The Department of Education should be totally defunded. (Happy Gnu Year)

When Jimmy Carter established it we were leading the world in useful education.

Now we're 13th. 

We were better off without them because they seem to have buried themselves in sensitivity training, DEI and the usual crap. here.

Right now a lot of people are griping over the H1B program because we're hiring engineers left and right but it's because we are not home growing them. We face a shortage of them that will likely take decades to overcome.

Probably since I stared this blog fifteen years ago I have screeched that we have enough liberal arts degree holders to staff every third world country including Louisiana and that anyone with half a brain that's college bound should get a STEM degree.

India seems to be producing engineers coming out the wazoo and a lot of H1B immigrants come from there which is fine by me because we need them.

This country has a history of poaching the top people from other countries. The Space Program comes immediately to mind here because immediately after WW2 we snagged a number of very talented Germans. The one most commonly known was Werner Von Braun. 

IMO a big part of why we're haven't to import engineers is simply that the Department of Education has lost its way and now is mote interested in political correctness as opposed to supporting solid education in this country.

Apparently they appear to be more interested in letting boys shower with girls than they are encouraging young people to head into science and engineering and helping American science and industry stay on top of things.

If they are not doing what they are supposed to do then dump them.

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No I do NOT want to buy half of a cow.

Someone posted on Nextdoor he was interested in buying a half of a cow to stick in his freezer. I suppose this makes sense if you have a family and a bunch of kids. Four bucks a pound for just about any kind of beef these days sounds like a pretty good deal.

Still, where the hell do I put half of an entire cow?  I am an old man with a refrigerator freezer.

I simply replied with 'Last week I just finished up with the last of the brontosaurus my father brought home back in 1957.'

What is interesting is that nobody started with the "What? Your father brought home a brontosaurus! Where did he get it?"

There's always one and they haven't showed up yet.

Then again I posted a couple of days ago...

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This post gave me an idea.

The Brontosaurus Cookbook. 

Good bye 2024. When 2025 comes charging in please don't wake me up. I will be fast asleep as usual.

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I just dropped out of a conversation over my Godson's BB gun.

If I had to guess I'd say the guy had a 'Hate has no home here' lawn sign because I defended giving my Godson that BB gun.

I admit I did troll him to a degree. When he asked, 'Why don't you give him an AR?" I explained to him that he's too young for one right now because it doesn't fit him. Then I explained we'd graduate him to a .22 and then to an intermediate cartridge to get him into high power, say a .223 and while an AR is certainly in the running I was leaning towards an accurized heavy barrel bolt gun before graduating him to maybe a Garand or a .308 bolt gun and when he got close to his adult weight, maybe a .338 Lapua so he's good out to 1750 meters."

Anyway, after he told me he collects friendships, love, peace and the usual hippie dippie $hit. He also mentioned his father served in WW2. I said I had a DD 214 and asked if he did and he went through the roof. Actually I was hoping he did. Sons follow fathers and I was looking for common ground.

He really went off on me with the I'm as good as you are and I'm a New York city street kid and I'd like to punch me out and yada yada yada.

I was surprised the AI didn't pick up on it and give him a time out but he was a leftist and they seem immune to it.

Anyway after his two or three rants I simply posted  I was going to do the only thing a rational man can do under these circumstances. This conversation is over. 

A successful mission. I got a limousine liberal to out himself. He did it to himself when he threatened me.

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One of the things I have noticed over the past couple of years is if a home has a 'Hate has no home here' lawn sign in the yard the odds are pretty good that just mentioning the name Donald Trump is pretty good way of hearing a pretty good hateful rant from the homeowner.

I've actually done that three time I can remember and all three fed me a pretty hateful rant about the current president-elect. It's been some of the most hateful and malicious speech I have ever heard.

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Any of the peace love virtue signals bring me to general quarters instantly. While I know that there are people that actually live that way, the majority of them are using it to hide behind and are easily outed.

I read a post made by a cop that got called to a virtue signaler's house. Seems she left her garage door open and a pickup stopped in front of her house and two black males got out, ran into her garage, rolled her lawn mower out and threw it into the pickup bed and drove off. Apparently she saw what happened when they threw the mower in the bed and drove off. She want to her garage and of course her mower was gone. She dialed  911.

When the police officer showed up the only description she could give was 2 black males and a pickup truck. Not much help.

Ossifer Friendly explained that he really didn't have enough to go on and suggested she get a new lawn mower.

She was agape and said, "You mean the police department can't keep two ni&&ers from stealing my lawn mower?!"

Frankly that's what I expect from the virtue signalers.

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One thing about NYC street kids in the Army. Some of them are OK and adapt. Many don't and are selfish and look out for themselves and screw the unit. They don't understand unit cohesion.

I had to deal with one on my FIRST DAY out of training at my new unit. The guy on my left in formation told me he was from NEW YORK CITY. Yeah, OK. Who cares.

With an order of 'right face' he was behind me and while we were being herded off to PT he thought he could get away with me and smacked the back of my head. Not once but three times. I'm sure my head bobbled but I was a newbie and disciplined. I held course and speed and when we got to the PT field (a parking lot) he took another swing which I blocked. I counterattacked and gave home a Moe Howard to the eyeballs and then busted him up at my leisure. It took just a few seconds and I resumed the position of parade rest as he was sitting there pretty injured.

A couple of medics went to work.

After PT I was called into the BC's office and immediately threatened with a General Courts-Martial. I stayed silent. I wondered if I was going to be carted off by the MPs. 

We were interrupted by the First Sergeant and I was told to wait outside. When I was told to return the BC simply said, "You may go but I WILL be keeping an eye on you."

I had won the lottery. Big time. A pair of NCOS had been tagging behind and had witnessed the entire thing, start to finish, and had gone straight to Top and told him what had happened. I had simply  been attacked and defended myself.

Later the NCOs both became my friends as much as a friend can be between a private and a staff sergeant. They had integrity. They both became some of my mentors.

I played hell for the next couple of months keeping on the straight and narrow but I never had a problem afterwards. A couple of months later the BC rotated out and I had the proverbial clean slate. 

Later in Kodiak I saw the "I'm from New York City" crowd eaten alive and it was hilarious. Then again I worked with one hell of a deckhand that was from the Big Apple. 

One thing I remember from Kodiak was the time some a$$hole came into Tony's Bar and announced he was from NYC.

I'd been in town a while and was beginning to be known for my dry sense of humor. Most people ignored the guy but I didn't.

My reply was, "Oh, yeah, a$$hole? I'm a real live cowboy from East Muleshoe, Oklahoma and you can't tell me $hit!"

That brought the house down.

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Piccolo goes to Admiralty court.

This goes back maybe two decades and the memory is somewhat clear but not really sharp. Dates, times and details are as best as I can recall. Names (as usual) changed to protect the innocent AND the guilty.

For the record, federal district courts have jurisdiction over all admiralty and marine actions. Calling it admiralty court is a figure of speech in the United States. However, maritime law is regarded as a specialty by lawyers. 

One evening we arrived at a dock and tied up. We were immediately notified they couldn't start loading us until 0700 the following day. I sacked out and relieved my shipmate at 2359 per SOP. I had told the dockman to bang on the hull with a wrench if they needed anything. That didn't need to be said. It was pretty much a universal form of dock to barge communication under the circumstances. It really rings loudly throughout the entire vessel.

I settled in for a long, quiet watch of reading and maybe television. Sometime during the middle of the watch emergency lights on the dock caught my attention. I took one look out the window and saw an ambulance and instantly went out on deck. It seemed a dockman had fallen off the dock somehow and had been fished out and injured. He was being taken to the hospital.

I went below and logged the incident carefully and then called dispatch. I told him what had happened and said I wanted to tell an adult about it. 

The newbie dispatchers get a bit rankled when you say you want to tell and adult but the term was coined by an older dispatcher. He patched me through to the on call port captain. 

I explained what had happened and suggested they call the dock and find out what happened. He asked me why I had kicked him awake and I told him that that there was a good chance he had tried to climb aboard and that would involve our equipment. I pointed out that I didn't want this listed in a dispatch log as a simple line that would easily be overlooked. "Gut instinct," I said.

"I'll buy that. Good work," he replied. I knew I had done things right.

When I was relieved I told him about everything that happened and how I handled it. I also suggested he try and get some details from the dock office and log whatever he heard. 

At 1200 when I relieved him he said that it was a good thing I had called the office and talked to an adult because the fool of a dockman had decided to climb aboard instead of hitting the side with a wrench and had slipped and fallen into the drink.

The cargo transfer was routine and afterwards the tug sailed us immediately.

A day or two later we were told to make a copy of the logbook entries for the night and send them into the office. We did that and they were handed off to a tug headed to the Philly office.

That ended it...or so we thought.

About a year or so later we were both told we were being pulled off the barge and taken to the Philly office for a few days. When we asked why we were simply told we were going to court. Needless to say, that scared the holy hell out of us. What was that all about?

When we got there we walked into our port captain's office and asked what the hell was going on. Thank God the port captain was one of the good guys. He told us to call the man and find out. We would do the talking and he would listen.

When we asked about accommodations we were told to bunk on a tied up tugboat. When I asked about food he snapped "You guys are issued grub money!"

I shot back that we had spent it on food that was now on the barge being eaten by the two clowns he replaced us with and suggested they take their per diem and give it to us so we could eat.

"Don't you guys have any money?" he asked.

"No. we both lost our money in a poker game," I replied. "Besides, you want us to show up in court in greasy overalls?"

"What about your street clothes?" he asked.

"You know how we are. We work in coveralls and rags and come to work in clothes that will become rags and then work clothes," I said. "if you want a pair of bums representing you in court that's up to you."

"Yeah, well..."

My port captain looked at me and signaled me to cut it short. I simply hung up and looked at me. I said to him "Gosh! We better tell an adult!"

He looked at me mildly annoyed for an instant and then grinned. "That's one way of putting it," he said. "You are the epitome of tact and a real wordsmith," he said. "You're right, though. We better tell an adult. I'm going to jump the chain of command on this one."

He didn't go to the summit, but he went close. He went to the military crest and asked what was going on. We finally found out what this was all about. The company was being sued over the accident that had happened over a year earlier. We were not being sued by the oil company but by the injured individual. 

The VP of operations asked the port captain where my shipmate and I were and seeing we were on speakerphone the tow of chorused we were 'right here.'

He told us not to go anywhere and someone from the home office would be by in two or three hours. If I recall it was not noon yet. He also told our port captain to get us a room at the local Red Roof and take us to lunch. 

After lunch the pair of us went to the break room or whatever it was. There were a couple of couches there so we took a siesta and waited.

Mid afternoon came and the port captain rousted us and took us into a conference room and told us that Robert, the man who we were to meet was a few minutes away. He left and returned a few minutes with Robert. The first time I saw Robert I wondered what kind of a nerdy guy he was. I was mistaken. He was a smart tiger. 

Later I found out he was a King's Point graduate and had quite some sea time on ships.

He asked my port captain where we were staying and were told we had rooms at the Red Roof. Then he pulled out a company credit card and two cell phones with chargers and handed my shipmate a phone, charger and the credit card. I got the other phone. He said the pair of us could eat together anywhere we wanted and told us to fill our vehicle gas tanks. He then asked the port captain 'if we were OK' which we later figured meant that did we behave ourselves. The port captain vouched for us. I believe he also handed us $100 cash apiece for 'incidentals'. Later we were not asked for it back and we never  figured out why we had been given it.  Neither of us had spent any of it until after the trial.

He asked us about our clothing and we told him we had nothing suitable for court. We had none. We were told to each get an outfit suitable for court and charge it to the company. We were going to spend part of the next couple of days getting briefed by the company attorney who was actually a local Admiralty lawyer the company had hired. He then gave us a quickie course on the cell phones and told is to go shopping and get a good night's sleep and be ready tomorrow morning for getting prepped by the attorney.

Then he said something that immediately let us know he had a maritime background. "Save the outfits for court. You can wear your coveralls to the attorney's.

We made a beeline to Walmart and picked up suitable outfits. I had slacks, a sport shirt and sweater, he opted for the same and in addition grabbed decent looking cheap shoes to replace our work shoes and went to the Red Roof and parked out outfits. We went out to eat and sacked out early.

The next morning we were up early and breakfasted and at about 0830 Robert showed up and took us to Center City and the attorney's office. My shipmate told his story to the attorney and I told mine. My shipmate was sleeping and the first I knew about what happened to the dockman was when I saw the ambulance lights. Nobody had given us any warning of trying to board us. The VHF radio, while seldom used by the dock had been on and I never heard anyone hitting the barge's side to signal us.

The attorney told us to be honest, tell the truth and not to bandy words with the plaintiffs attorney. He also gave us other advice as to how to conduct ourselves. We were to come across as what we were, basic, simple sailors.

The prep was less than I expected. The attorney took us to lunch at some hifalutin' place in Center City and we went back to the Red Roof and had the afternoon off. 

Later that afternoon we got a call on one of the cell phones we had been issued. We were to be ready by 1100, dressed for court. We bedded down early, had an early breakfast, returned to the fleabag and waited. At 1030 we dressed for court.

We were picked up and drove to Center City where at about 1130 we headed for a quick lunch and at 1250 we went into the courtroom and waited for a short time and court resumed. The trial had been going on for some time. We were almost immediately called and my shipmate went first. He explained that he had slept through the entire incident. The plaintiff was through with him in just a few minutes. 

The defense attorney asked him if he could hear the sound of metal and metal in his sleep. He replied that I had dropped a wrench on deck a couple of times and he had been wakened from a deep sleep and gone charging out on deck in the snow clad only in flip flops and his underwear to see what had happened. He had heard nothing that night.

No further questions. 

I was next. I put my hand on a bible and someone said "Doyousweartocalluppropertypriatypecuritypuritysuritysecurityandnothurtthestatesaywhat?''

"What? I asked.

"Take your stand."

That's what it sounded like. In short I was duly sworn in and took the stand.

The first question the plaintiffs attorney asked me was what I thought caused the accident. Oh, well. I had sworn to tell the truth, the hole truth and nothing but the truth. Here goes.

"Stupidity," I replied.

Our attorney looked concerned with my answer. 

The plaintiff's attorney demanded an explanation. What do you mean by that!" I was very surprised by such an old saw being thrown at me. It was a classic opening. On the other hand the lawyer could have been trying to set up a trap. 

"I mean there was a ladder on the dock," I said. "He could have used that...OR hit the side of the barge with a wrench and signaled me and I would have been out on deck like a shot to lower our ladder. He's been on that dock for years and knows the rules and decided instead broke them and to try to scale a flat steel hull and as a result fell in the water. That sounds like stupidity to me."

"Why don't you simply leave a ladder down and in place?" he demanded.

"Because an untended ladder gets broken, bent or smashed by passing ship wash or tidal action," I replied. "The only time a boat stops moving is when it is in a drydock or cribbed up ashore. When someone is coming aboard or leaving we lower a ladder and when it's not in use we haul it back on board."

"Did you have a gangway on board?"

"Yes." 

"Why didn't you lower it? he demanded.

"Because we were told not to by the dock person that helped tie us up. Actually we never do that at this particular dock because it doesn't fit well on that dock. We supply it as a courtesy when requested. It's not required by law. However when requested we supply it. We were told not to because the dock person that tied us up knew it didn't fit well and told us he didn't want it."

He asked me a couple more inane questions that I answered with a yes or no and then our attorney got his turn. I was very, very surprised it went that way. I had fully expected to find myself playing word games with the plaintiff's attorney.

"No questions, Your honor." 

I left the stand and went and sat down. Our attorney gave me a look I could not figure out. 

I noticed that the plaintiff's attorney tried to be dramatic and intimidating. Ours had been more fatherly in the way he asked questions. He was more like Ward Cleaver patiently asking the Beav where the missing cookies went.

An employee of the oil company that owned the dock was called to the stand and gave testimony for a few minutes. The plaintiffs attorney asked him a couple quick questions and our attorney asked him if there had been a ladder or a wrench available on the dock. There had been.

The rest is somewhat of a blur. The jury was sent out to come to a verdict and my shipmate and I were told to prepare to come in the next morning if we wanted to hear the verdict. We did. Back to the Red Roof.

While Robert drove he told us we had done well. He told us to relax and get a good night's sleep.

The following morning I pointed out to my shipmate that we were going to court in the same outfits we had been wearing for the past two days. He agreed. We were both about the same size so we swapped clothes around a bit. Apparently it worked because Robert asked us if we had gotten new clothes the night before. When I told him he laughed and said, "You two guys are a real team. I had a roomie at the Academy I used to do that with sometimes."

The following day we were picked up at 0800 and arrived back in the courtroom and the judge jury came out and someone on the jury handed the judge a paper of some sort. 

I don't remember much but early on I heard something that didn't sound very good and I caught Robert's eye. Out of the corner of his mouth he whispered to me, "That's good."

I didn't understand all of the legal mumbo jumbo but Robert and our attorney were doing their best to suppress smirks. The court broke up and headed into the hall. Instantly the plaintiff's shyster attorney approached the pair of us and tried to hand us his cards telling us that if we needed a good attorney to give him a call. 

"Why? You lost," replied my shipmate.

A moment later the plaintiff approached us and made some lame comment about how if he had known it was us he never would have sued. We were both kind. We accepted his apology with a 'no hard feelings.' We both actually felt bad for him. We'd both known him for years. He was actually a halfway decent dockman.

On the way back to the Red Roof Robert, who had been there for the entire trial, told us about the plaintiff's wife's humiliating testimony. She had said that the plaintiff was useless around the house and was unable to take care of her in bed anymore and was now useless. That must of been really humiliating for him. It was pretty clear that she was at the bottom of the whole mess.  My guess is looking back on it she had a friend that had a cousin that was an attorney or maybe she saw one of those 'if you've ever been injured' ads on TV.

When we neared the Red Roof we were given further orders. We were to jump in our vehicles and head to the company HQ a couple hours south and refuel at the nearby convenience store on the company credit card and then report to the home office. 'Someone wants to talk to you.'

We did what we were told, driving separately. When we arrived at the home office Robert was at the door. We handed him the cell phones and the credit card. when I mentioned the $100 cash we had been issued for 'incidentals' he simply said, "You spent it on incidentals."  He led us into this meeting of almost all of the big shots and started introducing us to almost all of them. We got the obligatory thanks and so on and so forth. We were discreetly called into another room and handed envelopes by some woman which we stuffed into our pockets. Later we discovered it was a pretty good little pile of cash. IIRC it was something like $500, maybe even a grand. I don't remember.

Then we were given orders to go home and return to work on our regular schedule. That gave us over a week's time at home and we knew we'd be paid for it. We were.

In addition to that, when our paychecks arrived we saw our grub allowance had been doubled. Later I found out our port captain had put the fix in on that one. He was more than aware that grub related issues were the source of a lot of feuds and didn't want one to start when we returned to empty cabinets. 

Although we both came out smelling like a rose, we both wished it had never happened in the first place because life would have been a whole lot less nerve wracking.  

I never did find out all the details and mechanics of the final verdict simply because I was happy we came out on top and that life would quickly return to normal. I think we were supposed to cough up $2 or something, if that.

Aftermath.

The next time I ran into the woman that had handed us our 'bonus' was a couple of years later. She was walking down the company dock.

One of the guys I had a long good natured running feud with mooned me. He hadn't noticed her walking down the dock and she was looking up.

When I saw she had seen it I started to pale expecting a monumental explosion but she seemed to know what was going on and laughed like hell.

 

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The guys tended to ruin every freebie and good deal they were given.

It galled me to no end over the years.

At one time the company issued coveralls at no cost to the employee. I kept two or three sets on board and seldom needed to replace them unless they got torn or so greasy they couldn't be washed. It was a pretty good deal.

Needless to say, a handful of people took advantage of it and stories about how some tug skippers would throw a case full of them in their cars started making the rounds. It really got to be ridiculous. 

Stories that half the mechanics in Matthews County were wearing company coveralls made the rounds. The clincher was when one of the company higher-ups reported to having seen someone wearing a set of them in Arizona when he went there.

That ended that.

Once in a while when we had company meetings at the home office they would take the whole push of us out to dinner at a really nice place. Dinner, drinks, the whole shooting match.

I liked those meetings because the office people were there and you got to meet them face to face and then afterwards I'd a face attached to the voice you spoke with occasionally on the phone.

Anyway, we were eating at the nicest place in town one cold winter night and instead of standing out in the cold for a few minutes to grab a quick smoke a couple of the usual chowderheads sneaked into the men's room and lit up. 

Customers complained and we were told not to come back again. The following year we had a catered buffet at the company office IIRC. Oh, well.

It was always the usual small handful of idiots that seemed to ruin everything. 

Then there was the imbecile that was supposed to do a cargo transfer at a certain dock in the south that had a reputation for strict safety standards. The dock crew wore Nomex coveralls and although we were supposed to also they conditionally waivered that rule and permitted us to load and discharge there so long as we wore long sleeved coveralls, sleeves down and buttoned at the wrist.

This clown came out on deck clad only in cutoffs and flip-flops. When the dockman said something to him he started with an epic answer of monumental stupidity. "I'm the captain of this barge and I'll decide what to wear on this deck."

He was immediately ordered to sail and the entire office (rightfully) went into an uproar. Strangely enough I don't believe he was fired and wonder why to this day. He certainly should have been and not for getting kicked off the dock but for the general principle of gross stupidity.

Immediately all tankermen were issued two pairs of tan colored long sleeved coveralls and were required to wear them on deck at all docks when on watch. Off watch if you had to go on deck it was long pants, a long sleeved shirt and work shoes, minimum. coveralls preferred. Needless to say, we were not all happy campers. The days of our happy go lucky slave rags were over.

Later I asked the VP of operations if I could, at my own expense get a set of khaki Dickies and have the company name stenciled on the back. He told me to go ahead not to even bother with stenciling them. He did say that if anyone asked that I had paid for them out of my own pocket. Fair enough! Win/win.

I liked the guy even though a lot of people were afraid of him. While occasionally I didn't get my way with him he was a really straight shooter and was the epitome of fair and reasonable. Underneath it he occasionally showed a pretty good sense of humor. 

On day he boarded us unannounced and saw a Skoal can on the table. It had been relabeled 'Give a F**k'. he picked it up, opened it and said, "It's empty!"

"Dammit! It's my last can!" I shot back and he almost fell over laughing and asked if I could make him one. I told him to just take that one and it remained on his desk for years.

The company used to put is up in pretty good rooms when we traveled but you know how that goes. Someone got drunk and trashed a room. We got relegated to the Red roof. Actually they should have simply fired the wrongdoer and be done with it but they didn't.

Later on the guys started complaining about hookers knocking on their doors at all hours to ply their wares. The complaint was bona fide, actually. It happened to me a number of times. I remember asking one hooker dryly if she took VISA. She was not amused.

They relented but not before they said that anyone that damaged anything would be out a job. We got bumped up a step and managed to get uninterrupted sleep afterwards.

Incidentally in the lobby of the new place in the lobby near the vending machine some woman came onto me. I was in my mid 60s at the time. When I asked her, "How's business, officer?" her jaw dropped and she quietly asked me how I knew she was a cop.

I told her it was because she was fit and showed no signs of drug abuse. It really was obvious to a good eye.

Still, it seemed that every time the company tried to do something nice for the guys the usual gang of idiots would ruin it. 

   

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My history of Christmas depression kicked in.

Something jerked a memory of wintertime Christmas depression.

Christmas eve.

An Alaskan bar. 2315 local time.

I shot off my mouth and offered a ride to midnight mass to anyone that wanted a ride. Nobody was interested but a hooker came up to me quietly and said I could drop her off in the parking lot.

I said, "No. You're coming with me. As my guest."

We went to mass together.

Later I got a lot of shit over it from a few self righteous people.

40 something years later I think it was my finest hour.

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Well, well, well. No eyes have been shot out. BB gun update.

and my niece has given me a preliminary report. 

At the end of Christmas day my Godson asked his father if he could store his new Red Ryder in he closet because he didn't want any of his friends to get their hands on it because he was afraid they'd play with it and get hurt.

He's nine years old.

I already think I called that one right. He'll be just fine.

Fallout from the other side of the family. One old hen from the other side of the tribe heard about it and was immediately outraged demanding to know why such a wee lad was handed such a deadly weapon. 

"Because I felt he is too small for a 30-30. Come to think of it, Then again a .30 cal has a pretty hefty blast and recoil for a youngster. In between he ought to learn on a nice intermediate cartridge like a .223. Maybe when he's 11 I'll get him an AR15 and wait until he's 14 or 15 and put him in a nice long range .308 bolt gun."

Instant epic meltdown.

What's probably not too surprising to hear is that I got my Red Ryder out and plinked with it today shooting various targets of opportunity.

Right now I'm making a target for tomorrow by emptying a beer can. BB gun is secure and a cold beer tastes pretty good.

I like to use one as a target because a BB will punch cleanly through one side but not both. You can shoot at one a mess of times and afterwards, tear the top off and dump the BBs into a flat pan and dry them out for reuse. If it's an old, dried up empty you don't even have to dry them out.

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First report. Christmas night.

He asked his dad if he could store it in the master bedroom closet because he didn't want his visiting friends to find it and start playing with it and get hurt.

I think giving it to him was a good call.

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I am writing this to post to post the link on another website.

Someone tried to shame me for giving my Godson a Daisy Red Ryder BB gun for Christmas. I got the usual crap that goes with it. 

For him I say he ought to make his opinion noted and stand up for it. I recommend he put this on his lawn.

Of course if I were his neighbor I would cheerfully post this:

Fact of the matter is I didn't give my Godson a BB gun as a toy to turn him loose with to terrorize the neighborhood. I gave it to him to teach him some responsibility.

By now his parents have had a serious sit-down with him and explained that it is not a toy and could cause serious damage to people. The 'shoot your eye out' line really isn't a joke. It's serious business.

Besides his parents, his fairly avid shooter uncle will coach him along and insure a proper education in firearm safety and basic marksmanship. One thing that he will learn in the process is personal responsibility which is something many adults know little or nothing about.

Between two parents and an uncle I'm sure he will be steered in a safe direction. Later if he accepts the responsibility of BB gun ownership he will probably graduate to a single shot .22 rifle. eventually when I pass my 30-30 deer rifle will be passed onto him if he still shows interest.

I've been in the shooting sports almost all of my adult life and hopefully I will pass this onto him.

I hear a lot of parents screeching to kid proof guns but that's a cop-out. For one thing you can't. Kids can get into everything and find the meanest of hiding places for things. Besides, one can't control what happens during a play date. Some kid could very well hand your child a loaded firearm they either discovered in Dad's drawer or elsewhere. While locking things into a safe may sound like a 100% solution, it really isn't. Motivated kids can figure out how to get into Fort Knox. Besides, when they eventually get handed one, as a child OR even later on as an adult they will be ignorant of the safety rules.

A far more proactive solution is to gun proof you kids. You have to pull your head out of the sand and realize that this is a heavily armed country and you're not going to change it. Get over it and face reality.

You expose your kids to firearms and teach them to handle one safely. It doesn't take much. The safety rules are simple.

I have a relative that carried a handgun in the line of duty regularly. His mother was constantly worried about the kids getting their hands on it. 

One day he placed his revolver on the kitchen table and took his mother into the living room and said, "Watch this."

A few minutes later his son walked in the kitchen door and called out to his father that he had left his revolver on the kitchen table. Dad told the kid to bring it into the living room for him.

When the lad came into the living room he was carrying the revolver in his right hand. The cylinder was swung out and he was carrying it safely by the frame, with his fingers in the hole the cylinder was usually in. His left hand held 6 cartridges. The boy has simply unloaded it and disabled the revolver.

He was six years old.

It doesn't take much to gun proof kids. The basic safety rules are pretty simple. 1. Never point a firearm at something you don't want to destroy.  2. Keep your finger off the trigger until you re ready to shoot. It really IS that simple.

Hopefully my Godson will accept the responsibility of a BB gun and through it learn safety. I bet he will.

A few years down the road I may put a .22 single shot under the Christmas tree if he show interest. If not, that's good, too.

Still, because his parents and uncle will take the time to teach him he will go into later life aware of firearms and responsible enough to be safe.

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Merry Christmas.

Nuff said.

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it's been a Merry Christmas Christmas this year.

I've only gotten two 'Happy Holidays' the whole season. It seems to have returned to Merry Christmas again!!

Of the three 'Happy Holidays', two were working behind a counter. to be fair about it I have to give them a pass because they are behind a counter and likely were told by management what to do.

The second 'Happy Holidays' was an obvious liberal who returned my 'Merry Christmas' with a 'Happy Holidays'. I rained on his parade by saying "Happy Holidays. How sterile! Who cut you balls off?"

While not as much as I would like I see it, it's certainly a welcome change back to saner times. 

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It's Festivus!

The holiday for the restofus.

Before the fire I would break out the yarmulke a Jewish friend sent me that was embroidered 'Happy Festivus'. Sadly it turned up missing after the fire.

This year Christmas and Hanukah are both eon the same day.

This is the day for the coalition of Christians and Jews to celebrate.

Good deal! 

 

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A woman I have met before that lives nearby has been killed while walking her dog.

She was hit by a car.

The woman that hit her stopped and instantly called the police, much to her credit. 

Needless to say, there was speculation and as usual a lot of fingers pointed at the driver who may/may not be held responsible.

I had met the woman that got hit a while back and she seemed okay. The again it was a case of one of her neighbors and I met her in the condo parking area where they both lived. I met her a couple times afterwards and briefly spoke to her.

Twice I heard that when she was walking her dog, who was also killed in the accident, that she seemed to be in a daze of some sort because a number of people had waved at her while she was walking the dog in bright daylight and seemed to have not noticed them.

She was walking her dog near a well known corner that should should have been a four way stop instead of a two way stop. Of course after she was killed there is a hue and cry to make the corner a 4 way stop.

She was reported to have been wearing a reflective vest of some sort which is what people should do because as a driver I have had to deal with too many Johnny Cash (The Man in Black) look-alikes that walk their pets after dark in black clothing. Then again, what kind of reflective vest was she wearing?. Some of them have a stripe or two running down the back and the commonly worn dark colored backpack makes the vest worthless to someone coming up from behind.

It's winter now and it gets dark early and lately as I have gotten older I try to drive at night as little as possible. Still, when I'm out I see people walking pets or simply walking with their backs to traffic dressed in very dark clothing. 

While I have never hit one of them, I have had a couple scare the holy hell out of me when I spot them. A couple of them over the years have been walking in the middle of my lane backs toward me, not a care in the world. 

I'm a slow driver in residential areas, especially in the Miata for a few reasons. The Miata is a little loud and sometimes people think I'm going faster than I really am. I try and make an effort, at the very least, in my own neighborhood. This holds doubly true after dark mainly because of the Johnny Cash dressers that are out and about.

Of course the usual suspects are quick to point out that pedestrians have the right of way and automatically will assume the driver is responsible. Fine. We'll get to this later.

As many of you know, I'm a retired mariner and as such have made my career have lived under maritime law. I also have some fairly extensive sailboat cruising under my belt. One of the first things someone learns for a captain's license are the Rules of the Road, a fairly complex set of rules establishing a pecking order for the right of way. by day under various circumstances there are day shapes that must be displayed. By night there are various lights that are displayed. 

The Rules of the Road go back to to about 1897 and were established to prevent collision at sea. This was long before the invention of radar and bridge to bridge radio communication. 

There is also one unspoken rule for mariners. It's called The Law of Gross Tonnage. It means you can be following the Rules of the Road to a T and still get clobbered. Nothing absolves one of their duty to prevent a collision at sea by any means necessary.

During my sailboat cruising period, under sail I was supposed to show port and starboard running lights and a stern light in darkness and inclement weather. However, in addition to this I religiously hung a radar reflector in my mast. Small plastic boats do not show up very well on radar because the aluminum mast doesn't reflect radar waves very well.  I've tested my radar reflectors before and they work and work rather well. (update: two years ago about the time I retired these became mandatory)

I have lived in a world of ships up to 1500 feet in length that traveled at 27 knots or greater and while we religiously adhered to the Rules of the Road, we also adhered even more religiously to the Law of Gross tonnage. To a man the people I sailed with were very proactive in preventing collisions at sea. The very, very few times, and I can only recall one where we had a close call the tug skipper did exactly the right thing and a collision was averted. Instead of slowing down he instantly hooked up to all ahead full.

Incidentally if you are involved in a marine casualty and were in compliance of the Rules of the Road don't go running to some accident attorney or some shoreside shyster because you are not going to some court downtown. You are headed to Admiralty Court and it's an entirely different ball game. Dewey, Cheetham and Howe, injury lawyers are probably going to get chewed up and spit out like popcorn and YOU may very well wind up deeply in debt. 

Admiralty courts don't assign blame as such. The decide a percentage of the responsibility. If the total damages total to a million bucks and you get held with 5% of the blame then you can be required to pony up $50,000. Seldom does one party simply walk off cleanly with no percentage of the responsibility assigned.

I have been a witness in an Admiralty court once and 

Back to the accident.

The driver as of now has not been charged with anything. I suppose she could be charged with manslaughter or negligent homicide if the police believe it is warranted. So far she has not been charged.

Legally and socially I suppose it's fairly easy to assign blame. Car hit pedestrian. Car guilty. The End.

Now let's get down to responsibilities. 

Cars are inanimate objects. They can not be assigned blame except in the very, very rare case of manufacturing defect in which case the manufacturer can be dragged into the situation. 

For one thing, this shows she was not likely fiddling with her damned cell phone as this is one of the first things the police usually check in the event of a fatal accident. Has she been she likely would have been charged with something.

So far I have seen no evidence that she was distracted or any wrongdoing on the driver's fault. While I am not certain of where she came from, if she was a local it's highly likely she was aware that the intersection was a bit on the tricky side and was paying reasonable attention. It's also highly unlikely there was any malice involved. That was displayed by the fact that she stopped instantly and notified the police immediately. Still, she shares a portion of the responsibility which is yet to be determined.

As for the victim, it appears to me from what I have heard she was known for not paying attention. However, she reportedly was wearing a reflective vest of some sort. Some people have said that she didn't seem to pay attention to her surroundings. I'd have to assign her a portion of the responsibility.

One thing is certain, though. She shares one thing in common with Elvis Presley. They are both still dead and that's simply the way it is. That's a cold, hard fact.

One other cold hard fact is that if either of the two parties had seen the other the odds of this terrible accident are that it probably would not have occurred. The woman driving certainly didn't want to hit the pedestrian and it pretty damned likely the pedestrian didn't want to die, either. In fact she certainly didn't even want her dog killed, either. FWIW her Sheltie was killed, also.

We teach drivers to drive like their lives depend on it yet we tend to ignore the responsibilities that pedestrians have to take care of themselves. 

As of now I don't have anywhere near enough to act as a mock admiralty court juror and assign percentages of the responsibility I can say with certainty that both parties carry at least some burden of responsibility for this accident. It's pretty clear to me that both parties should have been paying more attention to their surroundings.

As for the aftermath, we have one dead woman, one dead animal and one living woman who has had her life changed forever and has to live with this.  

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

Of course this well never end. A couple of days ago someone mentioned to me about someone that walks from his condo to the nearby supermarket in dark clothing. He walks with his back to traffic on the way to and faces traffic on the way home carrying his groceries. He's also reportedly hearing impaired.

He sounds like another Darwin candidate to me and if he does get hit by a car I will not be surprised. Not even a little bit.

 

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One thing I hope DOGE goes through like a dose of salts

are a lot of government subsidies.

For some reason or another, the wool subsidy made a certain amount of sense. It was there in case of war because wool was used for warm uniforms by the military for cold weather uniforms.

Back in the early 70s when I was a soldier I was issued wool pants and wool shirts in my TA-50. They did the job well enough on winter field problems.

I was also issued wool GI blankets and they were pretty good...for the times.  

Had the Slobovians bombed Oyster Bay in a fiendish sneak attack the demand for uniform wool would have been damned high. Synthetics for outdoor clothing was still in its infancy back then.

By the mid 80s synthetics were beginning to take off. By 1990 wool uniforms were a thing of the past. The subsidy should have been lifted by 1990. In this day and age wool for military use was history.

Still, it continued.

Here's a list of the Heritage Foundation's top ten obsolete government programs that ought to be done away with.

https://www.heritage.org/budget-and-spending/commentary/top-10-obsolete-government-programs  link will open in a new window.

Truth is although it will cost jobs the jobs that will be eliminated are jobs we pay people to do little or nothing.

There WAS a time when people would take a government job at somewhat less pay than their non government counterpart because of government benefits and retirement. These were people playing the long game, but that's changed. They more often than not do better than their non government counterparts.

Nobody likes seeing people lose their jobs but the fact is there's really not much use to what many government employees are doing.

When Joe Biden clouted the coal miners people asked what the coal miners were going to do and his answer was learn to code.

While a few wags thought that would be an appropriate answer to those that lose their jobs, I'd like to be a little bigger than that. Most government employees have pretty good educations and can probably be absorbed into the civilian market a lot easier than they think.

Of course, in the case of the real whiners we can tell them that they'll be plenty of jobs open after we deport the illegals.

 

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Snow sucks

We got hit with a few inches and although I hate snow this wasn't too bad because it was light powder and the instant it stopped I cleared the paths and cleaned off the pickup with the leaf blower. No shovel needed.

I managed to do the whole job in topsiders. No boots needed.

Not too bad.

Update: It started snowing again and tomorrow morning it's back to Square One. 

I hate winter.

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The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

Or Why I have gotten damned careful with who I do a favor for.

I only do favors for someone I know that can keep their damned mouth shut up about it. I make if clear to them that if I ever hear they have told anyone I will never again help them out in any way.

The other day some woman was blabbing on social media that a deli clerk (or someone) found out she had a sick husband on a special diet and schlepped her a piece of fish for no charge.

Maybe the deli guy had the authority to do that, but maybe he didn't. What if corporate found out about his good deed? It's a possibility he could lose his job over that. 

So some guy does an old woman a favor and as a result loses his job.

When I was a kid working in a supermarket I'd sometimes 'forget' to ring up an item here and there for a poor old woman that did a lot for the community but I did it on the sly so she didn't realize it. I wasn't giving the store away or anything. It was something small and just occasionally.  I didn't want her to know because I knew she'd say something and I'd get into hot water with the boss.

The manager, a sharp-eyed man caught me sliding a loaf of bread to her and hauled me upstairs. I admitted I had and why. His answer floored me. He knew she was old and having hard times since her husband died. She was still active in the community. He told me to Carry on but don't give the store away, and Oh...let a ham or something pretty good slide by over the holidays. Make damned good and well corporate security doesn't see you or I'll have to can you and I don't want to.

I made it a point to make sure she never saw me doing that for her.

Why? Because I didn't want her to say anything.

Word travels fast and people don't know when to keep their mouths shut. 

Another reason I make sure favor recipients stay mum is because when the word get out and find out you are kind they will take it as a sign of weakness and descend on you asking for the same thing you did for someone else as a special favor. When you refuse then they get upset and you're the bad guy.

This is also true of teenagers. A couple of teens pushed someone out of the snow once and the woman said she wanted to find out who they were so she could publicly thank them. When I was a teen the last thing I wanted is to be held up as the shining example of youth.

I would have rather had a reputation as a greasy thug than be known as a goodie two-shoes. To a certain extent that still holds today.

When you thank a favor giver you thank them privately. What transcended between the two of you is nobody else's business.

There is a saying that no good deed goes unpunished and in an awful lot of cases that's true. In my case once the penalty for fixing someone's roof was being badgered by others to do things for them for little or nothing. That's because the person I helped didn't know better than to keep their mouth shut. It was also the last time I ever did them a favor. 

I've written a post here a while back about the time over 50 years ago a little kid jumped off the dam at a nearby pond into water well over his head. He panicked and I simply grabbed an arm and hauled him out and sent him home where he promptly told his mother. She said she was going to write a letter to the editor of the hometown rag calling me a hero. I'd have never lived that one down with the guys.

I played hell getting that one quashed. I had to break out the heavy artillery (my father) and even he had a hard time getting that pigheaded stupid woman to shut up about it. He had to talk to her husband and tell him he would not accept responsibility for his son's actions if the letter got into the paper.

Publicly complimenting a business of some sort that went above and beyond is one thing. By all means let us know who runs a good business. Still, ask first. However before you publicly compliment an individual employee run it by them first to make sure you're not going to get them into any trouble. One never knows company/corporate policy.

I have kind of a bad feeling about the guy that gave the woman the piece of fish. I get a vibe that he was acting on his own and that if the who, what, when, where and how come gets out he could get into hot water with his/her employer. The old days of giving employees a little discretion is long over with. Today businesses are run by computers and bean counters and the human factor seem to have all but vanished.

Throw social media into the equation and all bets are off.

If someone does you a personal favor keep it under your hat. Besides getting the favor doer into a bind you insure that the favor doer will simply stop doing favor. Don't ruin things for everyone else.

If someone does you a personal favor then keep your mouth shut.

  

 

  

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Another false threat to either eliminate Social Security

as usual.

"OMG! OMG! Trump's gonna eliminate Social Security!"

Another lie. Someone posted that on a social media site and the truth is that Trump wants to eliminate the tax on Social Security benefits. In fact there is already been a bill introduced by Thomas Massie (R-KY) to eliminate the tax.

It should also be mentioned that Joe Biden voted to tax Social Security earlier in his dubious political career.

I am old enough to remember the Eisenhower administration and that the Democrats tried to accuse him of wanting to eliminate the program which was a bold faced lie. The false threat comes up every time there's a presidential election and the accused is always a Republican.

The lie is designed to scare the hell out of seniors and get them to vote Democrat, plain and simple. 

Trump has stated that he wants to eliminate the tax on Social Security. He has no intent on eliminating the program itself. 

As for DOGE? The have no intention of eliminating it, either. What they would like to do is clean the administration up and streamline it to reduce costs and waste. There's most likely a lot of inefficiency and waste in the administration. DOGE wants to eliminate it. This won't effect benefits and may very well make things easier for all of us.

 I get sick and tired of those that spread word that if so and so gets elected than Social Security will be eliminated. It's a flat out lie.

As for the person that posted this lie I would like to find out what type of person he is.

Is he repeating a lie because he thinks it is the truth? If he is he's another stooge that took the bait. Stalin called people like that useful idiots. I feel sorry for him.

Or does he know that it's a lie and is spreading it anyway as a cruel trick to discredit Trump and get seniors scared out of their wits to turn on him. 

I'd like an answer. Are you ignorant or just plain cruel?

 

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Old School bartending at its finest.

Anchor Bar.

Kodiak, AK.

Early 80s.

1500ish local

Blaine and I were in town flush with cash from a successful fishing trip. Both of us had paid any debts we owed and had pretty good bundles left over.

It was a rare glorious day in Kodiak and we stumped into the Anchor and grabbed a couple of brews and went outside on the porch. We noticed that there were maybe six or eight people inside. A fairly small crowd.

We looked up at Pillar Mountain and Blaine asked me rhetorically how long it would last before it slid into the sea.

I smugly opined it would maybe last until 2025. He grunted and replied that it would be several centuries after that. 

"Betcha a round for the house," I said.

We can't settle that until 2025," Blaine said. Then he gave me a look of understanding and said, "I'll take that bet!"

I stuck my head in the door and said to the bartender (who happened to be the owner) "Mike, ring the bell. Blaine and I have a bet and the loser pays. Pour 'em!"

Blaine grinned and said, "Let's go double or nothing!"

"Cool!" I said and when Mike came out to collect I told him to go back in and ring the bell again because Blaine and I were going double or nothing!"

He went in, rang the bell, poured a round and came back out to us.

"What's the bet, anyway?"

Blaine answered him. "Pic says that Pillar Mountain is going to slide into the sea before 2025 and I say it's not gonna happen for another thousand years."

Mike looked confused for a second or two and it sunk in as to what the bet was all about. His face turned angry then relaxed as he thought about it.

"You bums!" he snapped but there really wasn't much anger in it.

He went back inside and behind the bar and face the handful of fisherman.

"I've been conned and conned bad, boys. By a couple of sanky, dirty con artists. You're not drinking on Blaine and Pic. Your're drinking on ME! The loser of the bet was supposed to pay for the last two rounds but I can't collect until 2025!'

The bar laughed themselves silly and Mike said, "What the hell!" and reached up and rang the bell. "What the hell. Why not? I'm losing money anyway."

Mike didn't lose a dime. His initial expenses were about $25 in beer wholesale, if that. He knew this and knew that word would go all over the fleet that Blaine and I had beaten him out of two rounds for the house and the fleet would have the place mobbed as they came in to hear the story from the horse's mouth. He'd make the loss up in spades. He knew how to run a small bar.

If you're smart you know how to cast your bread on the water and get back poached eggs on toast.

 

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