I just read where New Jersey

 is having a budget crisis which is getting worse because a lot of the wealthier people are moving out.

Can't say as I blame them.

With high taxes, high insurance and high basic costs people would be foolish to stay there if they had a choice. Even car insurance is so high that a couple of elections ago it was the main issue in the election for governor.

The movie industry moved out of Jersey almost a century ago for two things. Taxes and a sunnier climate. I have to be honest and say that it was mainly the latter but instead of keeping a company office in northern Jersey they moved out lock, stock and barrel.

Today the movie industry is trickling out of California to avoid high taxes. Funny how that works.

The truth is that people tend to want to keep what they have earned and tend to move to a place that is cheaper to live.

I think in the future you are going to see an increase in wealthy people turning in their US passport and becoming citizens elsewhere.

It makes sense to move to a place that will allow you to keep your money instead of staying where they take it away from you.


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One of the things I notice as a ham radio operator is that there are an awful lot of educated people overseas.

Virtually all of the Arabs I have spoken with, for example, speak pretty damned good unaccented English. When I look up their callsigns I see evidence that they are educated men.

The other day I spoke with a Chinese girl that sounded pretty young. I ventured a guess that she was in her early teens. She spoke clean, unbroken unaccented fluent English. It wasn't anything like the English you hear in Chinese restaurants stateside.

American English for most Asians is a gold-plated sonofabitch to learn, yet here was this youngster that seemed to have mastered it.

She had a lot of confidence on the air and I spent time listening until the bulk of the pileup subsided to the point where I could work her with my little barefoot rig.

While waiting I looked up her callsign and found she was a part of a middle school radio club. Why was I not surprised? A lot of other countries encourage activities like this and start teaching other languages at an early age.

An Egyptian immigrant I was talking to the other day told me that in Egypt they have started teaching kids Engilsh and other languages at an early age because it's easier for little kids to learn than waiting until the kids are older.

Then I think for a second that the United States is something like 57th in education.

Of course, we used to be top dog, but as usual the other countries saw what we did and started doing it. We  have been slacking off and it is going to come around and boot us in the ass in the not so distant future.

I think a part of this is because the NEA is too busy worrying about fat paychecks, early retirement benefits, better medical coverage and avoiding responsibility and accountability for their membership. Looking out for the kids seems to have been forgotten somewhere along the line.

Another thing I think has something to do with this is the rising cost of education. Part of which I attribute to the college loan programs.

Colleges started raising their costs. People started griping and the government interceded by offering college loans. It didn't take colleges a long time to realize that with the loan programs they could raise their tuitions even higher.

It seems that every time the government steps in to help people they just make things worse for everyone. One of the most common subjects I hear from college aged kids and their parents is how to get an education without having to stay in hock for a couple of decades afterwards.

Of course, another thing I hear is people complaining that a master's degree in something like puppetry only nets a job at Starbucks but that is a different gripe altogether. It is not the fault of the system but of the dumbass that wasted a small fortune on a useless degree.

Some dumbass gets a master's in pupperty yet here we import an awful lot of engineers from overseas and he wants sympathy. I think not. At least from me.

Back in the day there were a number of things a youngster could do to get through college. A friend of mine several years ago told me a pretty funny story about living with seven other guys for almost three of his four years in college. Six of the eight were using GI bill benefits.

I met another guy that lived in a Ford Econoline van for a couple of school years.

These guys bought used textbooks and generally scraped by.

One enterprising and mechanically talented guy I met worked summers as a logger and during the course of the school year would assemble and sell Volkswagen bugs out of salvaged parts. They even came with a list of 'ingredients' so the new owner knew what tune up parts to purchase to maintain his new set of used wheels.

"This bug is a '62 body with a '58 transaxle, a '65 engine and sheet metal between '56 and '70" His personal VW had no sheet metal parts that matched in color.

I suppose he made a few bucks maintaining them too.

I'll admit these were a little on the extreme side but the point is none of these guys graduated with college debt.

Back then you could get through college without any debt if you were motivated. 

These days a college degree often costs you a decade or two of being in hock after you graduate.

Part of the costs of today's education is likely greed on the part of the schools. When the loan program started up they knew they could raise prices even higher. I'd bet that if you eliminated the student loan program that enrollment would drop and that would be followed by a drop in tuition costs.

Another part of the reason we see a national drop in education in this country is that there isn't the motivation to get ahead that there used to be. No education generally meant you did something hard and unappealing for a living and for short money. Now it more often than not means you get money from the government to sit around and do nothing.

These days our social welfare programs enable someone to get by on the rest of the taxpayers. That does little to motivate people. Eliminate a lot of these programs and you are likely to see a resurgence in education and the trades.

You would also see an appreciation for education return.


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This post written last night with the TV on in the background.

The show is Tosh O. It is on a so-called Comedy Channel.

I just saw a clip of a skateboarder rolling down the street, lower his trousers, squat as he was rolling along and move his bowels.

Yup, the guy dropped a duece while rolling along in his skateboard. It was just plain nasty.

I didn't need to see that and consider the clip totally tasteless.

It has no place on prime time television. 

Tosh, they ought to boot you off the Comedy Channel. It's NOT funny. It's just plain disgusting.




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One day in high school

I remember that in high school one of our teachers quoted Lenin or one of the early Soviet leaders and said that 'Drink is the curse of the working class.'

I  said to the teacher that it sounded like he had gotten that one 180 degrees off and suggested that perhaps work was the curse of the drinking class.

Fortunately the man had a sense of humor and told me that I very well may be spot on.

Maybe I was onto something.



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One of the things that I see now is that there are fewer Americans

 out there that are willing to fend for themselves, although there are a few out there.

Many people in the 40 year old range have said that they wish they could opt out of social security and manage their own retirement. They very well may be right so long as the government prints an honest currency and doesn't rob them blind through inflation.

As I sit here behind my keyboard looking at history I think I'm going to have to pin our current fiscal headaches on LBJ. Actually it was FDR when he started social security but that, surprisingly enough, was working even though it was doomed to begin with.

Had LBJ not plundered the social security fund in the 60s it likely would have lasted pretty much until the boomers died off. Still, eventuallly it would have collapsed.

I guess we could say that FDR cracked the treasury door a bit, but it was Johnson that opened it wide open with his (failed) Great Society programs.

All these wonderful Great Society programs have done is create more government dependency and it gets worse with every administration.

The older I get the more I realize the Founding Fathers wanted us to take care of ourselves and not to create a monster to take care of the people.

I live in a country founded by geniuses but run by idiots.


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With a 45th high school reunion coming up

 I am sitting here wondering if any of my former classmates have a clue as to how I have lived my life on the road less traveled. Most of them I have not seen since I left the graduation ceremony.

For example, I seriously doubt that any of them have lived in bear country and had to have either a .375 H&H or a 12 gauge loaded with slugs in their hands just to go outside and take a leak. If they have it has been for a very brief period of time.

I spent 14 months in a tipi in the Rockies when I got out of the army because I wanted fo follow a childhood dream. When that adventure ended I hitch-hiked to Alaska and adventured there for over the next decade, hunted, buillt houses, fished both for subsistance and comercially, dabbled with airplanes, and bought a sailboat and adventured on board her.

For quite a lot of this period I suppose I could have legally been considered among the ranks of the homeless, but I was anything but. I always had a place to park myself come evening.

I was probably cosidered to be dirt poor by some, yet I always seemed to be well fed, fairly clean and I took care of myself with no real outside help. I didn't need the government and the truth is all the government could do for me at the time was interfere with me.

What should be noted is that when I wanted something I simply went to work, lived frugally and saved. When I decided to save for my sailboat a lot of people thought it was a pipe dream until I showed up with it.

I learned that I could do whatever I wanted to if I decided to buckle down and work at it.

From the time I got out of the service until the time I embarked on my present career I lived the bulk of my life in a subsistance lifestyle. For a big part of that I fed myself. A lot of my food I either caught or shot myself.

It made me into a pretty self-reliant person that didn't have to rely on much more than myself. The only thing I took from the government was the money from my GI bill and that I had earned. It was a part of my compensation package for serving in the army.

When I was just shy of forty I embarked on the career I am still working at. I went to sea and learned to move oil and these days that's what I do. I run a 50,000 barrel tank vessel.  

I didn't opt for safety and I suppose I'm lucky to have made it to the ripe old age of 62. 

While some of this can in fact be attributed to dumb luck, the bulk of it has come from making good decisions while being involved in risky ventures.

I think the reason I am making this post is because I have noticed that a lot of my classmates seem to have opted for much safer careers. Many have decided to become government employees which actually isn't a bad choice if you want to go that way.

Still, a lot of these people have opted to let government take care of them and seem to think that it is the job of government to take care of individuals. My experience says otherwise.

It is the duty of the individual to take care of himself. I have come to the conclusion to that based on my own personal experiences.

To those that keep trying to drag people to their level of their definition of happiness I say, butt out!

People are about as happy as they want to be and will live at whatever standard they choose if they are left alone to achieve what they want to achieve. 

Most of the people I grew up with seemed to have taken other somewhat safer paths in life and it is pretty likely that they will try and put me into some sort of category based on the path most commonly traveled. It's hardly fair.

I have simply taken my life, lived it as I see fit and have come to the conclusions I have based on what I have seen and my instincts.

As I age I get more and more convinced that I have done myself justice by taking the path I chose. I have been places and done things few of my classmates have. It's pretty satisfying having done things and been places most people only get to see on the Discovery Channel.

I have also lived life with a flavor those that took the safe road will never enjoy the taste of.



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Another day has passed and is over with and I have to start thinking about the next one.

Yesterday went well until I had to listen to a guy bragging about having a daughter headed to law school. Just what we need. Another lawyer. I grew tired fast and asked him how he managed to raise a daughter with the morals of a hammerhead shark.

He looked shocked and demanded an explanation. I told him that lawyers were not known for their fine moral character.Most of them are legalized thieves. 

He got pretty upset and said he ought to sock me.

I said to him, "Please feel free to do so. I will then hire an attorney with fewer morals than your daughter is displaying my attending law school and sue you for everything. I will then proceed to squander her tuition money on hookers and blow and she will have to wait tables for a living."

He wandered off with smoke pouring out his ears.

One of my cohorts was behind me and told me I could be downright dry.

The truth is we have too many lawyers in this country as demonstrated my my mouth. While I admit I ran off at the mouth because I get tired about hearing about people's kids, I (arguably) should have been punched.

Thirty years ago I would have been smacked upside the head and if I had complained the cop would have said I deserved it.

On the other hand I suppose I am tired of listening to parents brag about their kids so maybe it's a wash of some sort. 

About 25 years ago one of my cousins went to law school. I asked my uncle why he hadn't taught his son a sense of honesty. My uncle looked shocked for about a second and then looked at me sheepishly.

"It really is a license to steal," he confessed.

Of course, everyone goes into law with visions of defending the poor man accused of the murder he didn't commit.

That generally lasts until the third year of law school when they see that the people that followed the ideals of law are buying their cars off of Craigslist and the lawyers that went into legalized theft are driving BMWs.

For the record, I have made a few posts about their children. Generally I listen and I respect the fact that a parent that has raised a kid well ought to be proud. It's not the fact that you brag about your kids that I tend to get sarcastic about. It's the way you do it.

Don't be so uppity about it.

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An open letter to my cousin's son.

Your grandmother was an admirer of mine because I generally took the road less traveled. She also defended me and when I was about your age or maybe a little older she kept a bottle of good scotch handy for my visits. It was Johnny Walker Black Label.

So you are looking at acceptences to various schools now and have your sights set on being a history teacher. Good deal. We need good history teachers.

It's going to be an expensive road to hoe and see you're looking at minimizing debt.

Want a chunk if not all of it taken care of? Look at officer's candidate school. 

Don't say you're not that kind of person. The valedictorian of a local high school recently left a pile of scholarships on the table and opted for the Marine Corps. As an enlisted man.

You want to teach history, according to your mother. That's a good, steady honest career. I can look back on my teachers and think about the ones that were worth sour apples and the teachers that were a pain in the ass.

The thing most of the good ones had in common is that they had done something besides teach. Incidentally (put this in the For What It's Worth department) One of my favorite teachers was a black man that barely finished high school. He was a Staff sergeant and was my drill sergeant. That man could TEACH!

The worst of my teachers had simply graduated from high school, spent 4 years at Bridgewater State Teacher's College and showed up at Marshfield High the year after graduation.

Most of my favorites had brought some form of military or civilian experience along with them and in the classroom it showed. One of my favorites had spent a couple years in (then) Ceylon with the Peace Corps. Neat guy.

Walshes would likely make pretty lousy Marines but the army and navy have a whole slew of programs geared to people like you. ROTC in college and a four year hitch would put you in the fast track lane.

My neighbor is almost 40 now and graduated with a degree in enviornmental science and pulled four or five years in the army. He got plucked out of a bunch of contenders simply because of his experiences.

Companies like former military officers and senior NCOs because they don't have to teach them things. They already know them. 
In a way it's the same for teachers. Schools are dying for people that have more than a lousy piece of sheepskin. They want people to bring experiences into the classroom.

Most of the men that taught me were part of the WW2 generation and most of them had served in WW2. One of them used to tell us that he came from a family that had no money and that the GI bill had enabled him to become a teacher.

The guys with service backgrounds had all sorts of varying experiences, ranging from grunt to weather observer and had traveled, some extensively.

Incidentally one thing virtually all service people over the rank of corporal are is teachers. They teach the people below them in some pretty improvised classrooms. I have to this day a few skills I learned downrange in dirty weather under my belt.

Being a soldier or a sailor isn't all you think it is. Only about 10% of US servicemen handle or used weapons directly. There are a lot of jobs that involve different things that are not weapons related at all. 
For example, most people do not know that the army Corps of Engineers is charged with the upkeep of all of out western rivers.

All of the services also have museums, too.

You are going to have to face the day when you enter the classroom for the first time to teach. You can enter it as a 22 year old kid fresh out of school and be as nervous as a whore in church relying on the theory you learned in school.

Your other choice is to walk into the classroom as a 26 year old man. You'll be able to confidently look up and down the rows of desks and just know which kids are going to be problems. You won't be relying on classroom theory because you will have 4 years of practical knowledge under your belt.

Another thing is debt. I believe the services forgive either all or most student debt upon commissioning. That goes a long way. 

Having a degree and no debt at 22 years old is a pretty good deal in this day and age.

My advice to you is to investigate some of the programs the services have to offer and see what kind of deal you can cut.

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Happy Sunday.

There is a contest going on now on the ham airwaves and I am not really a part of it. The object of the game is to make as many contacts as you can over the weekend.

When you make a contact you give them the number of contacts you have made over this weekend and they give you theirs.

Yesterday I made a contact that I have been needing for my project and the guy gave me a number like 2006. I gave him 003.

"Three? Only three?"he asked, somewhat dumbfounded.

"I am an old man and don't get around so good no more. Three is a mistake. You are number four. I gave you my social security number by mistake."

While I was logging the contact the next guy that he QSO'd was laughing outright. He knew I was just picking a few plums. "I guess that old fella told you," he said.

Some people take things way too seriously.

The weather just won't let up as I woke up to a dusting of snow. 

Just yesterday Neighbor Bob and I were commenting on how the daffodils are starting and this morning, POW! More snow.

Sometimes a person wakes up and feels like General Custer looking out on the field and seeing yet MORE Indians.


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Here's one for you North Carolinians

It is a Saturday morning and I bought a partial bottle of Bushmill's Irish at a garage sale yesterday and managed to really annoy the people that were running it.

They're retired and moving to North Carolina and most likely they are not going to be happy there because they are likely going to take their Pittsburgh ways with them.

I suggested that before they move they take a long hard look at where they are going and what they are likely to do when they get there. I said that jerks that move down from Pennsylvania and New Jersey are ruining a good way of life and turning it into sewers like the ones they left.

There are still a few of those lovely little Mayberry type places left in parts of the south and they're generally pretty good places to live and a lot cheaper than a lot of the places up north.

They won't last long though because people will move into them and turn them into the sewers they left.

They told me they could live cheaper in NC.

"Not for long," I shot back. "They'll hate you inside three months because you'll ruin the place if you're typical Pittsburghers."

Some guy buying a couple of cheap sleeping bags laughed. He looked at me. "They will, too. They'll bring Pittsburgh with them."

The woman looked confused.

''You have to change your attitude before you leave," I said. "You're not so much going TO North Carolina as much as you are LEAVING Pittsburgh. When you leave Pittsburgh, leave it behind you."

I explained that they have low taxes there because they provide fewer services. For example, you take your own trash to the dump. 
Want to hear the classic example?

She did.

You move to Mayberry and they have a number of dirt roads that have been there since George Washington was a kid. You can comfortably drive 25 or 30 on them.

"Back in Pittsburgh, all of our roads were paved."

So you push for a bill and then want street lights which they add. Then you discover that the old dirt road drained but the new one doesn't. You uproot the street lights, install storm drains, reinstall the street lights. The next step is that you notice that now there is a smooth ribbon of pavement that every drives like the hammers of hell on it.

You complain about that and demand they do something. They install speed bumps which brings you back to square one because you had a good road that you couldn't speed on in the first place.

Then the next step is to start griping about how taxes are going up and complain that they are getting to be as bad as they were in Pittsburgh.

The guy with the sleeping bag laughed.

"That's about the size of it," he said. "That's what a lot of people do."

The woman looked upset. "What would you do if you moved there?"

"When they put a pile of grits next to your bacon and eggs just eat them and shut up. Keep you mouth shut and your eyes and ears open. Look around and see how they do things. It's going to be different and different means different. It doesn't mean wrong. Get used to doing things differently. Leave Pittsburgh here."

They won't. They're incapable.

All I want to tell you North Carolinians is that a couple more Guddam yankees are headed your way.

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Old school tough guy stuff.

One of the things I like about being an Old School tough guy is that we do what we want and know that we are what we are.

I have a friend of sorts that is a true American Badass. He is a serving SFC US Army that is on his twilight tour. He's going to retire when his deployment is over.

What makes this guy a true American badass is that he graduated from Ranger school when he was over 40 years old.

Now THAT'S an American Badass! It also makes him an Old School tough guy.

He's deployed now.

So what do you send the meanest sergeant in an Airborne unit?

Simple.

You send him a letter in a pink envelope addressed in lavender ink in the girliest handwriting you can find, with a lipstick kiss on the flap and soaked in cheap perfume.

There is nothing funnier to watch at mail call than seeing the toughest guy in the entire battalion get something like that.

The young guys will start to snicker but will likely freeze up instantly when the good sergeant glances at them.
Good sergeants can freeze water with a single casual glance.

Of course when he opens it and finds that it is nothing but one of my QSL cards and a coupon for half off on a pizza 600 miles from where he's going to live when he retires he'll shake his head and grin.



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Looks like Connecticut is raising the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour.

Well, well. More inflation on the way and the people making minimum wage just got POORER.
They will be taxed at a higher rate and the price of goods will climb accordingly.

Of course, the people that have skills will not get a raise and they will be dragged closer to becoming minimum wage earners.

Trickle up poverty in action.

Right now I am telling young people not to save their money. I'm telling them to buy gold, durable goods, guns, ammunition and things that will see them through a lifetime.


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What's going to happen today?

Four inches of snow on the ground which sucks.

By now any of you readers know I hate snow. 

It's also cold out and I have things I wanted to do outside. Instead I am likely going to add another DX entity to the pile.

I wanted to play outside today.

Right now there is a DXpedition on 14.205 but listening on 14.220 to 14.230. It really is an ignorant thing to do but the DXpedition is trying to spread out their pileup.

The bleed over on the 14.230 part is likely bleeding over to 14.332 net that meets there daily. It sounds like someone didn't do their homework.

DXpeditions sometimes get arrogant and think that just because they spent a lot of money to go somewhere exotic that they can upset the day to day operations here and there.

I didn't get out the other day to shoot because something came up and it irks me because of today's weather. I think I'll grub shop today for the boat. 

I generally find a day like this to get the hard groceries that can sit and just before I leave I get the perishables. 

This has the makings of a blah day.

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Well, the deer were out and about earlier this morning

and that is always a good thing. 

Someone has managed to put me in touch with a couple of my old high school classmates and it's kind of scary because I'm an awful lot more different that most of them than I thought.

Most of the people I have been in touch with have lived very civilized lives. There's a couple retired teachers, social workers, a dairy farmer running a micro dairy and one guy that is a genetic engineer.

The cat seems to be pretty active today and if he decides to write a little I'm not going to edit him out.

Anyway, I can't think of any of the classmates I've met that have ever lived outside of civilized settings. It's weird.

On the other hand I have lived in places my classmates only get to see on the Discovery Channel. It makes for a case of 2 worlds colliding.

I once sent a summer living alongside a salmon stream which was beautiful and made for pretty good eating and I suppose they would think that's a wonderful thing because of the beauty.

What they fail to understand is that salmon streams draw bears like the moon draws water. This means that everywhere you go during the salmon runs you are armed.

I had no electricity or running water and that meant that every time nature called or you needed to haul water you'd grab either the 12 gauge pump or the .375 H&H. It was as simple as that.

Because of my choice in real estate and neighbors I would occasionally get visitors that wanted to watch the bears fish.

One chick from Idaho dropped by and she seemed to get it. I was making us lunch and she went to get water and grabbed the shotgun. She had grown up on a ranch and knew how to take care of herself.

Another hippie chick from Seattle got upset at the sight of the shotgun and I was kind and offered to put it away after I changed my shoes.

She asked me why I had to change my shoes first and was not pleased with my answer.

I told her that if I was going to put down my shotgun and have no protection that I wanted to make damned good and sure I could outrun her.

It took a few minutes for it to sink in and then she burst into tears and started crying that "You would let me get eaten by a bear while you ran off!"

I told her I was not Prince Charming and had no intention of wrestling an 1800 pound Brownie to save her skinny little stupid ass.

A lot of my life has been lived in far flung remote outposts and I've gotten to see the real world instead of the part that is covered in pavement and concrete. I've gotten to see nature as it truly is.

While most of them are sitting out a storm at home watching Jim Cantore on the Weather channel living on French toast (they make that out of all the bread, eggs and milk they buy up beforehand) I am generally in the middle of the weather.

For Sandy I was home. My preparations were simple. I bought a bottle of Jim Beam.  I'm always ready for bad weather.

Right now I see a lot of my former classmates seeming to be willing to trade their rights off for the perception of safety. I see things a lot differently. I don't want government issued safety. 

I'm smart enough to know it doesn't work. The government can pass all the laws it wants to but bears and criminals are not going to obey them.






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Put the blame where it belongs.

The general custom for getting a QSL card from another ham is that the person requesting the QSL is supposed to supply his card, a self addressed envelope and postage.

Stateside is pretty straightforward. You supply your card and an SASE. The ham that receives the request and SASE simply fills out his card, stuffs it in the supplied envelope and drops it in the mail.

For an overseas QSL the requesting ham generally sends an SAE and postage. This can be either an IRC or between 1 and three US dollars, depending on the price of a stamp.

Most countries charge under three bucks US for a stamp that will get a QSL card stateside.

The rule of thumb here is that the person requesting QSL is the burdened person. He is supposed to bear the costs. It's only fair.

Enter Iran. It's over ten bucks US to get a letter to the States. That's mailing it by shipping it on a slow boat to Outer Slobovia. I'm sure air mail is a lot higher. 

When you also remember that most likely the dollar fluctuates over there it's no wonder that the Iranian ham posted on his QRZ page to send $13.

Of course on the ham web pages everyone calls him a thief.  

However, I wonder how many of these keyboard judges and juries out there have ever come across Piccolo T. Piccolo Esquire, defense attorney.

Yup. Piccolo for the defense.

Here at the Piccolo law office, I sent my paralegal to check up on a few things. (This means I switched hats and went to Google)

I came up with the postal rates that brought things into light.

It's damned expensive to send a letter from Iran, and it runs about $10 US. That's today's rate. 

No telling what it is going to be when when the letter arrives if the economy in Iran is touch and go.
Is this guy profiteering?

I suppose to a small extent he is. He may be turning a nickel/dime profit of some sort, but it's not really anywhere as much as he is accused of. Truth is, his postal system is flat out expensive.
So who is to blame?

I would have to blame the Iranian postal system. That's where the Piccolo defense team lays the blame.

Your Honor, I rest my case.

I think a lot of people should turn to Google and find a few things out before they run somebody down with their keyboards.

Incidentally I have put the Iranian ham in touch with a couple of DX managers outside of Iran. They can and will do his QSLing most likely cheaper than he can do it himself.


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We're ALL shareccroppers in one form or another

I suppose the average reader knows what a sharecropper is. 

The practice picked up quite a bit after the Civil War because of the number of recently freed slaves. Of course, sharecroppers were kind of looked down upon because they didn't own the land they worked.

Truth is you had to be successful as a sharecropper. If you didn't turn a profit for the landowner he's find someone else to work the land.

The truth of the matter is that most of us are sharecroppers in one form or another. We're expected to produce and make the company we work for a profit. If we don't we're gone. It is as simple as that.

It's skill based and market based. If the market is full of widget makers the wage for that job is likely pretty low. If widget makers are hard to come by a company will likely pay a pretty penny for a good one.

Still, the widget maker has to turn the company a profit or else he's not going to have a job for very long.

Those of us that work for a company are basically the same thing sharecroppers are. We work for a company and get paid from them.

I suppose a lot of small businessmen out there are thinking that they are truly independent. Fact is they are not. They have a boss, too.

Sometimes it's the bank, but always it is the customer base.

We all have bosses one way or the other and we all work for someone else in some form or another.

In short, we're all sharecroppers.





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It's Sattiddy.

Which means that it is Saturday and nothing more to me.

I'm kind of at a loss this morning to get my daily post started. I guess it's just time to start cranking away and see where this goes.

Oh, yeah. Yesterday.

By now you might have figured that I'm pretty good at the fine art of the look of total innocence. I can carry myself off as a naive country boy when I need to.

Yesterday I was grub shopping and I was in the deli/beer sales/restaurant of the local supermarket. There was some woman there from corporate there asking people for their opinion of the operation. It's fairly new.

The woman from corporate asked me what I thought of the restaurant/deli/beer sales area. Wrong move. I was feeling mischievous.

"You ought to get a couple of strippers here for the lunch crowd," I said. "You'll have every carpenter, road crew, sheet rocker and plumber for miles coming in for lunch."

The woman from corporate looked pretty uncomfortable but a woman that worked at the store and overheard me. She looked at me  with a very amused look on her face and interrupted. She's in her mid to late 40s and a generally happy person that has waited on me several times before.

"Since corporate cut our hours I could use some more work. Maybe as a contract entertainer. Just the excuse I need to lose a few pounds," she said.

The woman from corporate looked really uncomfortable. The deli woman and I left. I headed to the produce section and got my veggies.

When I returned to the deli, everyone in the department was grinning at me and when I ordered a sandwich it was about a foot thick and weighed about 10 pounds.









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It won't be long before the cycle starts again.

The snow is off the ground and I do believe it is gone for the season which is a good thing as I do not like snow very much.

Of course because I have just said something we'll get clobbered with about 8 feet of the stuff but maybe not. As I usually do I think I'll plant marigolds and maybe a few petunias. We'll see.

It's clear and calm today which means I may shoot. I have to work up a load. I am sighted in pretty good for 200 yards. 

When I get a good, accurate load worked up I'll crony it to measure the velocity and then run the numbers. If the numbers mean I'll stay supersonic at 1000 yards I'll work up a sheet of come-ups from 200 yards and I ought to be good to go for match season.

I hope there are no Fudds at the range when I am working up my loads because I'll have to explain what I am doing and when I do they still won't get it.

Fudds are deer hunters that shoot about 10 rounds a year. Most of them don't know squat about serious shooting, although some do.

Generally when I am shooting groups I set the sights so the point of impact of the bullet is about 6-8 inches away from the point I hold the sights on because I don't want to tear up my point of hold.

The last time this happened some Fudd saw me inspecting a nice 1.25 inch 200 yard group I shot (one of the best ones I have shot) and commented that it was too bad I had missed the mark. I was about 6 inches to the right.

I explained I was shooting groups and didn't want to tear up my point of hold and he looked confused.

Then I shot another group, 6 inches to the left, and then another 6 inches low. The first group I shot was the tightest so I carefully saved the load data and took the remaining 5 rounds and loaded them up.

I called the Fudd over and said, "Watch me tear up my point of hold." The I did just that. I put all of my rounds into the X-ring.

He was still confused but I guess some guys never get it.

This was a few years back and I remember that he was the guy that got booted out of the club for using the facilities for a political fund raiser. I wasn't there but he threatened all sorts of legal action when he got the boot. He didn't get far.

Anyway my dance card is filling up fast for today and I'll see what happens.






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I never got to post this. It happened a couple of weeks ago.

Yesterday was another day that started off right.
I was feeling pretty good and decided to gas up at the local convenience store. I gassed up and went in for something. I told the clerk she looked pretty good today, she grinned.

Then I noticed a cop standing in a corner sipping a coffee. I have no problem with this at all. Cops deserve a break, too. I nodded at the cop and he grinned back.

Some time ago I had met him and we had chatted. He had mentioned there have been a few problems and said it would be wise to check locks. Typical cop advice but I do listen and take heed.

I suggested he call Charlie Chan to come and solve a few mysteries around town and he asked me who Charlie Chan was. I told him he was a famous Old School detective. 

I also told him tongue in cheek that back in the day J.Edgar Hoover had dispatched 275 G-men to solve a missing jewel mystery and they worked 6 months without a single lead and Charlie had come in and solved the entire case in 90 minutes.

When he looked at me incredulously I told him Charlie HAD to solve the case in 90 minutes because that's how long the movie was.

He looked at me with the look and shook his head. I then suggested that if he liked old movies he ought to see if there was a Charlie Chan movie on YouTube.

A couple of weeks later he saw me and pulled up and told me he had watched a Chan movie and found it somewhat amusing. "Now I'll at least know what you old goats are talking about," he said. We both laughed. 
Then I recommended to him 'The Thief of Baghdad' "The Fairbanks one made in 1924," I said. He actually wrote it down. Then we parted ways.

Anyway he was standing there in the convenience store and I was humming a Stevie Wonder tune when some dufus asked me why I was so cheerful.

"I went to a bachelor party last night and I guess I'm still half coked up and drunk. I'll be OK. There hasn't been a hangover made that I can't shake off before noon." I said. "After all, someone had to teach those twenty somethings how to get the strippers wound up."

He looked aghast. "How old are you?"

" Seventy three," I answered. "Damned stupid kids these days didn't even bother to pick a designated driver so I had to see they got home all right."

"How did you do that?" asked Mr. Nosy.

"I drove them," I said. "Damned kids don't know how to drive when they get tanked up. They start hot rodding and get caught. I had to show 'em a couple of tricks." The cop moved into the darker part of the corner trying to remain unseen but I could tell he was amused.

"You DROVE them?" he asked incredulously. "You could have gotten put in jail!"

"Nah," I replied. All you have to do is keep your speed down and follow the rules and you'll be OK. Besides, the cops in this town couldn't even catch the clap in a Singapore whorehouse." I saw the cop have a hell of a time not snarfing coffee when I said that. He was actually amused.

I could see the clerk was having a hard time not busting up.
Mr.Nosy's breakfast sandwich arrived and he headed straight to the register paid and left. When he hit the door the clerk broke out laughing.

She looked up at the amused cop. "Did you hear all of that" she asked the cop.

"I was trying not to," he laughed.

Then he looked at me. "What do you mean we couldn't catch the clap in a Chinese whorehouse?" he asked, feigning the look of an insulted man.

"Cops in this town have enough sense to stay out of Chinese whorehouses," I replied, innocently. "The few that don't know enough to wear a condom."

"Talked your way out of that one fast," he chuckled. The clerk laughed outright.

He looked at me. "'The Thief of Baghdad' was pretty good, considering it was a silent movie," he said. "The special effects were well ahead of its time."

"Yeah," I replied. "I'm 62 and the movie was made before my father was born. Pretty amazing stuff."
The cop looked at the clerk. She's been there for years. They chuckled.

Anyone that says cops don't have a sense of humor is wrong. While all don't, some do.

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I just read a comment somewhere that truly talented kids are being stifled and I agree.

 I've said it for years.

It always seems like the smarter people are held back from achieving their true potential. Part of it is because we put our money in the wrong department. We spend it on the slower people.

The feds generally hand out about $11 billion every year for the special needs kids. While I can't really slight the mainstream educating of special needs kids, it truly irks me because in a way it is more reenforcement of failure.

The truth is that special needs kids are generally going to need help of some sort their entire lives and certainly cannot be counted on to produce a whole lot.

Granted, I see a couple of kids that have likely been through special ed programs of some sort working at the local supermarket bagging groceries and I'll give credit for that. They're working and that is always a good thing.

The truth is, though that it seem that the truly talented and gifted kids are stuck in the pile with the rest of us and they don't belong there. They belong in accelerated programs.

Talented kids suffer in school, too simply by being held back. They bore, start fooling around and some get misdiagnosed with an attention deficeit disease and most likely get slowed and dumbed down with drugs.

The No Child Left Behind programs seem to slow progress down. They tend to slow things up to let the slower kids catch up at the expense of the more talented kids. The future movers and shakers are held back.

Truth is that no matter what you do, someone still is going to be left behind no matter what you do. Some people were just plainlyy and simply not given the brain power to work with.

Schools should be quicker to recognize talent when they see it and be willing to spend a little more money on these kids instead of holding them back.

What is interesting is that if we put less than half of what we are putting into special education into nurturing the talented, everyone would be a whole lot better off.

But, of course, it is unlikely to see an increase in talented and gifted education because society has a bad habit of reenforcing failure.




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