Jammed up

Sorry about that.....


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I have not yet figured out what the woman marched about

So far it makes no sense to me.

There are now more woman than men in college. What would be interesting to find out is how many of these woman are actually getting a marketable degree or are wasting their money on basket weaving, woman's dance studies and other foolishness and accumulating massive debt. Probably quite a few.

Everything is open to women that is reasonably possible. I will admit that SEAL school and a few physical things like that are not allowed but that's actually because of economics. Men wash out of SEAL school at an 80%+ rate. It is expensive enough as it is.

Kudos to the women that passed Ranger school a couple of years back. Maybe if these women can learn Arabic they can be useful to the Special Forces in dealing with women. I saw where a couple of women were attached to an SF unit for just this purpose and were reported to have been very useful, but I digress.

Frankly I think that the march had nothing to do with woman'e rights and a LOT to do with woman that simply don't like president Trump.

What is interesting is that long before Trump became president he enabled a number of women to do quite a bit. He hired a black woman to be the CEO of one of his companies. He also enabled a woman to be the first woman to build a skyscraper in New York City.

Yet these women marched because they don't like him. Either that or they like wearing vagina hats and making a ruckus for the sake of being a pain in the ass.

All of this makes me wonder how many woman that marched pay income tax or have jobs of any sort. If they pay taxes they would know that theirs just went down quite a bit.

Last year's march and this year's march seemed to make no sense at all. Hillary lost. The end.

Also I wish the woman that did all of their recent marching had done a better job of picking up after themselves. Last year they left a colossal mess behind and I daresay they probably did the same thing this year. They made themselves look like a bunch of stupid whiners and nothing more.

Incidentally they might look up the record of one of their so-called leaders, one Donna Hylton. She is a convicted murderer.

Donna Hylton, convicted murderer

Some fine example she is!

I suppose the Trump economy is a real powerhouse if this is all they have to worry about....






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Why I voted (with some hesitation) for Donald Trump

During the early part of the primaries I was a Cruz guy. Cruz is pretty much a strict Constitutionalist as am I. Play by the rules. The Founding Fathers had their act together when they wrote the Constitution. They knew their stuff. Jeb ‘Mommy, it’s my turn’ Bush was out of the question. Political dynasties suck and besides he had an attitude he was owed the presidency.

As the primaries ran on and the various candidates dropped out I started watching and listening to Trump. As time went on I realized that Cruz was pretty much unelectable. Women were saying there was something ‘creepy’ about him. As time passed I decided to get behind Trump. I really didn’t like the idea of Donald Trump as president. I thought he was a big egotist. On the other hand he was a businessman which is a big plus. After 8 years of an Obama economy we needed a shot in the arm.

Hillary was out of the question. No doubt about it. Liberal, conservative, whatever, there was no way in holy hell I could force myself to vote for Hillary. Besides the dishonesty, there was her reason. She didn’t want to serve the American people. She wanted the American people to serve her. She had an attitude that she deserved the presidency.

As I watched the Democratic primaries I saw just how crooked Hillary was. When I saw the so-called ‘super delegates’ business I knew she was crooked and the fix was in. Please note that James Webb briefly threw his hat into the ring and pulled it out as soon as he saw that the fix was in. For what it’s worth, Webb would have won in a Reaganesque landslide.

The ‘super delegate’ business told me that Hillary and the DNC had no respect for the democratic process. It didn’t matter what the people wanted, it was all about Hillary. I do believe she had the party in her pocket because she knew where the bodies are buried. What’s the use of having a primary if the fix is in? The rank and file Democrats should have bolted. The Democratic primary was ridiculous and an insult to the American way. Typical Hillary.

There were third party candidates out there and I considered one of them. However, as time wore on I realized that a third party was not really a viable option. The object was simply to stop Hillary.

As time went on in the Republican primaries I saw that the party big shots were going stark staring bonkers at the prospect of Trump winning the spot as candidate. That got my attention as I have never liked the Republican party. The reason I tend to vote that way is the alternative is worse.

If Trump was pissing off the establishment Republicans then he was a slam dunk for my support. Besides when you get down to it almost everything he said made sense. The big problem I had with him is simply that he was what he was. He was (and still is) Donald Trump.

In short, I felt forced to vote for Trump and I really didn’t expect to have him actually do what he said he was going to do. I base this on my natural distrust of political animals. I simply bit the bullet and voted for him. To me it simply became him or Hillary. I held my nose and pulled the lever.

Actually I didn't hold my nose. I figured that if the Democrats and the establishment Republicans hated him he was good to go. When the establishment Republicans started to support Hillary the odor seemed to disappear and I knew I was doing the right thing. McCain, the Bush tribe, Bill Kristol and a large number of others cinched it down for me. I knew that a vote for Trump was a vote against not only the liberal Democrats but of the establishment Republicans. When I saw how many Republicans were 'Anyone but Trumpers' I pulled the lever cheerfully.  The establishment Republicans had brought this upon themselves. I wanted to be a part of who delivered it to them.

It wasn't so much the Democrats that got me to vote for him, it was the establishment Republicans. 

Now that it has been a year I have been pleasantly astonished. He has done more good for the country in his first year than Obama has done in his entire two terms!

It seems that every time he eliminates an Obama policy that things get better and better. I’m glad I pulled the lever. I have been very entertained watching a genius at work.

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WHat a pain in the butt!

Depending on the chaos going on in my life I sometimes have to write this stuff on word and paste it here. 

Something is wrong with MS Word and I can't figure out how to get around it very well. I'm switching to another processing program I managed to get for FREE! 

I suppose free can be more expensive than pay-for but there are a lot of freebies out there. If this one sucks I can always uninstall it.

I did have a problem with some program that dug in on me a few years back and was miserable to uninstall but I managed. I have not seen that one recently probably because enough people got pissed off and raised hell.

About a year ago my wife wanted me to break down some family spending with a pie graph so I found a pretty good graph maker and she was impressed.

There's a lot of good stuff out there for little or nothing if you are willing to ignore the advertising and I am as it is for pleasure and not work. I suppose if it was for work I'd pay the extra though.

Anyway, it looks like I am up and running again.



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One of the most useful gifts I have ever gotten was from one of my sisters

Over 20 years ago she gave me a small manicure type kit that came in a small zipper case. I use it periodically at sea and keep it in my seabag.

It has both finger and toenail clippers in it along with the usual other tools and I threw in a small pen knife as an add-to.

I don't use it often but when I do I'm damned glad to have it because it keeps everything in a nice, neat package. It means no fishing around for things that are floating around loose in my seabag or shaving kit.

It's funny how something this small has been so handy for so many years and I'm damned glad she gave it to me.


She also occasionally sends me jelly that she and her daughter make. The jelly is good and I did keep the jars of one special batch because they are calibrated in milliliters. They are marked in 50, 100, 150 and 200 milliliters and are perfect for pouring good whiskey into.

100 milliliters is a pretty good healthy ration of Jameson's is a good evening's ration and it's easy not to over or under pour with the old jelly glasses.

Someone once gave me a classy set of glasses for good whiskey but they really go unused. I prefer the jars as they keep measuring simple.

It's really kind of interesting to note that neither of these are expensive gifts. What is interesting is how useful they both are.

I suppose if Prince William or Harry showed up I'd probably serve him whiskey in one of these glasses because they are a lot more practical than the expensive glasses. 

I'd bet both of those guys would understand.

Thanks, Sis!





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What's new, Pussycat?

Whoa-a-ohh-a-ohh-a-ohh-a.

I just heard the old Tom Jones song so I guess I'll begin here.

Why not? Everything has to start somewhere.

=======================

Starting things is always the hard part and I have a couple of things to do today. Today I am teaching someone to do something which means I am simply going to watch someone do something. 

The best way to teach someone to do something is to have him do it a couple of times.

I tend to piss off a lot of schoolteachers when they get uppity because I point out the fact that some of the best teachers I have ever had never finished high school.

Teaching is teaching and what is important is that the student learns the matter at hand. There's a lot more to life than the things they teach you at school. When you think about it in a lifetime a person learns a lot more than they are taught at school.

If I took any of my schoolteachers to work with me there would not be very many of them that could run a tank barge.

What makes me laugh is that the very school teachers that sit there unable to do something like that look down on those that do.

0000000000000000

I have started watching the Indiana Jones Chronicles. Indy is a ten year old kid in the series and already he's quite a swashbuckler. Right now he's running away from about half the pre-WW1 Russian Cossack army or something having just upended a table, escaped and now he is playing baseball with Leon Tolstoy.

It's pretty good entertainment and a Kindle freebie. 

Not bad.

Actually my Kindle is pretty amazing when I think about it.

I do wish I knew how to hook it up to my TV, though.

On the other hand I suppose Kindle will let me download this series to my laptop that I CAN hook to my TV. 

I'll figure it out.



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I shot another hostage the other day.

I got hit with the good old "Do it for the children" line and came back with a loud, angry "Screw the children!"

"If you're not going to take care of your own kids don't have them. Abstain, have alternative sex, use birth control, get a hysterectomy or a vasectomy or do something but do not have children unless you are willing to take care of them. It's hardly fair I take care of someone else's kids. If I'm not screwing you, I'm not supporting you." I shot back.

"Well who is going to...."  she stammered.

"Try their fathers, " I snapped. "Make the fathers pay, but not me."

Bang! Another dead hostage. This time the old 'do it for the children' line. It's the line people have been afraid to defend themselves against for years. They feel there is no defense for it but there is. It's called assigning personal responsibility for your breeding habits.







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Sometimes I wonder what I would do if I had to do it all over again.

One of the things I do believe I would not do is own a home.

I might live in an apartment or on board a boat, maybe an RV or something but I don't think I would own a fixed home as such. It's too much of an anchor and leaves one in a fixed location. It's also somewhat risky as moving entails selling it.

Neighborhoods and areas change. They go up and down. I have no desire to live in CA, MD, MA, NY, CT or NJ for example. To me they are places rapidly on the way to becoming third world shit holes. 

I suppose while I could manage to sell out of these places now, I imagine I'd have to plan well ahead and pay attention to avoid winding up with what happened to a lot of people in Detroit. They couldn't sell their homes at any price because things went downhill too far and too fast.

A year or two back I saw where someone traded an older SUV for an entire house. Looking at it, I don't know who got the better deal.

One of the alternatives to owning a regular home is to build one of those tiny homes inexpensively and if things get bad simply abandon the damned thing. Of course, finding a lot to rent would probably he a hassle.

I do know a guy that has gone this route out in high desert country and seems content. The deal for him is that he outright bought the lot for a fairly inexpensive price. Actually he's pretty much off the grid as he grows his own electricity and made some kind of deal to get a well dug.

While I suppose he could afford to bail out and leave it all behind, the likelihood of having to do so is pretty slim as he isn't really in or near any serious kind of metropolitan area. 

Then again this guy doesn't have a wife and six kids, either. He can comfortably live in a small place. 

I suppose if I had to do it again I would probably get roped into the home ownership business again but you can bet your boots I'd pay pretty damned close attention to the state of the neighborhood like I do now.

Right now my neighborhood is in somewhat of a state of minor upheaval. It really isn't a whole lot to worry about yet. One of the neighbors has moved and another one has gotten older and is having health issues. I am wondering who will move in.

Of course, the neighborhood home values have constantly risen and it is still a good place to live. Whoever moves in is going to have to cough up a healthy sum. I suppose that's good enough for me but I will miss having the couple across the street as neighbors.

Truth is I really don't know what I would do if I had to start over again. 






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One of the things I have to remind socialists about is

that they have no right to get upset when the government starts taking from THEM to give to someone else.

The consensus among a lot of these socialist types is that Bill Gates doesn't need all of that money so it's OK to take if from him to give to other people.

Now that's OK if you don't gripe after Gates runs out of money so they start taking yours which is generally the way things run.

In Maryland a while ago they redefined rich. They lowered the amount of money that defines rich and increases the tax bracket.

What was interesting is that some people took their money and left for neighboring Pennsylvania which has lower taxes. I don't know how many of the people that left for PA are socialists but if they are they are pretty two-faced about it because they are skipping out on paying their fair share.

On the other hand they are really a sample in the mentality of most socialists. They want to pay for things with someone else's money. Of course when the system starts taking their money from them it's an entirely different case. You hear the socialist whine of "That's not fair!"

Well it IS fair. They have spent everyone else's money and now it is their turn to cough up.





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I have just seen some pictures of the Pence for president (woman's) march.

Years ago we used to say that women were a powerful force to be reckoned with because they controlled half the money and all the pu$$y on the planet. There was probably a lot of truth to that. There probably still is.

Now we have a woman against Trump protest march which is a real case of $hit and fall back in it if you open your eyes. The marchers simply look stupid. Of course, most of the supporters are certainly not willing to let the facts get in the way of their agenda. The march isn't about facts or truth, it's about feelz. These woman don't FEEL GOOD with Trump in office.

It doesn't matter if unemployment in woman is down to an 18 year low. It doesn't matter if the Dow is shooting through the roof. It doesn't matter if minority unemployment is at an all time low and that unemployment claims are way down. What matters to these women are feelz. Feelz? Yes, feelz. As in feelings. Kum-ba-ya.

If you are a woman reading this I'll stick to Donald here and we can leave Melania out of it because the instant you badmouth her I am going to make you feel really, really bad unless you have a self made worth of $50,000,000 and speak five or six languages and have had a successful modeling career.

After 8 years of Michelle Obama's classlessness it's a joy to see someone like Melania Trump as FLOTUS. She's brought some honest style, grace and class ala Jackie Kennedy back to the position of First Lady. Please note you didn't see anyone like Melania at any of the marches.


There are any number of reasons people may not like Trump. He is arrogant but the truth is he is really quite successful. He's also been quite a president when you look at his first year accomplishments. 

But he's Donald Trump and he's yucky is all I can see that his detractors can say. ' 

It hasn't occurred to you yet that if Trump gets the boot he'll be replaced with Mike Pence. Actions have consequences. We are a constitutional republic and the order of succession is 'president, vice-president'.

The march in effect sounds to me an awful lot like a "Pence for president" march because that's what the result of a Trump impeachment will be. Try that one for size. 

Perhaps you would like him replaced with Hillary. She promised to continue the Obama policies which have gotten us little besides unemployment, racial division, higher taxes, a failed forced-on-you health insurance program and increased illegal immigration.

If you ask women what they look for most will answer that they want security which is why they vote the way they do. They want the government to provide the individual with security.

The truth is that they would be better off if the government supplied them with opportunity that would enable them to provide themselves with their own health insurance and security. However I won't stop here for very long.

To tell you the truth, the woman I saw pictures of marching against President Trump looked to me like nothing but a bunch of crybabies that have not gotten over the fact that Hillary Clinton lost the election over a year ago. Thank God for that.

With things on the upswing my advice to the woman marchers against Trump is to stop talking with your mouth full...unless you really do want Pence for president.















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One of the things that people seem to forget is that the

tax codes are made for businesses and corporations.

The rules for ordinary people are a LOT less complex.

The other day I was listening to someone gripe about how they are going to have to pore over all of the new rules to get their taxes done. 

Let's face it, there are basically two changes in the ordinary guy's taxes. 

The standard deduction went up and the rate went down and that's about all that matters for most of us little guys.

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It is a pretty good day as the temperature has risen

the the above freezing level.

That is a VERY good thing because it has been too damned cold now for too damned long.


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The United States used to have a great Merchant Marine

until sometime around the sixties.

You used to be able to take your Z-card and put your name on the list at the union hall and in a short time you'd be sent off and running to a ship. 

A real ship, not some dopey little tug and barge rig somewhere like I have been working for years. An honest got God ship.

The United States Merchant Marine was respected the world over. Our ships were seen in every port in the world.

Then along came taxation, union greed, over regulation and the whole thing collapsed. It became cheaper to reflag American vessels to other countries.

Of course, the government will blame the unions, the unions will blame the government.

It is probably a little of the unions and a lot of government.

It's a shame because that was a wonderful source of jobs for a lot of working class people.




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Ah, yes. Paris Hilton who to me is a nobody.

I haven't heard of her in a a few years and at one time she used to be somewhat of a professional party go to-er. If I recall, and I may be wrong here, she charged $20,000 to show up at your party.

Big deal.

I'd rather have Elsie Smith show up even though she's kind of fat and not too pretty. Elsie is a real character and a damned good cook to boot.

Still, my mischievous self considered the bright idea of opening a 'Go Fund Me' to conjure up the obligatory $20K to invite her to a party.

Not a party at a rented hall or someone's Hollywood digs, but a barbecue at a trailer park.

The kind that takes place outside complete with flies buzzing around the potato salad and bargain basement hot dogs served on Walmart rolls.

Over there you'd see fat-assed Julie wearing a pair of Daisy Dukes and her boobs pouring out of her shirt tail beneath them blouse. She's be standing next to Billy-Joe-Bob in torn jeans with a ratty stained T-shirt badly needing a shave. Julie is a mess but she's OK and Billy-Joe-Bob has a pack of Luckies rolled up in his T-shirt sleeve.

Cocktails would be a handle or two of basic whisky sitting on the table and a tub full of iced PBR.

And of course, the paid guest of honor there looking completely like a fish out of the water about as comfortable as a whore in church.

I'd have a quiet journalist there to capture the whole thing to sell the story to the tabloids and have a field day laughing my ass off.

Then again I suppose something is wrong with me.

But maybe not. I'd bet a lot of people would pay good money to see a spectacle like that.




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Found it. Here's the picture that made me my own grandfather

The neighbor saw this picture of me next to a picture of my then teenage dad during WW2 standing in front of an identical airplane. The neighbor turned and told me I was the spitting image of my grandfather.


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Yesterday I posted that I am my own great grandfather

A few years back I rented a Stearman and had a great time blowing the shingles off of every barn roof in SW PA and buzzing every Conrail train We could find.

Afterwards I had my picture taken in 30s flying regalia. I had the picture printed up in a sepia tone and hung it beneath a picture of my father standing next to an identical plane he had just solo'd in during WW2. Dad was a teenager then. I was about sixty when my picture was taken.

My neighbor looked at the two pictures and told me I looked just like my grandfather because he thought that my picture, being printed in sepia tone was older. He thought I was my father's father.

So I guess this means people think I am my own grandfather.

Yesterday's picture was a case of having a little fun with a program called 'PhotoScape'. 

My grandfather (or maybe great grandfather) was to be hanged in Ireland for stealing sheep and somehow managed to escape and make it to the European mainland, arriving in France broke, tired, homeless and hungry. At wit's end he joined the Foreign Legion because he knew they would feed him. Bam! off to Marsailles for a few days and off to Sidi Bel Abbes, Algeria for training and then to French Indochina for a while where he almost died of jungle fever.

He managed to luck out and was sent back to Algeria to get his health back and I guess pulled some 'Beau Geste' duty in North Africa until he talked his way into becoming a cook.

When his enlistment contract was up he managed to board a ship for the United States where he married and opened a business that was fairly successful.

Anyway, there was supposedly an old tintype or other form of old picture of him floating around somewhere. Nobody knew where it went so I recreated one.

The shirt is a simple khaki work shirt, the scarf a simple white scarf. The cigar was floating around the house and was a couple of years old. The kepi I pulled out of my souvenir sea chest. A neighborhood kid snapped my picture. I downloaded it, opened PhotoScape and played with it and that's what I got.

I am now my own great grandfather.

There it is.





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I am now my own great grandfather

I will explain later



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Ooop! Missed a day

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Sometimes ya gotta break the rules.

Sausage gravy has three ingredients, sausage, milk and flour.

I cheated a little yesterday and it came out pretty good.

I was looking through the cabinets and saw a can of corned beef that I think I bought when I got out of the army after Colonel Roosevelt marched us out of Cuba. Good old corned Willie.

Anyway, I opened it up and it smelled edible so I dumped it into the skillet and fried it up a bit, added some flour and milk and stirred up some cream of corn Willie.

It wasn't all that bad and went well over sourdough toast with a couple of fried eggs.

While I don't like it as much as I do making the recipe with pork sausage, it's pretty good and it now has a place on the Official Piccolo Breakfast Menu.

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Funny. I don't care who you are

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But it's ugly....

The Hard Dog roll bar I put in the Miata a few years back came from a used car dealer that sold a Miata to some chickie-poo.

She liked the car but hated the roll bar even after the dealer explained it could save her life. She rebuffed his arguments with the chickie-poo saw of "But it's ugly."

Last night I got on the horn with someone I have not seen or heard from in over 30 years and we laughed ourselves silly over the things we did and saw.

One of the guys had a much loved, very beaten upWW2 era flight jacket he was seldom seen without. It had the old Confederate Air Force blood chit sewn on the back. Try that today.

He had just gotten a new girl friend and I guess she was trying to see whatever it is that insecure chicks try and see when they get a new boyfriend. She didn't like his jacket so she threw it out.

He came down to the bar where she was supposed to meet him and saw her and asked where his jacket was. She said she threw it out.

He told her he liked the jacket and she had no business doing such a thing. "But it's ugly," she protested.

He said he'd be back in a half-hour and in about a half hour he returned wearing the jacket he'd fished out of the trash.

She saw him in the jacket and protested. "It's ugly," she whined.

Four seconds later she was over his shoulder demanding to know what was going on. "YOU'RE ugly," he said and out the door the two of them went. A few seconds later she found herself deposited into the bar's dumpster along with thee beer cans, whisky bottles, half-eaten hot dogs and sundry trash.

Then he came back into the bar and ordered himself a beer.

I saw her the next day whining about it and noticed that she got no sympathy from men whatsoever and damned little support from women, either.

I was in the bar at the time as the friend I hadn't spoken with in over 30 years and we laughed about it.

We also reminisced about things that make me wonder why we have lived as long as we have. 





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hate days like today.

Got home last night from sea and got cheated out of my "ass day'.

What bullshit!

I got booted out of the rack to deal with ll sortsof stupidity.

That stupidity isn't going anywhere. Nobody is going to sneak in and do the work and cheat me out of it. It will still be there tomorrow.

In fact I got so little done today the work still IS there for tomorrow.


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One of the things I heard over the marine VHF in New York harbor

was a conversation between two smokers discussing how they can get cartons of smokes cheaper than in New York City.

Here we go, I have said this before and it holds true. People will generally make an effort to avoid taxes.

Both of these sailors were headed to ports further south where cigarettes are not taxes as highly as they are in New York and both of these mariners planned on buying an awful lot of smokes, some to feed their habits, and some for resale to their friends or whatever.

Being a nice guy, I interrupted them to let them know of a guy that used to supply me when I smoked. They were grateful as hell.

What is funny as hell is I also told them that the place two doors down sells discount liquor but they were not inte5.04rested. This did not surprise me. I'm pretty much the same way. I would never bring booze on board even if it was to be kept sealed and taken home. It is something I just do not do.

Still, it is interesting how the mechanics of tax evasion work. It is just SO predictable. 

A state or municipality taxes something and people start to buy the taxed item from out of town or out of state.

Seattle has recently put a 1.75 cent/ounce on sugary drinks. That's 21 cents per 12 ounce can, $1.26 per six-pack and $5.04 per case of twenty-four cans. That's a lot of money to be tacked onto soda pop.

While I rarely drink the stuff it doesn't effect me, but if it did I would certainly change my buying habits by purchasing my sugary drinks out of the city limits. I am no different than anyone else.

What's funny about taxes like this is that most police officers probably do the same thing. You can figure the police are not really going to be super gung ho about enforcing a law like this. Most of them are just as guilty as anyone else.

You would think that after a while the government types would smarten up but they don't really seem to. Too many of them truly think they are the smartest person in the world for coming up with a plan to tax something. They never seem to learn.






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Busy as he'll next couple days

Lots to get done.

May find time later today.

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There's a video making the rounds of some guy slapping

a woman for calling him a ni&&er repeatedly. It has caused a lot of opinions as to the justification or non justification of hitting the woman.

I suppose as usual I have a different take in things. 

A gentleman never hits a lady. On the other hand when a woman stops being a lady then she's on her own.

Ladies do not call people things like racial slurs. They behave themselves in a ladylike manner. When they decide that they want to call people nasty names and behave in an unacceptable manner then don't look for this kid for support.

One of the things that people seem to forget is that people misbehave because the rest of us let them. For centuries woman have hidden behind the never hit a lady rule and have been allowed to get away with a lot because men don't know the difference between a lady and a mouthy broad.

Actually the whole issue goes beyond this. The rule that you don't hit someone that insults you is the reason we have such an impolite society. We permit rude behavior.

If a guy runs his mouth and gets punched the guy that threw the punch gets jailed. It encourages people to run their mouths.

On the other hand if someone called the cops to report being assaulted and the cops found out the victim had just called the assailant a racial slur and told the victim he had it coming then things would change.

A lot of rude people would probably decide that maybe being rude wasn't such a good idea and maybe they ought to be a little kinder in their approach to the human race.

One has to remember that between about 1880 and 1920 that an awful lot of men carried pocket revolvers. While shootings were probably not as common as TV would have you to believe, the fact that shooting was an option after being insulted was probably enough for people to keep their mouths shut.

I have heard it called the era of good manners and I can see where people were a lot more polite.

About 40 some odd years ago I was involved in a minor brawl and I came out of it OK as did the other guy that was on my side. The three other guys were pretty much out of the picture and my pard was still keyed up. He saw the chick that had instigated the whole thing.

He went over to her and as she protested that she was a chick, he said, "But you ain't no lady!" and tagged her hard.

I was winding down, shaking like a paint mixer like I do after action but I remember being appalled that he hit a woman until I thought about what he said. I agreed, she wasn't a lady and had lost her protection. I admit I did laugh like hell and then grabbed my 'pard de guerre' and we took off before the police arrived.

Was it wrong?

Yeah, probably. But so what? I'll bet you that dopey little hippie chick didn't stir up any more trouble after that. She had discovered that there were people out there that would make her pay for her troublemaking.

As for the three guys? I guess they figured out that GIs didn't fight too fair. Looking back on it I think they were getting into a Marquis of Queensbury bout of fisticuffs instead of a pier 6 bar fight. Most likely they didn't expect to be hit with a beer bottle. They were pretty young.

Whatever, that was far away and long ago and as I reflect on it I do believe that the whole push of them probably started to at least act a little more civilly.

I've said it before, I'll say it again. We wind up with poor behavior and poor manners because we tolerate it.

As for the woman that got slapped in the video?

Unfortunately because she got her 15 minutes of fame out of it, she probably hasn't learned how to treat people with basic courtesy and she is probably still in the market for a serious beat down. It's too bad but it is what it is.



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I generally get pretty sick and tired of Hollywood

trying to make a movie about an actual event.

They always seem to have to add things like exploding cars, gunfights that never really happened and things of that sort.

They could take the story of Mother Teresa and turn it into a gang based shoot-em-up.

Sometimes a plain simple story can be pretty fascinating by and in itself.





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It's pretty easy to sit inside in one's jammies

and tell a couple of guys standing outside in 7 degrees and 20 knots of wind what to do.

People like that ought to remember that the guys standing outside are generally in better shape than the guy standing inside so it would behoove them not to get too pushy.

Kudos to those in that leadership position that tell their outside crews to get what has to be done completed as quickly as possible and get inside where it is warm. 

Update. Someone gets it and I am inside warming up for round two.



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It's all fun and games until someone gets shot.

Seems like this is a team effort and both the policeman and a person issuing a false report managed to get some poor guy killed.

Apparently the swatter called the police on someone and made the victim out to be some desperate armed whatever. In the process of the police investigation the hapless victim got shot and died.

I am not letting the police off the hook for this one. There is no excuse for it whatsoever from all I have read.

Still, the fact remains that the swatter that called the police in the first place should share the blame in this case.

I see in the news where it looks like he has been arrested as he should have been.

A local Walmart employee told me once that when a customer purchases even a Daisy Red Ryder he is escorted to his car by a Walmart employee in uniform. A bit part of the reason is to try and make it hard for a swatter to get away with making a false accusation on the purchaser of a gun. If this isn't national policy, I don't know. I suppose it ought to be.

The truth of the matter is that swatting is not something that is a big joke nor is it a political tool for someone that disagrees with the current gun (or whatever) laws. It is a dirty, dangerous trick that can get someone killed. 

It's also patently dishonest and people that do this kind of thing should pay for it. It is issuing a false report and the law is seldom enforced. 

Enforcing the law on false reports would go far in making all of us safer.

Several years ago a guy I used to shoot with had someone claim he had threatened him with a revolver. My friend say the setup coming a mile away and was unarmed at the time. When asked, he told the woman that he generally carried a nickel plated revolver.

Apparently the day care Earth Momma was questioning the kids about firearms and other things that were none of her business and the kid said something. When his daughter mentioned that her daddy carried the attendant decided to do something

The person was a day care attendant and my friend was too smart to carry on his person in a day care situation. 

Anyway, when he showed up to pick up his daughter the attendant called the local cops and when they showed up she claimed he had threatened her with a nickle plated revolver. 

Of course, the cop found nothing and when my friend had finished with his side of the story two things happened. The policeman wrote her a summons for issuing a false report and my friend called the owner of the day care who promptly fired the troublemaker.

I don't think she'll do that again.

Truth is, issuing a false report laws should be enforced. It will bring the rotten practice to a screeching halt. 








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You don't say!!

I see that in Baltimore that the BLM types are upset because the murder rate has gone through the roof.

Now the BLM types are babbling about how they want the police to re-enter the fray and be a kinder, gentler more understanding police force and magically make bad things go away.

You can't have both.

You can gripe about profiling and have the police stop profiling and the end result is going to be an increase in crime. You can order the police to stop arresting members of a minority group that has a high rate of crime and the end result is more crime.

Of course, the tired "Oh, well, you could just..." pops in here.

"You could just" whatever you want and if it isn't enforcing the law then crime is going to increase. It really IS that simple.

Of course now that the community has let things go to hell it is going to be a lot harder the correct things than it would have if they had just let the cops do their job in the first place.

The BLM types babble about how mean and biased the cops are but they seem to forget true human nature and it applies to cops.

Ain't no cop comes to work wanting to shoot or beat up anyone. Cops are human and they would really rather have a nice, quiet event free shift. They don't come to work looking to beat up anyone, minority or not.

They really don't want to arrest anyone, either. They would rather have a nice, quiet shift to go home from rather than have to fill out a bunch of paperwork that comes after an arrest.

Of course, the BLM types seem to try and get us to believe that the average cop comes to work with a chip on his shoulder looking for people to beat up and throw in jail.

Granted there are very rare exceptions, but the average cop hates fighting and hauling people off. He truly wishes people would behave themselves.

On the other hand, I suppose there is a pretty satisfying feeling that goes with taking a dangerous criminal off the streets and making the streets safer for the rest of us. I can sure see that. Still, the average cop wishes he didn't have to do that.

To BLM I have to say what I say to an awful lot of people.

You can't have your cake and eat it, too.







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It's hard facing the keyboard daily after all of these years.

Still, I am driven to do this because it is a part of who I am.

Tonight I had honest to God bison stew for dinner which is a real treat. I know it is bison but I am a cowboy of sorts and a lot of us call it buffalo.

Buffalo is a rare treat for me and I never refuse it. It is a red meat that has less cholesterol in it than a piece of salmon. 

It is supposed to be cooked at a lower heat than beef but when I have a steak I cook it like beef. This is to say I burn the outside and leave the middle quite red. Although not recommended by so-called experts, it works.

I wonder how a couple of buffalo roasts would go over with my niece and nephew and their kids. It's hard to say. I imagine my niece and nephew would eat it but the kids would turn their noses up to it, but maybe not.

Next time I come on I'll check first and maybe pick some up on the way. There's a buffalo farm on US 30 I can stop off at.



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The amateur radio club I am a part-time member of is having a raffle.

And I suppose I might buy a ticket or two to support the club but I really have no idea of what I would do if I won the prize which is a new radio.

Hobbies get pretty consuming and with basic barefoot rigs running in the $1000 and up range it isn't  long time before you wind up with a hole in your pocket.

As I sit here I wonder what I would do if I won. At first I thought I would simply sell the prize and bank the cash because I'm basically content with the rigs I have.

On the other hand an upgrade would be a good deal as I'm sure it has features that would make DXing a little easier. 

I guess if I won I would likely keep the prize and take my entry rig and sell that at a reasonable price to someone else getting into the hobby.

Yeah. That's what I'd do.



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Happy New Year

And if you are like a lot of others out there you are brain twisted, sick and didn't wake up feeling too good because you were feeling too good at the stroke of midnight.

Today you are supposed to eat black-eyed peas or some damned thing depending on your background, shoe size or whatever. Someone else says port and kraut.

You can rest assured I missed the ballyhoo but I felt pretty good waking up.




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