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Political Thoughts

What an embarrassment of riches……

  • Senator Diane Feinstein (D for Demagogue, California) recently defeated an amendment to her proposed gun ban bill that would have exempted veterans in the same way that she wants to exempt government employees and law enforcement*.  Her reasoning was that veterans all have PTSD, which is a new development from Iraq, and we are all going to go crazy and start shooting baby ducks and premature infants.  You see, the good Senator believes that us vets are all ticking time bombs, all ate up with the ghosts of wars past, and are just a bad hair day away from losing our collective shit.  I’ve got news for her – Veterans are a slice of the society that produced them.  Most are honorable, honest, law-abiding folks.  Some have been negatively impacted by their experiences and are in need of help.  And a small minority of them were scumbags before they got to basic training and didn’t get much beyond that stage of personal evolution.  In other words, we’re just like everyone else.  And PTSD isn’t exactly a new phenomenon.  After the Civil War, they called it “Soldier’s Heart”.  In World War I, it was called “Shell Shock”.  During World War II and beyond, it was called ” Battle Fatigue”.  Since Vietnam, it’s been called “Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome” and “Post Traumatic Stress Disorder”.  My guess is that there has been some kind of way to describe people who have gone through something and come out shaken and hurt since Og picked up a rock and hit Unga upside the head.  As a matter of fact, PTSD is common among people who go through horrible events, like the shooting of a co-worker by another.  Perhaps the good Senator is projecting a bit here, and might be in need of her own counseling.  Who knows?  Maybe under all that pancake make-up and Botox, she’s a seething cauldron of murderous thoughts, and all it takes is for one of us uppity commoners to question her authority to unleash the beast.
  • Senator Feinstein (D for Decrepit, California) has also been in the news for an exchange between her and Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas on Friday.  Senator Cruz asked Senator Feinstein if she would do the same thing to books, which are protected under the 1st Amendment, as she is doing to guns, which are protected under the 2nd Amendment.  Rather than reply to a yes-or-no question with a yes-or-no answer, the good Senator from California regaled us all with her experiences during that horrid day when a California politician threw a temper tantrum over not being able to un-resign his office and shot two people, and how she poked a finger into a gunshot wound looking for a pulse.  Since she didn’t deny that she would be open to restricting the freedom of the press as much as she wants to restrict the freedom to bear arms, I’m going to guess that she would be quite happy seeing subversive literature like “Atlas Shrugs” or “1984” suppressed.  She might like parts of “Fahrenheit 451”, but something tells me that “The Federalist Papers” and “Common Sense” wouldn’t make her cut.
  • The President and his band of merry gentlemen continue to make targeted cuts with an eye to making Main Street hurt while protecting their core constituencies and pet projects. The latest that I’ve seen is that they are planning on cutting USDA food inspectors while still spending money to tell illegal immigrants how to sign up for food stamps.  That’s right, ladies and gentlemen, the President would rather that my children die from food poisoning than an illegal immigrant not sign up for free goodies paid for with the sweat of my brow.  I’m sure, of course, that his daughters will only be eating the finest food with every possible safety inspection done on it, to include proctological examinations of the cattle prior to slaughter.  This, ladies and gentlemen, is machine politics in its highest form.  If he was mayor of Chicago, that hive of scum and villainy, he would be laying off snow-plow drivers two days before Christmas so that he could pay for a New Years Eve party. 
  • President Obama is spending money we don’t have so that he can make his first trip to Israel.  The Nobel laureate and giver of all that is good and clean in this world has lowered expectations that his very presence in the Holy Land will bring about a flowering of peace and brotherhood between Muslims and Jews, between Bears fans and Packer’s fans, and between the Irish and the Irish.  Instead, he plans to do his best to get a good price on some stuff at the souvenir bazaar in Jerusalem, catch a stoning in Jericho, and maybe play some golf on the West Bank.
  • Hillary Clinton, former First Lady, Senator, Secretary of State, and fashion model for Soviet Fashion Collective #231, has announced her support for gay marriage.  How brave of her to do this.  To come out in support of such a controversial subject, risking such a promising political career, and running counter to her political base in order to make a moral stand is truly inspiring.  My mother always told us where she was the day that President Kennedy was killed, and I always tell my children where I was when the attacks of 9/11 happened.  In just such a manner, my children will be able to tell their children and their children’s children where they were the day that Hillary Clinton proclaimed that she’s in favor of gay marriage.  Let loose the doves!  Let the church bells ring!  Hillary Clinton has finally pronounced her position on gay marriage!

*Personally, if the ban were to pass and if it had an exception for veterans, I would not take advantage of it.  If we aren’t all free, then none of us is free.

Image of the Day

im001234Irish Woman’s Irish Rainbow.  Taken from the passenger seat of a Hyundai somewhere near Tipperary, June 2005.

 

Thoughts on the Day

  • It was warm enough yesterday that I sweated a little while I was working in the yard.  This morning it was raining ice.
    • In 24 hours, we’ve had sunshine, rain, snow, ice, and a mix of all three kinds of precipitation.
    • Kentucky weather:  The only constant is change.
  • The advantage of doing your planning as far ahead of time as possible is that when someone asks that you do your work weeks ahead of time, you’re pretty much ready to go.
  • Stopped by the local SuperMegaShoppingConsortium today, and just because I’m a starry-eyed optimist, I buzzed their sporting goods aisle.
    • They had a nice assortment of hunting rifles, including a Savage in .308 that whispered sweet nothings to me.
      • Like I could find .308.
    • They only had two shotguns.
      • Both were camouflaged and had turkey chokes on them.
    • The ammunition cabinet was picked pretty clean, except that it had three boxes of Tula .380.  I immediately put out an alert on Facebook.
    • I thought about buying them for a moment, but I don’t have a .380 and they would have been trade goods.
      • Knowing how short ammunition is right now, I just wouldn’t have felt right buying the last three boxes if I couldn’t have used them.
    • I’m sure someone will give them a good home.
  • We gave all the stuffed animals a good run through the washing machine today.
    • Some of them were a bit…. crunchy.
    • Apparently Boo isn’t the only one who likes to cuddle up to them and Moonshine drools.
  • The yearly period of non-productivity has begun.
    • Louisville is a number one seed in the NCAA squeaky round ball tournament.
    • The Kentucky Derby festival starts about a week after the tournament ends.
    • If I’m lucky, I’ll be able to get something accomplished right around mid-May.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

I’m a true product of the American melting pot, but like a lot of Americans, I have an Irishman or two in my woodpile.  I married my beloved Irish Woman, and have been re-introduced to all that comes with it – Irish laughter, Irish whisky, and Irish tempers.

I’ve never gone in for using St. Patrick’s Day as an excuse to get blotto, but I’ve been known to drown a few shamrocks in my day.  Whatever your way of celebrating it, I hope you enjoyed the day!

Today’s Earworm

Sorry, but this was the only Irish music I could find that wasn’t a parody or pretty ladies in fine dresses.

And yeah, I spent enough time around Cavalry posts that this makes the hair on my neck stand up.

 

 

Wow

Was just looking at the stats and such for the blog, and I noticed that someone made their way here today by searching for “egyptianseptic tank design”.

I was a bit surprised, so I ran that through Google, and lo and behold, I am #8 on the list of things that can be found using that search term.

I guess I’ve finally made it.

Thoughts on the Day

  • Boo spent 10 minutes in the tub tonight making up his own superhero theme song.  
    • Something about monsters and bad guys and lightning, but with a pretty good bass line.
  • All of the electrical work in the bathroom is complete.  I wash my hands of the project.
    • Actually, I usually wash my hands in the project, but you get my meaning.
    • If you turn on the lights above the sink, the lights on the exhaust fan, and the light in the closet, there don’t seem to be any shadows in my bathroom.
    • Note to self – Irish Woman gets jumpy when I touch all of the live wires on the three way light switch all at once.  Stop doing that.
  • Hint to hardware stores – Put the fencing material in the same department as the fencing.
    • It took me 30 minutes to find rigid metal fencing this morning.
    • It was all the way across the store in the garden center.
    • I have an extra 25 feet or so of the stuff now.  I wonder what Irish Woman will dream up to make good use of it?
  • I gave up today and admitted that I’m going to be busy doing projects for the foreseeable future.
    • I did the math and figured out that it was cheaper to buy outdoor screws by the thousands than to buy them by the pound.  I save by buying bulk, and save on time and gas.
    • Of course, I’ll have to buy beer and such in bulk too, because runs to the hardware store are a great excuse to stop off for a six-pack.
  • Built an enclosure around the stubs of Irish Woman’s baby blueberry bushes today.  Apparently one of the pets (cough Moonshine cough) thinks they taste delicious.
    • Sometimes I think he’d make a good throw rug, but those moments are becoming rarer and rarer.
  • Made the mistake of letting the kids watch Pocahontas this evening over pizza.
    • They should have subtitled that movie “White Guilt”.
    • I’d call this movie ham-handed, but that would be an insult to swine.
    • The scene where I just had to walk away was when the Indian male love interest dude tries to knife John Smith for kissing Pocahontas.  One of Smith’s friends shoots him with a matchlock (seriously dude, when you see someone fiddling with the magic boomstick that you’re so impressed with and then pointing it at you, just leave).  Pocahontas is all taken aback that her friend got shot while trying to kill someone and starts screaming “You killed him!”.
    • I got “The Look” when I walked away saying “Well, maybe he needed killing!”.
    • If John Smith were half the man that Han Solo was, he would have asked Pocahontas if she’d preferred to watch him get sliced open like a cantaloupe.
  • When asked by Irish Woman what I thought about planting more fruit bushes around the property, I replied that she could plant whatever she wanted wherever she wanted as long as my list of things to build didn’t get longer, it didn’t hurt the utilities, and it was neither immoral or illegal.
    • See? I can be reasonable.
  • Patience – Smiling peacefully at the nice old lady who is arguing with the clerk at the gas station about her lottery tickets when all you want to do is pay for your soda and ask for the key to the men’s room.
  • I was so funky from crawling around in the attic and working outside today that when I rubbed my forehead, I came back with crumbles of crud.
    • I always thank the Lord that I live in a place where hot water comes out of the tap, not off the stove.

News Roundup

  • From the “No Velociraptor For You!” Department – Scientists are arguing the ethics of resurrecting extinct species, but apparently dinosaurs are right out.  So, while the Peruvian death mosquito and Romanian plague rat are brought back, my back yard will be bereft of extinct therapods.  Now how am I going to keep those darn coyotes out of the yard?
  • From the “Consequences, Schmoncequences” Department – The fees on federal student loans are increasing slightly as a result of the ongoing sequester.  Apparently improving efficiency in the bureaucracy that has mushroomed since the government took over most student loans was out of the question.  Yes, it’s not much more money, but when you’re a starving student, a bigger fee hurts.  Of course, the fact that the federal government is involved in a transaction between a private citizen and the university they attend is wrong, but we’ll leave that for another talk.  I guess all those students who voted for Obama to strike a blow against The Man are yet again learning that they themselves are The Man.
  • From the “Your Tax Dollars At Work” Department – The U.N. recently held a conference where anti-gun organizations got a chance to sit down with African government officials to ‘educate’ them about upcoming negotiations on a treaty to curtail civilian access to small arms.  Because, you know, no-one is more receptive to ideas that guarantee a human being’s right to self-defense, even against oppressive governments, than African dictators.  I know, other countries contribute to the U.N., but do you think the Manhattan Third World Debate Club and Deli would cut back on caviar and hookers so that they could hold these shindigs if we walked away from them?
  • From the “Foundlings” Department – A family in South Carolina had a bit of a surprise the other day when the box they found on the side of the road was not filled with the expected litter of puppies.  Rather, it contained three black bear cubs.  Now, how does one get the gumption to touch that box without being 100% sure that Mama Bear isn’t in the bushes doing what bears do in the woods?  The cubs are said to be doing well, and have already been signed by Hamms beer for the 2016 football season commercials.
  • From the “Oopsie!” Department – A New York assemblyman, who has voted against legalization of marijuana for medical uses, was arrested recently after police allegedly found a quantity of the cursed weed on him during a traffic stop.  Apparently he needed to take the edge off after a week of keeping New Yorkers safe from one of his habits.
  • From the “Dumbass” Department – A man in Wisconsin was arrested after the people who were working on his printer  found sheets of counterfeit bills jammed in it.  When the man was arrested, police allege that he had several more counterfeit bills on him.  Here’s a hint – If you’re using your home printer to counterfeit money, learn to clear your own paper jams.
  • From the “Booze Buddy” Department – A company in California is coming up with a device that will allow smart phone users to gauge their blood alcohol levels.  They hope that if people know how drunk they are, the less they will drink and drive.  This brings back memories of a gadget that was mounted on the wall of the bowling alley in Augsburg.  You put in a couple of quarters, the machine would turn on and dispense a short plastic straw.  You stuck the straw into a hole in the machine and blew.  It would then read out your BAC.  Instead of using it to get an idea if we were safe to drive, it became a measure of who was the most inebriated, with the winner buying the next round.  I am proud to say that I bought more than a few rounds of beer at that bowling alley.

Today’s Earworm

I come from a long, proud line of people with limited people skills.

 

Musings

  • If Senator Feinstein doesn’t want to feel patronized, then maybe she ought to know what she’s talking about.
  • After the latest fiasco on a cruise ship, I’m leaning toward renting a beach house for a week instead.
    • Of course, I’d prefer to rent a cabin on a lake in the woods, but you do what you have to do for your loving spouse.
  • I missed being a witness to a semi going over on its side by about two minutes this morning.
    • Sequence of images – black lines on the pavement, broken glass on the pavement, semi-truck and trailer on the pavement, all within 100 feet.
    • The driver looked OK as he came out of the cab.
    • The truck and trailer?   Yeah, not so much.
  • 2/3 of the lights in the bathroom are now working.
    • One hour to find a loose connection.  That’s a new personal best.
    • I also need to find my smallest screwdriver so I can change the battery in my multimeter.
  • Thought for the KCR Machine Gun Shoot –
    • The range has a breakfast buffet on Saturday morning starting at 7 AM.
    • There is a Cracker Barrel about 20 minutes from the range.
    • Would everyone prefer to meet at the range and eat what they serve or meet at the Cracker Barrel?  If we eat at the range, we will be there for the opening ceremony and probably miss most of the initial parking crowd.
    • Weather permitting, of course.
    • If we meet at KCR, I suggest gathering at the flag pole.
    • The range sells hot dogs and such for lunch, but it’s going to be kind of hard to talk once the range goes hot.
    • Those who think they’re going to make it on Saturday, April 13, please leave me your preferences in comments.
  • I’m already starting to schedule work for the weekends in April.
  • Irish Woman needs a break.
    • She was home alone with Boo yesterday when he wasn’t feeling well and she had to work.
    • She was home alone with Boo today for half the day when the plumbing at his school developed a rather catastrophic leak (Outside, thank goodness).  Yes, she had to work today as well.
    • Either she’s stressed out or she’s been bitten by a very powerful werewolf
    • Darn it, I’m out of silver bullets.  I wonder if bi-metal jacket is just as good?
  • Ever notice there are never tee-shirts for SIGINTers?  There are tee-shirts for infantry, armor, aviation, artillery, and just about everything else.  Heck, there’s even a tee-shirt for interrogators now.  But there’s never one for the poor guy who walks all over the mountains with a PRD-11?
  • There isn’t a much better way to end the day than sitting and watching old episodes of the Muppet Show with your four-year-old.