Lent is officially in full swing as of this past Friday

when I treated myself to an Official Lent Fish Sandwich which practically every Christian church will be selling every Friday in Lent. 

I'll probably only have two or three this Lent, the one I had, one at the club fish fry and maybe one on impulse the week before Easter.

On Easter I will don a white fedora which I will wear as I see fit until Labor Day. 

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I'm possibly going to go out on a limb here

Lately I have been seeing Muslims trying to push Sharia law in this country, along with a few other things. The Muslim call to prayer is now being boomed out of huge speakers in parts of a number of American cities. Generally the first call comes about an hour and a half before sunrise when many of is seem to get our best sleep. The practice should be outlawed. The rest of us should not have to listen to something at that hour.

Sources tell me Mamdani's New Your city owned supermarkets won't be selling pork products. No bacon, sausage, chops or loins. None. (They also won't be selling alcohol, tobacco and lottery tickets, either but that actually makes sense. There's a health issue there so I can't slight it.)

 From time to time I run into articles of Muslims trying to get places shut down because they sell pork. One raised hell with a Texas barbecue joint and the backlash was pretty good. Business boomed.

Jews don't eat pork which is fine because I have never had a Jew tell me I can't. I remember a Jew casually handing me a ham sandwich one afternoon at work and saying he didn't eat pork. 

City owned markets should cater to everyone. They have no business depriving New Yorkers out of being able to purchase pork products. I't's complete, total unmitigated bull$hit.

The most recent issue I have read about is a number of NYC Muslims are griping that people bring the family dog into their homes. They say the dog is unclean and doesn't belong in the house.

To be fair about it, Islam preaches mercy, kindness and respect to all animals and cruelty towards them is frowned upon. The do, however, consider dogs to be unclean. They are not supposed to come into the house. 

Now that's OK in itself. If they don't want to bring a dog into their homes, fine. They don't have to.

Still, First of all who/what I bring into my home is nobody's business unless I am hiding a hatchet murderer or other serious criminal. Secondly in many American homes (including mine) pets are simply one of the family. They come and go with us. Many of us even sleep with them. I know my cat sleeps with me. I suppose if I had one the dog would share my bed. I know a Lab probably would and there's little I can do about it other than close the door and not let it in.

Over the years while visiting friends I've had a couple of dogs jump up into where I was sleeping. I just rolled over and went back to sleep. IIRC they were both Labs which seems to be par golf.

Representative Randy Fine (R. FL) recently answered the New Your outcry of of Muslims trying to run the family pooch out of inside homes. He was quoted as saying "If they force us to choose, the choice between dogs and Muslims is not a difficult one." 

Of course the Democrats are screeching for his resignation but a quick glance at his social media posts says otherwise. I also have not noticed people looking to buy or build doghouses to keep the family pooch outside yet and I doubt I will. The family dog is part of the family. The dog stays put.

It goes further than this. One of Mamdani's lieutenants has said outright that Islam will be in every American household. Of course it won't be in mine.

The list goes on and on. If you take a look at history and the world around you, Islam gets along with nobody and all of the other religions get along fairly well. In fact they don't appear go even get along with each other as Sunni and Shiite Muslims have been fighting over who should have succeed Prophet Muhammad's bloodline. The fight has gone on since 662 AD and occasionally breaks into armed conflict to this day.

Christians and Jews? Fine. Buddhists and Hindus? The seem to get along fine. It seems that every religion seems to get along fine well and at the very least tolerate each other except for Muslims because Muslims try and force themselves on everyone else. That's bull$hit. Leave everyone else alone and stop trying to force you customs on everyone else. 

There are between 50 and 60 other nations that accept Sharia law. This is not one of them. If you want Sharia law please pack your bags and leave. Put an egg in your shoe and beat it.

Personally I do not believe the religion to be compatible with western society. Muslims won't assimilate. It does not belong here in a free country because it wants to undermine our religious freedoms.

Before everyone goes off on me over the First Amendment, take a look at Don Lemon, a journalist. He is not being charged with anything that has to do with journalism. He's being charged with his personal conduct in the church which has nothing to do with the first Amendment. 

Same holds true for Muslims in the country. while the religion itself can not be challenged the conduct coming from it is fair game. If they can't assimilate them all non-citizens should be deported. As for those that are citizens, I guess we're stuck with them so long as they behave themselves. 

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The roof is now clear.

The storm left my eaves with huge ice dams the like of which I have never seen before. It was well over a week of almost hourly check to the inside of the eaves (in the attic space) to make sure the ice wasn't being pushed inside as happened several years ago.

Since that huge mess we have reroofed and afterwards I installed leaf guards over the gutters. I'm sure the Amish did a good job reroofing and we used several layers of ice guard. 

Everything worked out as planned when I did it years ago and it's good to have a plan work out.

All the snow and ice is gone and not a drop found its way into the house.

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One of the smartest things I ever did

was to sheath my cell phone in an AI case in neon pink.

Besides being a damned heavy duty case the neon pink color has made my life a lot easier. I just have to glance around a room and there it is. It just jumps out at me.

Recently it fell out of my pocket when I slipped on some ice and when I realized it was gone I retraced my steps and lo and behold it was pretty damned close to where I fell. It just jumped up at me.

If it was in some uber tacticool color that blends in with everything I'd be screwed.

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One of the things I like to do is follow the sun

on my map.

Spring begins when the sun is directly over the equator. Summer begins when the sun is directly over the Tropic of Cancer. When the sun drops to the equator six three months later Fall gets underway and when the Sun goes over the Tropic of Capricorn winter begins and the cycle repeats itself. 

Right now as I sit here it looks like at Local Apparent Noon the sun will be pretty close to being directly over the island of Hawaii.

Local Apparent Noon (LAN) is when the sun is at it's highest point of the day and that doesn't necessarily agree with what the clock says.

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

I just read somewhere that 12% of Americans believe that Noah's Ark was married to Joan of Arc. 

While I do not know if it is true or not it certainly would not surprise me to find out it is true.

 

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I think if I was POTUS

I'd have fun screwing around with the chow.

What do you want tonight, Mr. President?

Fish sticks and tater tots and don't forget to use miracle whip to make the tartar sauce with.

Or this: I dunno. How about something interesting for a change like a chili-mac MRE?

I think I'd keep him guessing and make things interesting for him.

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

Over the chaos of a SAVE brawl I was reading one wry woman stole the entire internet. I would live to have a few drinks with her because she and I certainly share the same sense of humor.

She posted "The dog ate my marriage certificate."

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I had NO alcohol in my system when I did this. NONE.

Seriously.

I don't know what it is but sometimes I get away with murder. 

I have been livid over the lame excuses given to halt the SAVE act. The excuses over disenfranchised minorities really irks me because the minority bull$hit is a crock. I decided to be somewhat activist.

Anyway I was at Walmart and saw a target of opportunity. Some Black guy that looked like one of the guys. I introduced myself as a blogger with whole 101 followers that was interviewing people and I wanted to interview a real minority and he was darker than most.

Of course I got the WTF look but I appeared harmless. He asked me what I wanted to know. I asked him his job. He was a plumber.

So I asked him if he had a driver's license ID. Of course he looked at me like I was a space alien. "Of course I do! " He said. 

"Who helped you get it?"

He looked confused for a second and switched to mildly annoyed.

"What do you mean by that?" he asked. 

"Didn't you get some purple haired white woman to help you out?

He outright laughed. "Nope. I did it all by myself. In fact I even tie my own shoes. By the way, I don't like Karens either."

We parted friends.

Now it was time to find a minority woman to interview and That took a while. Yes. I was cherry picking because women tend to be shorter fused than men and many don't understand sarcasm, either.

I chose a fairly well dressed black woman. What a wonderful and polished woman she turned out to be.

I asked her what she thought about the 'disenfranchised minorities the Democrats were using to stop the passage of the SAVE Act.

In her polished English she asked me if I had ever heard the term 'jumping the broom'. I have. It's what slaves did to get married. The two of them jumped over a broomstick together. The custom goes back a lot further but the term is still used today, generally tongue in cheek by blacks. It means get married.

She gave me a smirk and explained she got her sense of humor from her father who put a broom on the floor during her wedding reception and she and her husband jumped over it for a laugh. She said there is a picture of it in her wedding album and had half a mind to bring it with her if she has to reregister to vote.

Suddenly Hattie McDaniel's voice appeared out of nowhere, straight out of Gone With the Wind. She mimed holding up a picture, rolling her head side to side. 

"I's married. Here's a pitcher ob me and my hubsin jumpin's the broom!"

Needless to say I damned near died laughing.

I've asked over a half dozen so-called 'minorities' if they'd have any problems with SAVE. A couple of them have said they'd have to dig out their certificates but had a pretty good idea of where they were. Some have said they find the democrats pandering to minorities offensive.

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Trump should get on the air

and announce he's opening the border to let in 50 million illegals to pick produce.

Monday:

I can hear his speech. "It's gonna be great! We'll have pickers in here to pick our produce! We'll have so many pickers here that American won't even have to pick their own noses anymore! Imagine that! Not even having to pick or own noses or asses anymore! Let the pickers help make America great again!"

An hour later Trump has a few words with the Republicans in Congress. Support the Democrats. Give them what they want with a veto proof majority..

Tuesday: Hakeem Jeffries and Chucky Schumer start babbling demanding a tenfold increase in the ICE and Border Patrol budgets AND a $10K bounty on illegals the citizens delivered to the feds dead or alive.

Wednesday: Bill clears the House.

Thursday: Bill clears the Senate.

Friday: President Trump announces he'll sign the bill in a week to give people time to leave. 

Saturday there is a sale on ammo as every Billy-Joe-Bob and every Bubba stock up to go bounty hunting. 

There is an instant stampede and the biggest migration in human history as 20 million people leave. The roads are heavily trafficked, the airports are clogged. In some places there's an abundance of boat traffic. The police overlook people riding in the beds of trucks as the mob heads south.

Friday Trump signs the bill and its opening day on illegals.

When the entire platform of the Democratic party is to hate Trump doing something like this is a lead pipe cinch of getting things done.

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I read Michelle Obama was complaining that when she lived in the White House she had to buy her own food.

If she couldn't afford food then why didn't she apply for SNAP benefits?

I swear that woman does nothing but complain.

What if her husband hadn't been elected? Where would she buy her food?

Poor baby.

She falls into the category of someone that has had her day. She's not the First Lady anymore and should step down and quietly retire to Martha's Vineyard.

Next thing you know she's going to complain about living in government housing for 8 years.

Some people's children!

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Back to getting a driver's license all by one's self.

How about getting a voter ID card all by yourself?

I just saw where the SAVE act is pretty much dead in the water even though about 75+% of Americans think it's a good idea and are behind election integrity.

That tells me one simple thing. Congress is hiding something. It looks like they want to make it easy to cheat on elections. Honest elections are imperative to a free state. Sounds to me like they don't want honest elections.

The lame excuse the Democrats have been using is that minorities won't be able to get a voter ID card which has been pretty much proven to be complete and total bull$hit.

As I posted earlier, minorities can get things like driver's licenses all by themselves. They don't need government help.

The other complaint seems to be a few married women and the name change thing. That's unfounded as they have managed to get driver's licenses, Social Security accounts and other things swapped out with no real problems. The biggest gripe I have heard is that they have to find their marriage certificate. They should have that stashed somewhere. If they don't have birth and marriage certificates stored where they can get them easily then something is wrong. 

If you're too lazy or stupid not to know where your important documents are then that's on you.

Even back in my youth hitchhiking the country I had access to important documents. I had my birth certificate, DD 214 and a couple of other things in an unaddressed unsealed stamped envelope at my parent's place and all it would have taken was a phone call to have them dropped in the mail. While not immediate access, they were available.

I'm sure that anyone that is a legitimate citizen can easily get a voter ID card, assuming that in some state the person is not a felon.

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Why every women should know where her marriage certificate is at all times.

I have hear a number of married women complain that their driver's license and birth certificate don't match so they can't register to vote.

That's what a marriage certificate is for. It provides the necessary link to prove citizenship.

Your birth certificate says Kathy Jones. Your marriage certificate says Kathy Jones married John Smith and you changed your driver's license and Social Security to Kathy Smith. 

Now your birth certificate says Kathy Jones and your IDs all read Kathy Smith. To prove citizenship the marriage certificate provides the link.

Here's one scenario as to why you should have your marriage certificate readily available.

You've been married 25 years, the youngest just turned 18 and then out of nowhere your husband buys a lottery ticket for the hell of is and BAM! It hits and he is now the proud owner of ten million bucks!

He promptly runs off with a 24 year old bra buster stripper named Bubbles. Off to divorce court. You figure you should wind up with at least half of the ten million after the shock passes. 

Five million bucks means a pretty good life from now on. You can now afford a nice winter home to skip off to and avoid the cold northern winters. It could even have a nice pool to while away the sunny afternoons. No more boxed wine and a handsome pool boy to run errands and take care of various things.

Five million bucks and you'll manage.

So in court you and your attorney plead your case and the judge listens sympathetically. You attorney give you the confident look that says you're going to be rather rich soon. 

His attorney speaks. He says, "Your honor, the first thing I would like to ask is if this woman is even married to my client. This sounds like a scam to me."

The judge turns to you. "Do you have any documentation to prove you are lawfully married to this man? A marriage certificate or something?"

Now you're screwed. The last time you've seen your marriage certificate was right after you were married. You used it to change your driver's license and social security account. You haven't seen it since and have forgotten about it entirely.

Now you can't even prove you're married to the bum. You're screwed. Of course this can be fixed in another trial but for now you're out of luck.

Meanwhile the bum and his new girlfriend have skipped out to Rio de Janeiro and as such can't be touched. The courts have no jurisdiction outside of the country. 

However the kids have pleaded with him to at least have the decency to leave a roof over your head and he signs the house over to you. The joint checking account has some money in it but not a whole lot. It's off to the job market with a 30 year old degree in Fine Arts which you quickly find out is worthless because the market is glutted with Fine Arts majors.

Off to Walmart and it looks like you are going to spend the next twenty-five years standing there ringing a register until you are about 75 and are too old to anymore.

Several months later you get a large envelope in the mail with a Brazilian postage stamp on it with a few documents written in Portuguese. It takes a couple weeks for you to find a translator and you find out that he has divorced you in absentia from Brazil. 

It's completely over and you trudge off to another mindless day ringing the third register at Walmart.

In the meantime the bum is dilly-dallying around in another country where he can't be touched whiling away the days and nights with his girlfriend who he keeps dressed in the latest finery while you shop at Goodwill. 

Eventually when one of the kids drop by for their weekly welfare check they find you on the living room floor where you have been dead for the last five days and bury you closed casket because your face has been eaten away by the cat.

And all this because you couldn't locate your marriage certificate when you needed it and blew five million bucks in the process.

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I have been watching the Buddhist monks walk for peace

and I respect it. We could use a nice, nasty outbreak of peace for a while but I think that it isn't in the cards the way things are going.

I snooped into Buddhism many years ago and found it to be compatible with Christianity. One can be both.

The late Tina Turner stated she was a mixture of Baptist and Buddhist and I understand that.

The monks started off in Texas and will arrive in Washington DC today (Z date). They have various things to do in DC and in a day or so will return to Texas. 

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I watched the TPUSA halftime show which was OK. 

I don't watch professional sports but used to watch the Superbowl halftime show but didn't last year. I watched the official one afterwards, or at least a pretty good part of it and wasn't very impressed. I think that the NFL show should be 100% American because American football is an American thing.

I know the NFL is trying to create an audience abroad but think it should stick to its roots.

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

I am in for a day of sweating bullets as the temperature has started to climb and I have huge ice dams on the front of the house to deal with. 

Ice dams can force melting snow (water) in through the eaves and down into the inside of the walls. It's going to be hourly checks and I guess I'll just have to sleep in one hour snatches for the next day or so which sucks to the big time.

We shall see what we shall see.

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I can't think of very Donald Trump has done that other presidents haven't.

Trump's deporting people.

Obama was the Deporter-in-Chief and deported 3.1 million people. He simply threw them out with no formalities. Adios. Gone. Thanks to activist federal judges Trump has to give every single one a hearing. As of now the number of people that have been deported are rookie numbers compared to Obama's record.

Trump's trying to buy Greenland.

About 5 previous presidents have tried to buy Greenland for strategic military purposes. It can control the entire North Atlantic and eventually China or Russia will probably take it by force of arms. Better we get it than them.

We've purchased land from Denmark before. In 1917 we bought the Danish west Indies that is now the US Virgin Islands.

Trumps using the National guard in our cities.

So did JFK, LBJ, Bush and Ike among others. Ike even beefed up the Guard with paratroopers from the active duty 101st Airborne Division at Little Rock. George Washington personally led troops to put down the whiskey Rebellion in Pennsylvania. (He is the only sitting president to personally lead troops in the field)

Trump has taken military action without notifying congress.

So has virtually every other president. 

Obama dropped 26171 bombs against ISIS in 2016 alone without approval by Congress. JFK authorized sending 400 Green Berets into Vietnam in May of 1961, in effect creating the beginnings of the Vietnam war. 

While we're at it, notifying Congress is the last thing a president should do before a surprise military action. Congress consists of 535 members all of who have political aspirations and an agenda. They are leakier than a sieve and historically cost the lives of many of our troops. Notably Andrew J. May that blabbed the Japanese were not setting their depth charges deep enough. There have been others including then VP Joe Biden who let the cat out of the bag on the Bin Laden raid that later cost us a bunch of our guys.

There is also an unsubstantiated rumor going around that Hakeem Jeffries got wind of the Venezuelan raid and tried to tip off Maduro. If there is a kernel of truth to this Jeffries should be tried and executed for outright treason.

While he can only keep troops engaged for 60 days without Congressional approval. There's a damned good reason POTUS doesn't keep Congress in the loop prior to bona fide lawful military actions. 

Trump doesn't appear to have done anything that previous presidents have. He's not really too original. He's just had to deal with obstructionists.

Of course I'm sure someone will come along with something...

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Here's an interesting read. 

https://tomklingenstein.com/the-issue-that-breaks-the-blue-narrative/?utm_medium=paid&utm_source=fb&utm_id=6935203050668&utm_content=6935203053268&utm_term=6935203050868&utm_campaign=6935203050668&fbclid=IwY2xjawPx2IxleHRuA2FlbQEwAGFkaWQAAAZOunegzGJyaWQRMXBSNHMxcDhBYkpnRnk1c3hzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEeZvGHqcbGFj2PTgvdyVl0KeJ3CWqciJcsjewIbwcMLg4cWbaDNMbhu8YziEI_aem_cuIIsf7WITLUmHBAvHyOnQ

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I met a black guy that got a driver's license all by himelf.

Yup a black guy got a driver's license all by himself.

He got his birth certificate and Social Security card and $35.50 and went to the DMV. He actually filled out his own forms without any help.

Then he took three tests and passed all three. One was a written test about the rules of operating a car and the rules of the road. After that he took an eye test and passed that. Then he got into an actual automobile with a DMV tester and show the tester he could drive a car safely. After he passed everything he was given a photo card and had his picture taken and was handed a real driver's license that he had gotten all by himself and with nobody helping him out. How surprising!

Great day in the morning! Imagine that! Whoda ever though such a thing could be done by a black guy!

Maybe he will be able to get a voter ID all by himself!

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One of the things that drives me to drink

are those people that miss the whole point of something when they get hung up on a picky detail. Grammar Nazis are a part of this group. There are a lot of others that miss the boat when an Idea is brought up.

I was going to write a piece about it but then remembered this sign that says things better than I would have. 

Sometimes a picture IS worth a thousand words.

This applies to a more than a few people I have to deal with over the years. 

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I am listening to lame excuses to block voter ID laws.

In order to vote the following should be met.

1.You have to be alive.

2. You have to be a citizen.

3. You have to be registered.

4.You must show a voter ID. 

5. You may only vote once.

6. Paper ballots.

7 Same day results.

That's not too much to ask for to keep things reasonably honest. 

Now let's take a look at some of the lame excuses I've heard.

"It's Jim crow 2.0! It's unfair to minorities."

Why? Is there some reason they can't fill out a form, show ID and have their picture taken? They do it for driver's licenses, government programs like social security, professional licenses and a host of other things. what's the big deal?

"How about married women? They have to explain their name change!"

They have done if for driver's licenses and Social Security to name a few. What's the problem with a name change on a voter registry? Just bring your birth certificate and marriage certificate and it's a done deal. 

Lame. 

You say Donald Trump cheated on the last election.

If so, you ought to get behind it so J D Vance can't cheat in 2028. 

There is simply no excuse whatsoever to not have voter ID unless you want to cheat in future elections. None whatsoever.

Lame, lame, lame.

I'd at least respect it if they were honest and said, "Then we can't cheat anymore."

 

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Since I got out of the army I've almost always owned my own home.

One way or the other. 

When I got out of the army I moved into a tipi for about 14 months (Less a couple months when I was a cowboy) 

Then I spent a couple months paying rent in a shared apartment and then took off for Kodiak, Alaska. Upon arrival I was homeless for a couple of months and then took a camp job and let the paychecks roll in and lived in camp for most of the spring and summer making money.

In the fall I went to Washington and moved in with a woman until about February. There I bought a pickup and a $25 camper and that was home for a while. I returned to Kodiak in the spring and promptly scored an out of town camp job out of town and made a pretty good bundle. when that gig ended I returned to Kodiak and bought a small camper-trailer and that was home for a few years until I upgraded to a bigger unit.

After that I bought a sailboat and that worked for me until I met my wife. we apartment dwelled for a while and when we moved to Pittsburgh we rented until we found a decent house.

Rent was to be avoided wherever  possible.  

I used to compare rent to cocaine. All you get once it's over is a slip of paper.

 

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Nobody said a word about my pants being on backwards

A shipmate and I were sleeping when someone opened the door and said loudly, "We're almost on the gear!" This meant time to go to work.

I was on the top bunk and slipped and landed on top of my shipmate and we became a mass ot tangled up humanity on the deck.

We were both kind of punchy and panicky and started to both put on the same pair of pants ala Laurel and Hardy. When it was discovered they were my pants he pulled his leg out and I turned them and put my other leg in the other pantleg and pulled them up. It was then I realized they were on backwards.

I simply reached around and buttoned the top button, called it good and raced for the galley where breakfast was already on the table. I chowed down and spent the rest of the workday with my pants n backwards.

Nobody said a word about it.

All I can say about the incident is that there's a lot to be said about a job where nobody looks twice at a coworker that shows up for work with his pants on backwards.

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Don Lemon can't hide behind the First Amendment.

He's not being charged with for covering the news. He's being charged with his conduct while covering the news. 

There's a saying. Journalists report the news. If they make the news they haven't done their jobs.

Lemon was not being arrested for reporting the news at all. This is just a bullshit smokescreen. His conduct before and in the church made him one of the participants (and possibly one of the ringleaders) of the unlawful invasion of the church.

The analogy someone made was two guys get pulled over for drag racing. One of them whips out a camera and a notebook and tells the cop "I'm just a journalist doing a piece on the dangers of speeding"

Surprise! He's getting a ticket just like the other guy and he deserves one.

The First Amendment doesn't apply here and the beauty of it is that Lemon has provided his own case against himself by having the whole thing on film. 

About 50 years ago I took a couple journalism courses and that was pointed out to me during a class on journalistic law. You're only there to report the news.

To find out why the blog is pink just cut and paste this: http://piccoloshash.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-feminine-side-blog-stays-pink.html NO ANIMALS WERE HARMED IN THE WRITING OF TODAY'S ESSAY

Manslaughter. Fined $1 and given a carton of cigarettes and immediately transferred.

This was one of my father's favorite WW2 stories. 

This is before the UCMJ became law in 1948. This is Old School stuff. I mean serious Old school.

At the time he was a flight officer for a brief time in Mississippi. He had officer of the day duty and part of his duties included being responsible for the guards guarding the flight line. He said he was a little nervous handing teenagers loaded rifles and made it damned clear during guard mount that they were supposed to follow the rules. 

The guard was supposed to challenge whoever tried to get onto the flight line three times before he was clear to fire on the person.

To make a long story short, that night a guard shouted three challenges, fired once and a teenager lay dead on the tarmac. 

Dad said it was a tragedy and it certainly was. Some dopey kid had gotten himself killed for no good reason.

The guard had done his duty. He had done nothing wrong so to protect the soldier was pulled off his post, told to get some sleep and the following morning a courts-martial board was put together. 

The guard was charged with manslaughter. The courts-martial found him guilty, fined him $1 and schlepped him a carton of Luckies and told him to pack his bags. By noon he was on an airplane headed to Texas earmarked for overseas assignment.

He said the officer assigned to defend him filed the paperwork immediately reporting that the courts-martial board did not follow the proper procedures pointing out some of the shortcuts the board had taken.

Shortly after the reviewing board investigated the complaints and the findings of the courts-martial were set aside. The man now had a clean record. 

I was wide eyed kid and asked why they let a guy off that had shot someone.

Dad explained how guard duty worked. Lawful orders were given and obeyed. The man on post had done his job and the results were a tragedy. A teenager was killed for being a dopey kid. There was a war on and the teenager was a casualty. The flight line had to be guarded. 

To punish the guard would mean guard duty would become a joke had the guard been punished for doing his duty. He had been ordered to guard the flight line, had done so to the best of his ability.

The courts-martial was convened to protect the man. He had been tried, convicted, sentenced and the sentence had been executed. The carton of Luckies was an unofficial gift. They also mistakes in the proceedings had done on purpose to clear the man's name because his defending officer was expected to file a complaint and get the courts-martial findings overturned by higher authority.

The man had been tried, convicted, sentenced and the sentence had been executed. The matter was now closed and he couldn't be retried by a state or any other level court. 

He was transferred out of state so that the base could not turn him over to the state to face any additional state charges. The base commander could truthfully say the man was being sent overseas.

It took me some time to figure that one out and later as a soldier I realized that Article 15 gave a servicemen some serious protection. 

Nowadays a felony can be punished under Article 15 and not be a felony conviction. It can also be thrown out afterwards.

What's also interesting is that 30 years later when I was in the army we had a Sp/4 transferred to my battalion from Germany. 

Tensions at the time in Germany were running high as the Baader-Meinoff gang was running around blowing stuff up. He had been on guard duty on an ammo dump and some idiot 2LT wanted to see if the guards were on their toes and decided to sneak past his post. 

Seems the lieutenant didn't take his challenge seriously that night and would up getting shot in the leg by my new found friend. A courts-martial found him innocent of any wrongdoing. The story seemed somewhat off to me and I admit I was dubious. 

A few months later he showed me a letter that came in from Germany a day earlier. In the letter from one of his friends in Germany it said that the lieutenant he had shot was supposed to be resigning as soon as he had fully recovered.

He said he was offered the transfer and suggested he take it to give him a clean slate. He took it even though he liked Germany because he figured he'd be a target for officers if he stayed in Germany.

To find out why the blog is pink just cut and paste this: http://piccoloshash.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-feminine-side-blog-stays-pink.html NO ANIMALS WERE HARMED IN THE WRITING OF TODAY'S ESSAY

What's a kitchen table?

It's a place where life takes place.

It's  place where kids do homework and build model airplanes. It's where lunch is yaffled down so you can get back to whatever it is you're doing. 

The scratches and nicks on a kitchen table don't detract from it. They show that a real family has lived there and raised a family. Kitchen tables are where memories are made. They show character.

Some time ago a woman was talking about getting a new table when the last of the kids leave the house. I told her not to.

I told her for the first ten years you will enjoy the newness of the kitchen table but as the years pass she's going to regret throwing away the memories.

There's something special about a kitchen table.

To find out why the blog is pink just cut and paste this: http://piccoloshash.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-feminine-side-blog-stays-pink.html NO ANIMALS WERE HARMED IN THE WRITING OF TODAY'S ESSAY