19T17:23:00.003-05:00

I have learned something. (imagine that!)

If you are on a crowded elevator, the loud announcement "I HAVE GAS!" will get you all the room there is, and a path to the door with no hassles.

Just in case you need to know.

The South 'Gonna Rise Again!

2009-05-18T18:02:00.005-05:00

An update from Oklahoma .

The state law passed today, 37 to 9, had a few liberals in the mix, an amendment to place the Ten Commandments on the front entrance to the state capitol. The feds in D.C., along with the ACLU, said it would be a mistake. Hey this is a conservative state, based on Christian values...!

Guess what..........We did it anyway.

We recently passed a law in the state to incarcerate all illegal immigrants, and ship them back to where they came from, unless they want to get a green card and become an American citizen. They all scattered. Hope we didn't send any of them to your state.
This was against the advice of the Federal Government, and the ACLU, they said it would be a mistake.

Guess what..........we did it anyway.

Yesterday we passed a law to include DNA samples from any and all illegals to the Oklahoma database, for criminal investigative purposes. Pelosi said it was unconstitutional.

Guess what........We did it anyway.

Several weeks ago, we passed a law, declaring Oklahoma as a Sovereign state, not under the Federal Government directives. That, for your information, makes Oklahoma and Texas the only states to do so. Guess what.........More states are likely to follow. Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia, both Carolina's, Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, Arkansas, West Virginia , just to name a few. Should Mississippi act, so will Florida . Save your confederate money, it appears the South is about to rise up once again. The federal Government has made bold steps to take away our guns. Oklahoma, a week ago, passed a law confirming people in this state have the right to bear arms and transport them in their vehicles.

I'm sure that was a set back for the Kennedys and Ms Pelosi.

Guess what..........We did it anyway.

By the way, Obama does not like any of this.

Guess what....who cares...were doing it anyway.

God knows, I hope this isn't a spoof. It's time to take the advice of Larry The Cable Guy and GITERDONE!

If we wait too long there will be nothing to save.

Herding Cats

2009-05-17T17:01:00.006-05:00

I am a little amazed by the amount of money that is dumped on me, on a weekly basis. I'm not complaining mind you, just amazed. It, most weeks, comes to about 2500 a week after taxes. I am riding herd on a bunch of over trained, under motivated retirees, who have collectively, more knowledge regarding smart remarks, bad attitudes, and valve lore than a whole school of engineering graduates.

I will say though, they hide their light under a bushel quite well.

Most I would allow to work on a clock, some of the others I wouldn't let touch a manure spreader.

Boring, however, never enters the picture.

I told a tech today, one that I actually like, that sometimes when you just keep pushing all the buttons, you find the one that sets the bomb off. Food for thought if nothing else. Another, that I am starting to really like, is a professional "grumpy old bastard", except that he hasn't managed to get under my skin yet, and he is obviously going for the reaction. He always speaks softly to me and will do most anything I ask. What else do you need? I am always in the field with them, something that some of the other supervisors don't do. Those other supervisors didn't get asked back and couldn't figure out why.

We have some new tech's that are young enough to make a name for them selves as "hands" if I ever get to pick my crew, or at least some of them, I am going to snag as many as I can. Then watch the grease fly.

I suppose my worth to the job comes from my knowledge of power plants and industrial safety. The other part is error prevention tools.

If I can I think I will try to get a slot at the Crane Valve School, and then work a dirt burner with them. More knowledge and more experience would be good on the resume.

Work

2009-05-15T17:13:00.001-05:00

I have one of those jobs, currently, that you never want to get good at. That would be because, then everyone wants you to have it every time.

It amounts to dragging a Cadillac through a keyhole. Actually its a series of valve components that weigh as much as a small Cadillac, that need to be guided through a space smaller than a door in your living room, with a giggling gaggle of goobers galumphing along in, and out of the line of fire.

These things don't say excuse me, or sorry, they just crush you like the cockroach you are, provided you let them get loose.

Note to self: Duck!

Desert Hazards

2009-05-13T08:31:00.000-05:00

One of the things I find it hard to get used to here is the ubiquitous tumble weed. Many times you will see them huddled out of the wind in any lee, or huddled against a fence trying to be still. You may see one, or a hundred, rolling across the sage in a race to the horizon. They never make it, they wear away until they are too small to catch the wind, or disintegrate under your wheels. When the wind shifts all the hiding places become launching pads, and the piles become herds racing off to nowhere.

They do attack motorcycles. I was going to work this evening and saw a huge aggressive ball of sharp sticks about ten feet in the air fly toward my truck. He missed, but not by much. I can only imagine what it would do to me on my bike. Thank God for leathers. I’m sure I’ll have the rest of the question answered eventually.

Back at work....or what ever...

2009-05-11T17:50:00.002-05:00

I should apologize to all and sundry for my lack of posting, or maybe not, because it's not for others, but for myself that storys are written.

The LOML and I are living a dream. We are checking out state after state to find where we would like to live. We are in Washington now, good weather, good food, fishing, hiking and all sorts of outdoor activities. A fun place.

We lived through Minnesota and Iowa. Coldest place I have ever lived. All you tough types, try riding your scooter to work with out a heated suit in 14F weather. Trust me a snow flake in the eye at 55mph hurts. A doe deer four feet in front of your head light looks like a moose, and your butt will eat cotton like a combine.

I have empirical evidence.

We had quite the trip here to Wa. Got snowed on twice. The love of my life was looking for a snow storm of disasterous proportions, up to the time it happened. Then the question was"For heavens sake it's APRIL already, does it never stop?"

Yes, Virginia, it does stop, but not when you expect.

My question is a little more general, if you are in the desert, as we are, why does it rain so much? It seems I can only ride one or two days a week due to a rain storm.

On the road again

2009-05-11T17:43:00.002-05:00

Don’t pay the ransom, I’ve escaped!

It’s been a tough quarter, January was spent getting the home and the survival facility ready for the spring outage season. We loaded up and sailed on the twenty first, landed on the twenty third and started on the twenty sixth.

Lessons learned :
At twenty five below, diesel fuel turns to yogurt, and will not flow through injectors.
At twenty five below, when it finally starts, it sounds like someone is inside using a hammer to get out.
The transmission sounds like a twisted ball of rubber bands until it warms up.
Snow will not make a snow ball.
My mustache collects ice, lots, quickly.
Your first breath outside will freeze all your nose hairs together.

That was the first stop.

We worked seven, ten hour nights, for twenty one straight. All the pain of a night shift with none of the mitigating factors if it was on days. Blech!
I was presented with several work orders that no had ever done before, that’s positive I think. These particular valves had never had maintenance done on them. I also got my hands on some big valves types that I had never worked on before, good training.

The second stop is just getting started.

I spent two weeks in supervisor training, and am now a valve supervisor for general valve and air operated valves. Woo Hoo! We are working six, twelve hour days, with every Sunday off. It’s a union plant and Sunday is double time.

The trip to the first plant was a worrisome thing. We were running ahead of a major storm. It eventually hammered western Kentucky, but we were off the road by then.
I wasn’t seriously worried about the trip to the second job, it’s only three hundred and sixty miles, what could go wrong?

That was stupid.

I am usually addicted to the Weather Channel for one reason or another, wind or wave of ice.
Therefore, I was more that a little upset when we were caught on the road with a trifecta of winter slop.

First worry, the road is getting white, no problem, slow down. Next problem, the wind shield is icing, no cure for that.

Deal breaker, the idiots on the Interstate with me are still doing sixty!

There is no honor or courage in being stupid, and when you are risking being taken out by a random moron, it’s time to get out of the way.

We got a room and waited for morning. There was three inches of new powder on the parking lot when I went out to clear the wind shield, the DOT crews had done their usual wonderful job and magically produced a clear road by morning.

The Government and me

2009-01-19T12:54:00.002-05:00

Phlemfatale had a post on property tax, which indeed sucks. I am having issues with capitol gains tax.

2007 I sold a piece of land that I had owned for close to thirty years. I made a good profit. I had to invest a lot of time in prepping the place for sale, changing the lot boundary and generally jumping through hoops. No problem, it's always that way.

I consulted my accountant and wrote several large checks to have the money in my tax account to avoid penalty's. As I was leaving town I filed an extension on the filing date so I would not be late. While I was in the tax office for the state I asked the people working there, who you would expect to know something about the tax laws, if the state had a capitol gains tax.

If you expect the people who work with the tax laws to know anything, you would be wrong.

When I finally got home I filed my taxes, and found I owed another $15,500 roughly, I drove from the accountants office to the tax office and wrote them a check.

Six months later I get a notification that I owe another $1687 in penalty's and interest to the state.

Why did it take six months? Now I have 45 days to act, pay or write for a review, if the useless tits that work in the office had done something like heroic, like look it up, or know something about their job, they would already have their money.

It gets worse.

When I sold my land, because there was no structure on the land, I paid a ten percent commission on the sale, the federal capital gains tax is fifteen percent as is the state capital gains tax. Yep, that's forty percent right off the top. Now lump that right into my income for the year, now I have topped the Alternative Minimum Tax threshold.

Keep in mind, I have no deductions, everything I own is paid for. I will have to check but I think I paid upwards of $80,000 in taxes.

I took me thirty years to make a profit, and one year for them to keep more of it than I did. And now they are getting more.

Yeah, I love my government.

From George Will on Townhall

2009-01-14T09:34:00.003-05:00

A New York Times article, "Fannie Mae Eases Credit To Aid Mortgage Lending" (9/30/99), reported, "Fannie Mae, the nation's biggest underwriter of home mortgages, has been under increasing pressure from the Clinton Administration to expand mortgage loans among low and moderate income people …" The pressure was the 1977 Community Reinvestment Act that was beefed up during the Clinton Administration. It required banks to make high-risk loans they would not have otherwise made. Failure to comply meant fines and difficulty in getting approval for mergers and branch expansion.

When questions began to arise about government policy that intimidated lenders into making high-risk loans, we received congressional assurances. At hearings investigating the solvency of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Rep. Barney Frank said, ''The more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing.'' In a speech to the Mortgage Bankers Association, Frank advised, "People tend to pay their mortgages. I don't think we are in any remote danger here. This focus on receivership, I think, is intended to create fears that aren't there." Protesting against greater controls against lax mortgage lending, Sen. Harry Reid said, "While I favor improving oversight by our federal housing regulators to ensure safety and soundness, we cannot pass legislation that could limit Americans from owning homes and potentially harm our economy in the process."

I heard Frank on Good Morning America make the bald statement that there was inadequate Federal oversight in the free market.

Sounds to me like they hammered the lending institutions in to a corner and then fooled them into thinking the Govt. would protect them.

Turns out the Govt. did protect them, but not for the reasons they thought. Congress had to stop the "correction", which has only been postponed, so no blame would accrue to them.

Too much federal interference more likely.

GO!!!! Read the Corruption Chronicals... on the side bar!

2009-01-14T09:12:00.004-05:00

Tue, 01/13/2009 - 11:53 — Judicial Watch Blog
As Hillary Clinton’s Senate confirmation hearing begins today, a major news organization reveals that the future Secretary of State intervened at least half a dozen times on behalf of her husband’s donors including the manufacturer of a controversial cervical cancer vaccine linked to 21 deaths and thousands of adverse reactions.

Clinton regularly used her power as a New York Senator to intervene in government issues directly affecting companies and individuals that gave hefty sums to Bill’s presidential foundation, according to the international news group that obtained official correspondence of the acts through a public records request.

Among those that benefited from the senator’s clout is pharmaceutical giant Merck, a member of the Clinton Global Initiative and manufacturer of Gardasil. The highly controversial human papillomavirus vaccine has been linked to the deaths of at least 21 young women and girls and nearly 10,000 adverse reactions including life-threatening effects such as paralysis, severe circulatory problems and seizures.

Judicial Watch has uncovered extensive Food and Drug Administration (FDA) records detailing Gardasil’s serious side affects and published a lengthy report outlining the crisis associated with the vaccine, a top seller that has generated more than $1 billion in revenue for Merck. The report as well as the FDA documents, obtained through the Freedom Of Information Act, can be viewed here.

Incredibly, Hillary pushed the U.S. government to approve the use of Gardasil in females ages 9 to 26 by writing a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt in 2005. To purchase its coveted spot on the Clinton Global Initiative, Merck has dished out tens of thousands of dollars in the last few years. Company officials insist they never communicated with either Clinton about passage of their extremely profitable vaccine, however.
Hillary also wrote to the FDA on behalf of another major Clinton Foundation donor (Barr Laboratories) that makes the emergency contraceptive known as the morning-after pill and the Federal Communications Commission to advocate for a benefactor who is the chief executive of a New York-based communications company.

The Commerce Department and the Long Island Power Authority also received letters from Hillary pushing for the controversial projects of an energy company that gave her husband’s foundation at least $35,000 in just a few years.

These alarming interventions by a powerful elected official at the very least raise ethics issues. They may also be predictors of Hillary’s future activities. There’s no telling what she may push for—on United States Secretary of State letterhead—on behalf of her husband’s wealthy donors.

How can this woman shrug off the death and illness of thousands of other women? I guess they don't really mean that much to the voting demographic, or she thought no one would find out.

Smartest woman in the world? I'm thinking not. Else she wouldn't get caught at this junk.

Ethics problems? She doesn't have any ethics, so how can they be a problem?

The Obamesiah will have to muddle through without me....

2009-01-14T08:51:00.002-05:00

http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js">

I'm an embarrassment to Barack!I only scored 16 on the http://obamatest.com/%22%3EObama Test

Odumbo is already showing his colors as a Chicago politician, reeling in the promises, tapping scandal ridden cabinet members and then dumping them. The Queen Pelosi is changing the house rules to keep the good old boy network in charge, removing as many tools as possible from the Republican bag. Obumbles is positioning him self as blameless in the release of the remaining $350B bailout money. He asks while Bush is still in office, if the answer is yes, he gets the credit for asking, if no then he does it later, and no matter what happens he comes out looking like nothing was his doing.

If you voted your feeeelings in November, best put them away for the next four years, they are likely to be bruised.

Oily Dragons

2009-01-09T11:49:00.002-05:00

Last week the Drudge Report noted that the price of oil dropped more than any week in the last seven years.

The price of gas went up.

I know the price of anything is dependant on what the market will bare, but that's just stupid.

Tension in the middle east- the Gaza strip exports flowers and herbs for heavens sake.

Big oil is as greedy as ever.

Snotty Dragons

2009-01-09T07:30:00.002-05:00

When you don't care to send the best, get a resolution from the Useless Nitwits.

JERUSALEM- The U.N. Security Council called for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza, but an intense bombardment of missiles from Israeli jets and helicopters early Friday and a barrage of Hamas rockets indicated there may be no quick end to the fighting.

The Security Council resolution was approved Thursday night by a 14-0 vote, with the United States abstaining. The resolution "stresses the urgency of and calls for an immediate, durable and fully respected cease-fire, leading to the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza."

This would be the church lady telling the Angels and Outlaws to sit down and shut up.

Now I bet the UN will absolutely fume or huff.

Stupids.

My lucky red hat...

2009-01-05T18:11:00.003-05:00

All of us at one time or another have had our "blankey", that ugly dirty thing that was a charm or comfort totem.
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Mine was a red knit cap that I bought for a dollar in a gas station. I think I remember buying the thing when working as an electrician's helper. In those days becoming a helper was no more complicated than adopting a cat. It also paid as well as adopting a cat. We would gather at the bosses house and get our days assignment for the day and off we went to string wire in the morning and then go to a finish job in the afternoon. Summer time wasn't too bad, winter was another story. Have you ever hit your fingers with a hammer when they were so cold you had to wait to warm them up to bleed?
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It sucks swamp water.
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I was working with my future brother in laws. Bruce was a comical little troll, who tried to scare me one morning by almost rear ending a car, and swerved just in time to hit another car turning across our lane. He didn't see that one.
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He almost scared me to death. I came out of the seat in a ball, bent the dash with my knees and destroyed the wind shield with my head. The red hat didn't help.
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A new job taught me cool things like welding and grinding. How to saw asbestos with a sawzall, and line heat treat ovens. That one gives me nightmares. I came so close to dieing so many times there I can't count. One that made a real impression, and collected four stitches, was pulling a fly wheel off a punch press. The dudes who installed it were a little less than patient when fitting the key. The end result was a 20 ton porta power to remove the fly wheel. It slipped with about ten tons of load on it and I caught a one inch diameter threaded rod across the top of my head with a sound like breaking a ball bat.

Guess what I was wearing instead of a hard hat? (They ordered them while I was on the way to the ER).
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I was somewhat smaller than I am now and drove a Triumph Spitfire MKIV, probably the coolest car I have ever owned. It met it's demise one evening at the bumper of a 1965 Galaxy 500. It was my fault. When the dude hit me the car spun so violently I broke the passengers window with my head.
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Still wearing the red hat.
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I kept the hat for a long time, it was just something I wore because I had it.
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I sat down one night and counted all the scars and stitches I had accumulated while wearing the one dollar hat. When I was done and the total considered, I couldn't get it in the trash soon enough.
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Slow learner, that's me.

2009-01-05T17:57:00.005-05:00

The large TIM (Time Is Money) calculator shown above was based on the stepped drum calculator mechanism. This was the first type of four function calculator and these machines were inherently large and heavy. (The model shown was 21.5" x 7" x 6" and weighed 23 pounds.)

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The first stepped drum calculators were made in wooden boxes (see the Burkhardt below), but the model shown was an improved metal-cased model that was made in 1909. Because of their bulk, sales of these early machines were relatively small. (Dozens to hundreds per year.) Price was another obstacle. In today's dollars, a TIM would be priced at well over $10,000.

Manual four function calculator.

For a small amount I could have a scientific calculator wrist watch, that I would never use. If I wanted to, I could use my cell phone. Actually I can do most anything I need on one of the three desk top calculators cluttering the joint.

Which I bought for a dollar each.

Where will it go?

Great expectatioms

2009-01-04T19:00:00.004-05:00

.Lets see, the Obamasiah has yet to be sworn in and already is brushed by two scandals.

One Democrat selling a congressional seat and another who already sold something.

The old media has given them the benefit of the doubt, something they never give most people.

I don't have any doubt that they are culpable, of something.

The anointed one has an untenable position in the middle east, a worldwide financial crisis, campaign promises that have the welfare queens believing he is going to buy their gas and pay their rent.

He also has a congressional majority that is making noises like they want to bail.

There is some talk of spraying about a few trillion of our dollars to create jobs. By all accounts this was the same tactics that that FDR used to extend the Great Depression.

How long before we can start calling him a liar and stupid?

On a slightly more grim note, why has anyone said a single word to Israel regarding kicking the soup out of Hamas? No nation in the entire world would tolerate that sort of attack. Lets toss in the phone calls to residents in the area, tellin' them to bag ass, 'cause bad stuff is on the way.

Heck, we don't even do that.

If some bordering nation, any of the four; Canada, Mexico, Russia, or Cuba, launches a random missile attack against civilian targets, I expect a serious ass kicking in the immediate future.

What we would get from the incoming administration, would likely be a meeting with out conditions.

Then I'm callin' him stupid!

Free to a good home.....

2009-01-04T18:53:00.003-05:00

I have a New Condition Encyclopedia Britannica, that I no longer have room to store or display.
I can prove it's unused by the big kids report cards.
If anyone wants it, pay the shipping and it's yours.
If you know of any one who needs it forward my contact info.
These are beautiful books and it would be a shame to stick them in a dumpster or in a home that doesn't want them.

Thanks in advance,
DW

A busy time

2009-01-03T17:25:00.002-05:00

All of us have our excuses for failing to post. Work, tired, family, just living is bad enough. I hate to see Monkey Girl go, but I thoroughly understand. I have been posting enough to let every one who cares (few enough, I expect) know I'm still alive.
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I'm getting ready for my next contract,and getting the Love of My Life ready to go with me. Two is not twice as much, it's more like a geometrical progression. We, or at least I will be gone for six months, approximately. The big kid is going to house sit, and feed the livestock. That will let him set up for his own rental place by paying down his debts.
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I on the other hand have spent about a week juggling furniture, ferrying trash, generally clearing every ones problems away.
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Today I sat down at breakfast with a calculator and took a stab at estimating the cost of the coming trips. 5600 miles, at the current price of diesel, unless I come home from Minn. and then drive to Richlands, Washington. I took the general numbers and cranked them through a hat full of scenarios to see if there was any justification for larger exhaust or power tuners.
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Not!
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I can buy a lot of diesel for a thousand bucks. Minor power and torque gains would add little to drive ability, not to mention my new truck has about a hundred more horsepower than the old truck, and 500lb/ft torque. My transmission guy said he could change the front throttle body spring and give me the crisp shift I want. It would also reduce wear on the bands, all for the cost of a service. Guess what the trans command (electric) modules do.
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Same thing.
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Besides, if I feel I really need an exhaust change out, I can have it shipped to me where ever I happen to be, and have it installed.
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I may be able to post something a little more interesting soon.

Monsters in the yard

2009-01-03T17:18:00.003-05:00

I found a pair of these growing in my yard, had no clue as to where they came from or what they were. Seems they are European imports spread by bugs.

They are a variety of stink horn.

The things look like monsters breaking through the ground, small but disgusting.

Some say they are edible, some say not.

I'll never know.

A long walk on a beautiful day

2009-01-01T08:12:00.007-05:00

I enjoy walking, it's a good thing too, as the love of my life loves to walk.

The 27th and 29th were two of the prettiest days I have seen in a long while. Particularly in the winter, almost 70 F by lunch, cloudless skies and light winds. The first day we were in shorts and walked bare foot on the beach, for six miles. I got a blister on my big toe.

The second day we drove down the beach to the edge of a State Natural Area (didn't know there was such a thing), and walked down the beach from there. There were no vehicles and almost no people. We saw a total of six or so in five hours.

Some where about two hours into the stroll, I took leave of my senses and thought it would be cool to walk to the next village for coffee.

The round trip was thirteen miles, give or take.

Thank God most of the sand was hard, slogging that far in soft sand would be a real nightmare.

The first picture above is the Outer Banks pretty much as Stead Bonnet must have seen it a few hundred years ago.

If you look closely Ft. Caswell and Old Baldy can be seen, as well as the mouth of the Cape Fear River. Those places were vacant in Bonnets time. Just to the right of this picture is Southport and Bonnets Creek, where the pirate hid his vessel, until his capture and hanging in Charleston.

The second picture captures your humble scribe in winter plumage, standing on a dune, under the bluest sky I have seen in ages, with the wind at my back. Shortly after this was taken it warmed to the point that the jacket had to come off.

I wish I could grow hair on my head like I can on my face, I'd look like wolf man. I already have the hair on my ears.

To my left as you view the picture is Bonnets Creek.

The third picture is a view of one of the few pristine beaches left, about five miles of strand with nothing on it except tracks.

One of the things we do used to be called "beach combing". In our case, the search is for "sea glass", broken bottles that have washed in like sea shells, smoothed and frosted. We use them to fill the bottom of clear bowls for decoration.

There is no point to our excursions, we just go and walk or wander for miles, soaking up the sun getting wind blown and hot or cold as the season dictates.

The Ft. Fisher Hermit lived near here in a WWII bunker. He was there for twenty or so years, alone except for his dogs, until he was murdered for something he didn't have.

I think I know why he stayed.

May you live long in interesting times!

2009-01-01T07:59:00.002-05:00

A famous Chinese curse.

I think we are about to live it.

I have some experience there. Some things I can remember quite well, loss of a U-2 flown by a man named Powers, The Cuban Missile Crisis, the Assassination of Jack Kennedy, the war in the Falklands, the invasion of Grenada, the invasion of Panama, Jonestown (almost had to go there), Desert Storm, Mt. St. Helen's, The Tsunami in Asia, 9-11, the Vietnam War, all interesting times.

None so interesting as we are about to see.

I don't have to support that conclusion, you all know it as well as I.

Happiest of New Years,

2009-01-01T07:53:00.003-05:00

.... to one and all!

No!
Really!
We have all seen so much in the past year that was depressing to devastating to grim.
I hope for each of my friends, local and on the interweb, a year that they can look back on with nothing but enjoyment.

We haven't had one of those in a while.

Goofy Dragon AL Gore

2008-12-29T19:08:00.005-05:00

Scientist Fired by Gore Calls Warming Fears ‘Mistaken’
Princeton University physicist Dr. Will Happer, who says he was fired by Vice President Al Gore for failing to adhere to Gore’s views on global warming, has now declared that man-made warming fears are “mistaken.”

Happer, who served as the director of Energy Research at the Department of Energy from 1990 to 1993, said, “I had the privilege of being fired by Al Gore, since I refused to go along with his alarmism. I did not need the job that badly.”

He said in 1993, “I was told that science was not going to intrude on policy."

Imagine that!

Now Happer has asked to join the more than 650 international scientists who have spoken out against man-made global warming fears and are cited in the 2008 U.S. Senate Minority Report from Environmental and Public Works Committee ranking member James Inhofe, R-Okla.

“I am convinced that the current alarm over carbon dioxide is mistaken,” Happer told the committee on Dec. 22.

President-elect Barack Obama’s choice as his top science adviser, Harvard University professor John Holdren, is a staunch believer in the dangers of man-made global warming and advised Gore on his documentary “An Inconvenient Truth.”

Another great surprise!

Dr. Happer has published over 200 scientific papers, and is a fellow of the American Physical Society, The American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the National Academy of Sciences.

Sen. Inhofe said that the statements of prominent scientists like Happer who are willing to publicly dissent from climate fears strike a blow to the United Nations, Gore, and the media’s claims about global warming.

“The endless claims of a 'consensus' about man-made global warming grow less and less credible every day," Inhofe said.

Happer declared, “I have spent a long research career studying physics that is closely related to the greenhouse effect — for example, absorption and emission of visible and infrared radiation, and fluid flow. Fears about man-made global warming are unwarranted and are not based on good science. The earth's climate is changing now, as it always has. There is no evidence that the changes differ in any qualitative way from those of the past . . .
“Computer models used to generate frightening scenarios from increasing levels of carbon dioxide have scant credibility.”

When a Democrat tells you "the argument is over, we have a consensus", stand by for the argument. They are almost always trying to tell you the outcome before the discussion, it's just easier for them. Hard facts are just too unemotional, it's feelings that really matter.

That would be if you don't care that pursuing these goals will bankrupt the nation and it's businesses.

Besides, interrupting Al's cash flow would be bad ......for Al!

From NEWSMAX

Christmas Cheer by the foot candle...

2008-12-25T18:49:00.003-05:00

We went on a cruise around town to enjoy the show provided by Christmas lights. There are fewer lights this year than in years before. We went downtown and the riverfront, usually decorated, is pretty sparse. We scaled down this year because I just didn't feel up to doing the edges of the roof and the several conical shapes designated as trees.

We went to several of the traditional areas where the neighbors fight it out tooth and claw to see who can blow a breaker with cheer. I know one guy who loves to wow his daughters, who had a separate service installed for his Christmas display. He fills his front field with every conceivable anthropomorphic hallucination indicating a holiday is upon us. Good on him, it's way cool.

Some areas showed restrained good taste, the heck with that!

I like volume in lights, I want to hear the electric meter scream for mercy.

Children, we went to the poorer section of the hood, and found several houses that could be seen from space. The magnetic field from the lights would confuse migrating birds to the point they would circle the house until the breakers tripped.

Bring out the shades baby! Talk about your excess of cheer!

We need to show the people that we ENJOY!!!! our Christmas Holiday!

Next year I'm pulling out the stops!

Merry Christmas

2008-12-25T00:01:00.002-05:00

Merry Christmas to All and to all a good night.

May you all prosper in the New Year.

God Love you and Keep you safe from harm and Liberals, I love liberals too, but they should live with the consequences of their stupidity.

Sorry, a wild Turkey told me to say that.

Explorer???? OK!

2008-12-17T22:42:00.000-05:00

Your result for The Steampunk Style Test...

The Explorer

32% Elegant, 45% Technological, 40% Historical, 72% Adventurous and 9% Playful!

You are the Explorer, the embodiment of steampunk’s adventuring spirit. For you, clothing should be rugged and reliable, and just as functional as it is attractive. You probably prefer khaki or leather, and your accessories are as likely to include weapons as technological gizmos. You probably wear boots and gloves, and maybe a pith helmet. Most of what you wear is functional, and if you happen to wear goggles people had better believe that you use them. In addition to Victorian exploration gear, your outfit probably includes little knickknacks from your various travels. Above all, you are a charming blend of rugged Victorian daring and exotic curiosity.

Try our other Steampunk test http://www.helloquizzy.com/"> style="color:#131313">HelloQuizzy

The second tribute to TLOML

2008-12-15T06:09:00.004-05:00

I've pointed out that TLOML is the strongest person I know. She has withstood life and some real bastards for a long time. She has the strength of character, if not the physical strength, to deal with things that would send me to the bell tower so to speak. If I can't do anything else, I have her back. I am not polite, many times. If you want a solution, I can make it happen. You might not like it, but a large hammer will change things.

This is my tribute to her, a Dragon on a string, only there because he wants to be.

Not much to look at, but a sure thing in a dog fight.

There are times when you just know to STFU....

2008-12-14T19:06:00.005-05:00

When The Love of My Life and I started dating the first of those things we found that we really enjoyed, that can be done in public, was road trips. We visited San Francisco, later we went out west and camped. While we were there we hiked and generally did and saw some wonderful things. During my first marriage I had done a couple of driving trips all around the west and mid west, and thought it would be cool to share the experience with a couple of the more adventurous kids.

The planning was done and off we went. I had a four wheel drive Suburban to provide room for four and,,,,,stuff. We camped hither and yon for roughly two weeks. From the Badlands to Vegas and Tombstone, we went where ever the urge took us and stayed the night.

One of the many places I wanted to go was Devils Tower. This Native American sacred sight is known as the Home of the Bad God. It's as impressive as any natural structure I have seen. It is in a rather remote area. Oh, well actually, go to the end of the world and turn left, drive until you see the sign.

We had camped at Badlands National Park, and driven a long day to get to the approximate time zone. I don't know how long the ride was, but every one was napping, including, occasionally, the driver. The Love of My Life was driving, at the posted speed limit of 55mph.

Remember that number.

I woke up long enough to wonder where the hell we were. I was in the navigators seat and snagged the map, started looking for road signs, and trying to get information from TLOML.

The road was long straight and apparently endless, then I saw a sign, and almost immediately a town. When I looked up from the map again, I saw the highway sign that indicated our turn.

Then I really screwed up bad. I said "You need to turn here", and she did.

At 55 miles an hour, TLOML took both her little hands on the wheel, and yanked that land yacht into a right turn.

It must have looked like a cartoon. Dust flying, tires bellowing, passengers pasted to the window on the down hill side. I knew we were going over. If I hadn't been wearing my seat belt I probably would have flown out the drivers window.

Jesus in all his mercy, must have reached down and held that truck in the road.

That must have been what woke up Officer Peterson.

He was a young man performing his duty, apprehending a wild eyed, breaker of the law. He fired up the cruiser and in short order blue lighted TLOML and allowed her a short bleep of siren.

About that time I made another life changing mistake, my second of the day. As the good officer reached the window, I was about to try to help, I said "Now baby," that's as far as I got.

TLOML turned to me, I swear lightning came out of her eyes, ears and butt all at once. She told me, "don't you BABY ME!!!" everyone for miles knew that I would not baby her anytime soon, on pain of a fate worse than death.

From that point on I was peeping out of the crack at the bottom of the seat. Officer Peterson stepped back for a second, and then did a lot of talking from behind his hand.

I think he strangled occasionally.

As soon as he determined that I was an idiot (not too difficult) he gave us directions and sent me off to my fate.

I wonder why he was wiping his eyes while walking to his car, must have been the dust.

New Hobbies

2008-12-11T08:54:00.004-05:00

I think I'm going to take up a few hobbies, say for instance, cliff diving or grizzly goosing. Something a little exciting, perhaps crocodile teasing, or explosive ordnance disposal while intoxicated ( perhaps the only way to do that and not blow an artery), maybe just motorcycle racing with out a helmet.

I don't really have a death wish, but I did go to a Christmas dinner at the "Assisted Living" facility where my mother in law is incarcerated.

Locks on the doors, to keep the little dears from wandering off, a very high ratio of care givers (most of whom I expect to become alcoholics, I would) and a lot of artificial high spirits.

The music was provided by an ancient rocker with the most amazingly preserved hair color. He was ten years older than me, with not a strand of grey. How does he do that? Super Glue, perhaps, only his hair professional knows for sure.

The food was excellent, beef you could eat with a straw, crab cakes, shrimp, and stuffed mushrooms. Nothing that required teeth to chew, you could easily gum the stuff into submission, and they did.

Wine was offered, I begged for a full bottle, to divert my thoughts.

I've never seen so many walkers outside of a Hollywood Florida mall. They were lined up like assault vehicles at a Mayday Parade in Moscow.

The Christmas Carols were rendered in a voice that may have been strong once, but broke all too often now. Betty, who sat across from us, sang along in a beautiful little girl voice, that hasn't belonged in a little girl for a tragically long time. I saw a little old lady cry when she was told to eat her dessert. I saw too many people, who were at one time, strong parents and spouses, and providers.

Now the lights are on and nobody's home. This was the first time I've seen my mother in law without makeup or her hair done. That's a real sign of how far she has gone from here. There were way too many empty vessels.

Then you see the secret glances, you look at their eyes, and see that some are not gone, but only hiding.

Excuse me I have to go write my name on some bullets.

You can't make this stuff up....

2008-12-08T07:54:00.003-05:00

Lawyers Associated with ACLU Allies Seek Damages for People Accepting Mortgages They Could Not Pay
Much the same people and organizations who insisted on the issuance of subprime mortgages to "people of color" have now made a claim that former home owners are entitled to damages because they did not / could not pay for the mortgages they insisted on. Much the same lawyers who insisted on these mortgages are now seeking these damages, unless the defendants settle out of court.
The facts for this article, but not all of the legal conclusions, come from an article in the Los Angeles Times on 30 November, 2008. It concerns a complaint filed with the Department of Housing and Urban Development's fair housing and equal opportunity unit by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC) against two of the biggest three Wall Street ratings firms, claiming discrimination against "African American and Latino home buyers."

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-harney30-2008nov30,0,7730854.story

Go read this article, this group is going to get the money, not because the suit has any merit, but because of perception. The CEO's don't want to appear as though the little guy has been abused.

I think I'm 'gonna be sick!

Saw this at Hollys place....

2008-12-07T11:01:00.003-05:00

and like it because I have done a lot of these things, and it's just fun.

1. Started your own blog.
2. Slept under the stars.
3. Played in a band.
4. Visited Hawaii.
5. Watched a meteor shower.
6. Given more than you can afford to charity.
7. Been to Disneyland.
8. Climbed a mountain.
9. Held a praying mantis.
10. Sang a solo.
11. Bungee jumped.
12. Visited Paris.
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea.
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch.
15. Adopted a child.
16. Had food poisoning.
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty.
18. Grown your own vegetables.
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France.
20. Slept on an overnight train.
21. Had a pillow fight.
22. Hitch hiked.
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill.
24. Built a snow fort.
25. Held a lamb. a calf, but not a lamb.
26. Gone skinny dipping.
27. Run a Marathon. (half marathon)
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice.
29. Seen a total eclipse. (Lunar, and solar)
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset.
31. Hit a home run.
32. Been on a cruise.
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person.
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors.
35. Seen an Amish community.
36. Taught yourself a new language.
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied.
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person.
39. Gone rock climbing.
40. Seen Michelangelo's David.
41. Sung karaoke. (but I never been that drunk.)
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt.
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant.
44. Visited Africa.
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight.
46. Been transported in an ambulance.
47. Had your portrait painted (drawn.)
48. Gone deep sea fishing.
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person.
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris. (2/3 of the way up)
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling.
52. Kissed in the rain.
53. Played in the mud.
54. Gone to a drive-in theater.
55. Been in a movie.
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business.
58. Taken a martial arts class.
59. Visited Russia.
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies.
62. Gone whale watching.
63. Got flowers for no reason.( given and recieved)
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma.
65. Gone sky diving.
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp.
67. Bounced a check.
68. Flown in a helicopter.
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial.
71. Eaten Caviar.
72. Pieced a quilt.
73. Stood in Times Square.
74. Toured the Everglades.
75. Been fired from a job.
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London.
77. Broken a bone.
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle.
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person. (Walked in, 4000ft down)
80. Published a book.
81. Visited the Vatican.
82. Bought a brand new car.
83. Walked in Jerusalem.
84. Had your picture in the newspaper.
85. Read the entire Bible.
86. Visited the White House.
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating.
88. Had chickenpox.
89. Saved someone’s life.
90. Sat on a jury.
93. Lost a loved one

91. Met someone famous.

92. Joined a book club.

.94. Had a baby.
95. Seen the Alamo in person.
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake.
97. Been involved in a law suit.
98. Owned a cell phone.
99. Been stung by a bee.
100. Read an entire book in one day.

A lot of water under the bridge, and most of those things not completed are on the list. If some of the really odd jobs come through, the rest may follow.

Now I know why it's called "Black Friday"

2008-12-01T10:37:00.002-05:00

I decided that I would be brave and accompany The Love Of My Life to do the Christmas Shopping for the grand babies. That would be on the biggest shopping day of the year.

Up at three forty five, at the mall at four o'clock, thoroughly pissed off by four fifteen. The women in the "zone", do not compare well with hogs at the trough, with regard to size or manners.

I and my daughter were walking down an aisle when, out of a side aisle comes a gray hired road block, about two zip codes across the butt, who stops and bends over, (tempting target) blocking the aisle. I started the pattern for the day, by apologising loudly for being on her planet.

Some what later another svelte (for an Orangutan) little lady, breaches over like a break action shotgun, and pulls her cart up behind her and blocks the path of about fifty people. I think that one needed an overweight permit and a wide load banner on her car.

We did indeed brave Wally Mart, after the stampede (no one died) and picked up a few things. We paid for the lot and went to the exit, just in time to hear a self righteous ass proclaim to the door grannie, "You can inventory my cart if you must, but it will be a manager who does it."
The elderly ladies promptly lost concentration and "had to DO something", whereupon she took off with my receipt (???) to get help!

Oh! Damn!

Now this is apparently the horses ass's pet peeve, someone looking in his cart to make sure he isn't stealing, like anyone knows or cares who the idiot is.

It's a policy at all their stores, it reduces theft, no one is being singled out, get over your self!

Now the twit has his cart across the door way, and the battle axe has my receipt! He wont leave and I can't!

Then mouthy twit boy starts to step back, and the TLOML is on the verge of climbing his back like a window shade, to save him from screaming like a third grade girl, I reached over her head and pushed the dude and told him "Don't step on my wife!" He said sorry and moved a half step away.

Smarter than he looks.

The Assistant manager shows up, checks his stuff, because the wind bag "gives his permission", the battle axe, throws us our receipt, now we all leave.

All is well, then the wind bag tries to justify himself to me!

Bad Idea!

The meat head is as big as I am but nowhere near as pissed off. I told him to "shut up and go home no one gives a crap about his reasons!"

I wish you could have seen the look on his face.

The next debacle came when we took the grand babies to the "Shopping Towne" for the lighting of the Christmas Tree, and Sandy Claus arrival. Just us, and about two thousand people I've never seen in my life. You could listen and hear the IQ points drain away like the sand in an hour glass. No one barricaded the streets or side walks, the rent a cops looked and acted like they were hired that day (probably true), and the cute little PR girl couldn't spell "clue" with spell check.

Disaster by the numbers.

When the band marching ahead of the Jolly Old Elf's Land Rover was heard, the entire mob surged into the street. I ask you, how the heck is he supposed to get to the tree when the mob is in the way? Four wheel drive comes to mind, but thats just me. We'll over look the fact that the rent a cops couldn't let the chain down, so the band and sponsors mascots had to step over the chain.

At this time I issued instructions for the second time that day.

Some self appointed Hawt Dude starts hitting on Ms. Claus, who is driving the Land Rover. He is yelling loud enough to make himself heard through the closed window.

Right beside my ear.

I turned to him, looked him in the eye and told him very calmly, "Don't yell in my ear again."

Saw the whites of his eyes, I did. Didn't hear a peep afterward. Learns quick, he does.

The end of my evening was spent on deposit guard for my sons store, they did 15K at the Game Stop, and there have been muggings in the area.

By this point I was ready to pistol whip a mugger for stress relief.

Black Friday indeed!

Next year it's full dress SWAT, I wounde how that will go over?

Repost....and I still mean it

2008-12-01T09:52:00.001-05:00

Best idea yet,
Stand up for your right to not be controlled by the perpetually offended. From an E-mail.

I will be making a conscious effort to wish everyone a Merry Christmas .. My way of saying that I am celebrating the birth Of Jesus Christ. So I am asking my email buddies, if you agree with me, to please do the same. And if you'll pass this on to your email buddies, and so on... maybe we can prevent one more American tradition from being lost in the sea of "Political Correctness".

If your chosen religion, or non religion, as the case may be, does not have a holiday of significance to you, at this time of year, please feel free to enjoy mine. This enjoyment is not conditional on belief, but rather, on your good will, and tolerance. This is not a licence to change my holiday to something other than what it is intended.

Enjoy it, or leave it alone, your choice.

Try to make me feel guilty, or change it from something enjoyable, that comes with a free Ass Kicking.

Don't worry, we'll tell you Merry Ass Kicking, as we cruise out of sight.

How do you put a bow on that?

If you care....you should know a little

2008-11-28T17:12:00.000-05:00

You Should Be Allowed to Vote

You got 14/15 questions correct.
Generally speaking, you're very well informed.

If you vote this election, you'll know exactly who (and what) you'll be voting for.
You're likely to have strong opinions, and you have the facts to back them up.

http://www.blogthings.com/shouldyoubeallowedtovotequiz/">Should You Be Allowed to Vote?

First ever award

2008-11-27T09:28:00.004-05:00

I was grinding through my e-mail, because I've been away for a couple of months, and found that Brigid, of Mausers and Muffins fame has granted me an award.

The much coveted "Duck Tape" award.

I guess it's because I "fix" nuclear power plants, as well as everthing else that gets dropped in my lap.

I feel,,,,, different,,,,,special,,,,,

ducky!

Home again

2008-11-27T07:53:00.006-05:00

We finally got in Monday evening. We left Ct. in 25 F or so and arrived home in the 60 F range. I don't mind saying it was good to come home.

Actually it was wonderful.

Then life set in.

I thought the drivers in Ct. were bad, while I was there. I am now convinced the drivers here can give lessons in stupid.

On a brighter note, the grand babies were actually glad to see me. The oldest who currently has some issue with personal contact generally, and males particularly, never even turned a hair. She walked in the door, took one look and came over and gave me a wonderful hug. That doesn't sound too strange, except she has never seen me with a beard. Think bear.

Today is Thanksgiving, a day that is seldom remembered as a religious holiday. Mostly it's the day before Black Friday. The most horrendous shopping day of the year. I am sure we will hear about the retailers going under because everyone is sitting on their money, as we have for the last twenty years.

Historically this occasion was a day set aside for giving thanks to, dare I say it, God for his blessings, and the survival for one more year.

Everyone, should, in the depths of their heart, thank what ever they believe guides them, for the past year. You have no guarantee of another day.

At my housse today, we will eat too much, and be grateful too little, we will welcome someone who can't get home to their family, and my mother in law who can't get back from where she has gone.

I will eat left overs for ever, and be grateful.

May each and everyone be healthy, happy, and avoid your just desserts, for one more year.

Brass Dragon out.

New England weather.....

2008-11-21T10:39:00.002-05:00

Last night it got down to 16 deg F, it's colder in some places, but it's enough for now. The ponds froze over, and at 1100 hrs, it's only 31deg F. I have some work to do outside, but I'm going to wait until it's above freezing before I go out and wallow on the ground.

The sky is clear and blue, and cold. As long as the wind stays down it may be ok.

Well, so much for that hope. The pine tree next door is dancing, gonna be chilly.

Free fire zone?

2008-11-19T18:57:00.002-05:00

More than 90 ships have been hijacked by pirates this year off the Horn of Africa. Since it arrived in the Gulf of Aden this month, the Tabar has escorted about 35 ships through the "pirate-infested" waterway, the Indian government said.

The piracy epidemic has captured the imagination of a public enamored with the romantic image of swashbuckling seamen of yore, engaged in swordplay and barking out orders to fellow buccaneers. But experts say today's pirates are tough young criminals armed with AK-47s and dressed in camouflage.

It's romantic until you have the gun in your face, then, not so much.

Seems the Marines fixed this little problem once before, time for a reduex.

Tomorrow is the day....

2008-11-19T04:13:00.003-05:00

Lay off tomorrow,,,,,,WHOOOOO!!!! HOOOOO!!!!

Most of my life I've dreaded a lay off. Now it's a normal part of the job, and welcome.

The LOML is flying up so we can do tourist things, amongst other important activities! :>)

Almost two months of six night weeks, ready for a break I am!

It just keeps getting deeper...From the Slimes

2008-11-19T04:00:00.004-05:00

The proposed rule would prohibit recipients of federal money from discriminating against doctors, nurses and other health care workers who refuse to perform or to assist in the performance of abortions or sterilization procedures because of their "religious beliefs or moral convictions."

It would also prevent hospitals, clinics, doctors' offices and drugstores from requiring employees with religious or moral objections to "assist in the performance of any part of a health service program or research activity" financed by the Department of Health and Human Services.

But three officials from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, including its legal counsel, whom President George W. Bush appointed, said the proposal would overturn 40 years of civil rights law prohibiting job discrimination based on religion.

The counsel, Reed Russell, and two Democratic members of the commission, Stuart Ishimaru and Christine Griffin, also said that the rule was unnecessary for the protection of employees and potentially confusing to employers.

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 already prohibits employment discrimination based on religion, Russell said, and the courts have defined "religion" broadly to include "moral or ethical beliefs as to what is right and wrong, which are sincerely held with the strength of traditional religious views."

Obama has said the proposal will raise new hurdles to women seeking reproductive health services, like abortion and some contraceptives. Michael Leavitt, the health and human services secretary, said that was not the purpose.

This piece comes from a subsidiary of the New York Times, and if you can believe it, is critical of a rule issued by President Bush. (Quick put on your shocked face!) The substance of the rule as I read it, States “you can’t force anyone to participate in activities they actually believe are wrong.”

The Civil rights act says, “you can’t refuse to employ a person because of race, religion or sexual orientation”, nowhere does it infer that after you have hired a person, and they refuse to perform their job for moral, ethical or religious reasons, that they can’t be terminated for non performance. If an employee won’t work, then they don’t have to be paid.

Consider the quandary of a health care worker who was hired under a job description that did not include abortion, and as an expansion in the business plan, is now required to assist or perform abortions.

Most of us would quit and be dammed to the consequences. Would anyone try to convince me that people wouldn’t be forced out of their jobs, because “we can’t lose the federal money”? Those people who can offer care, with the exception of abortion, have as much right to a job as anyone else.

This rule doesn’t say “You can use religion to avoid hiring someone.” It says ”You can’t fire me because I can’t do this due to my beliefs.”

As to Obama’s statement, I fail to see the right to an abortion as “reproductive health services”. If you consider the statements of women who have had abortions, it could be quite the contrary.
Once again the Obamasiah shoots from the hip with out thinking through the issue. I have heard more times than I can count, every one deserves a job. Why not people who don’t want to kill the unborn?

Why should those workers be discriminated against because they just can’t kill a baby?

emphasis mine

Irony is where you find it....

2008-11-15T05:41:00.003-05:00

At o330 I am sitting in Connecticut, listening to guys from Alabama, Arkansas, New Hampshire, make fun of the accent of a farmer from Maine.

It's OK, he took his turn laughing at a guy from Rhode Island.

I guess they can't hear them selves.

It works for me

2008-11-13T18:27:00.002-05:00

Big Potential Seen in Miniature
Nuclear Plants

In an editorial, Investor's Business Daily (11/11) writes that former vice
president Al Gore, in his call for the US to produce all of its electricity
"from carbon-free sources within 10 years," "does not mention nuclear
power, a source from which we already get 20% of our electricity and from
which we could get more, thanks in part to the development of a new
type of power plant that compares roughly to the evolution from the
room-size vacuum-tube computers of the 1950s to today's laptops. Using
technology developed at the Los Alamos National Laboratory and licensed
from the U.S. government, New Mexico-based Hyperion Power Generation
Inc., has taken its first orders for miniature nuclear power plants that
could literally fit in your backyard. The module produces about 70
megawatts of thermal energy or 27 megawatts of electricity via steam
turbine, enough to power about 20,000 American-style houses." IBD adds,
"Other companies are working on similar nuclear projects, large and
small."

Now we can only hope they don't try to make them fool proof, it'll never happen because fools are so ingenious. It just makes them bigger.