I have a book on the way I am interested in.

Toxic charities: How churches and charities hurt those they help (and how to reverse it)

For years and years charities have pumped untold billions of dollars into various people in need and no long term good seems to come from it. We feed them and their hungry again so we feed them.

We never seem to have a plan on how to teach them to feed themselves and the cycle of constantly having to feed them continues.

The old saw of "Give a man a fish you feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and you will never have to feed him again" holds true to a point.

Of course we can deport a man and never have to feed him again or if you do teach an American man to fish he will spend the rest of his life next to a trout stream with a six-pack but I digress.

The object is to get the people to be able to take care of themselves.

Sam Kinison has a famous rant about it that makes sense.

Anyway, expect a possible book report.

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Some time ago I noticed my CPAP numbers were better AFTER I had

a good belt of bourbon abut a half hour before turning in.

A few days ago I decided to replace the bourbon with a couple of melatonin gummies a half hour before bed. My numbers have been about the same and I feel a little bit more refreshed when I wake up.

I'm gonna run with that one and see what happens.

Hopefully it will work and I can keep the jug parked except for ceremonial purposes.

Update: This morning's numbers were pretty good. We shall see what we shall see.

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Every American male should have a western outfit in his closet

When someone asked why I replied, "In case you have to travel to France."

Protip. Don't do that. I know someone that did just that. Boots, hat, jeans, western shirt, bandana and he reported that customs went ape $hit tearing his stuff up looking for his six-shooter that he didn't have.

WTF were customs thinking?

Did they think he was going to stampede a herd of cattle down Champs Ulysses or something? Maybe start a brawl in some cafe and have everyone break chairs over each other's heads? 

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Elon Musk isn't a threat to Democracy.

He's a threat to bureaucracy.

And that is ALWAYS a good thing.

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

I had to explain to someone that the Department of Education in reality has nothing to do with education and everything to do with bureaucracy. It does nothing but cost us a fortune.

If it did we would still be number one in education.

I know that if I wanted to hide an illicit payment to someone I would have run it through something like the Department of Education, Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid. Their very name makes them untouchable.

That is until Trump got here and teamed up with Musk.

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So much is wasted on me.

A couple times a year I get a steak at the nearby Texas Road house. I like it and it's OK but if someone really wants to take me someplace to eat and impress me than find a diner somewhere that makes a good meat loaf. Don't even bother inviting me to some swanky upscale place. I'll probably refuse the offer.

Texas Road house is about as far up the chain as I want to go. I can go there in shorts a t-shirt and flip flops or I can get dressed up.

In fact I consider a meatball sub from Sheetz to be a pretty good treat. I don't do that often.

Fine wine is wasted on me. I like a cheap cabernet with a steak or spaghetti and that's about it. 

I was in the Miata the day the weather broke and got to talking with a car guy that offered to let me drive his Corvette sometime. I thanked him but the truth is I'm really not interested in driving a Corvette. Besides it's an automatic.

Someone offered me a couple of shots with some latest and greatest rifle he had. Nah. Why bother? It's an animal that kicks like a mule. It's no fun shooting something that will bruise your shoulder. 

The Miata is a different thing altogether. The weather is holding so in an hour or so I'm going out for a little spin. I'll go someplace unfamiliar until I get lost and then GPS my way home via the backroads. The NA Miata is a backroads car. 

I've had people ask me why I don't get a newer model and I tell them I don't want a newer model. In fact if I can't have an NA I don't want one at all. I MIGHT be talked into an NB with the Bilstein package...maybe. But it better not be overloaded with all sorts of stupid bells and whistles.

I'm glad I am going to get my eyes fixed soon because I'll be able to shoot iron sights again and will compete with irons even though my scores will likely drop a few points. I like shooting with irons. 

I'd rather come out at the bottom of the pile than win using glass. 

The list of stuff wasted on me just seems to grow and grow.

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Someone asked where a good place is to find women to date

"Try the woman's shelter," I said. "After all, you found your dog at an animal shelter."

"That's not funny," he said indignantly.

"If I ever see you with a woman I'm going to ask you if she's a rescue," I shot back.

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Before we can start phasing Social Security (as we know it) out we're going to have to do a few things here.

First and foremost we have to educate our kids with the things they should know and not be wasting time and brain cells on a bunch of social programs and other meaningless bull$hit.

A high school diploma should actually mean something instead of being a participation trophy issued to kids that sat there bored to tears being held back by the slower kids. The whole process is a mind destroying bad joke. The education worthless.

When I graduated high school 55 years ago I had not even been taught how to write a check or balance a checking account. Although it really wasn't too hard to figure out, the fact is that I was taught nothing of personal finances.

Like most of my generation I had to figure it out on my own as I went along. Still, to my advantage I could read and count which is something a large number of high school graduates can't do. It helped immensely. Nowadays a lot of HS grads can't even read or count.

Hand a high school aged clerk a 10 spot and a quarter for a $9.25 purchase and about half the time the kid will slide your quarter back, out the 10 in the register and hand you back 3 quarters instead of simply putting the whole $10.25 in the register and handing you back a buck.

Like most of my generation we figured that Social Security would be our retirement but I was smart enough to realize it would not really be enough and took advantage of company offered 401K plans. Some didn't, not realizing what would happen to them down the road. Sucks to be them.

I hit the lottery because I had an engineer at work that sat down with me and gave me at least some idea of how to manage things. Lord know, I didn't learn at school.

Chinese schoolkids reportedly finish third grade about even with American 8th grade students. We are in 40th place worldwide for education. Prior to the creation of Department of Education we were in first place.  

Until we teach our youngsters about finance and give them other life skills there's no way in hell we will be able to privatize Social Security. To do otherwise would be just plain wrong.

  

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Well the weather reports tell me we're going to be entering thunderstorm season

pretty soon. 

That means it's time to get back in the habit of unplugging my antennas and putting the lead-ins out the window when I leave the house.

8888888888888888888888888888

I've got to get away from the political news for a while and let my brain cool down and my blood pressure drop a bit.

It's supposed to be a nice day today so maybe I'll fire up the Miata and take a ride north. I heard an Indian opened a convenience store about 20 miles north of here so fine dining is in order. I'm in the mood for Indian food and the hot dogs at the convenience store sound pretty good.

A couple years back some snobby elitist asked me if I like Indian food and with a straight face said, "Yeah. Those hot dogs Abdul sells at the 7-11 in North Park are pretty good."

The look of total confusion I got was priceless.

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A few years ago I met a couple in WV that was hitch hiking

They were hitching a ride 20 miles to mow a lawn for a few bucks.

I mentioned that 25 miles away there was a flooring mill reopening and maybe they could find work there.

They were aghast, saying they had lived in their town their whole lives and had no desire to move. I dropped it.

Some people don't understand you have to go to where the work is because it isn't coming to you.

I would imagine they are still in that jerkwater little town in poverty doing odd jobs.

Their choice.

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Holding that infant at the mall has changed me somehow.

I think about it several times a day. 

Something about it has gone deep into my soul.

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Jeff Bezos is worth

$215.2 billion dollars.

Amazon has an estimated worth now of 2 trillion dollars.

Assuming he made all of that through Amazon that means he created $1.7408 trillion dollars of wealth for an awful lot of people.

That wealth is spread out from the big shot executives and investors all the way down to the guy that sweeps the floor.

He's created wealth and jobs for a LOT of people!

1,556,000 people work for Amazon according to recent figures. 

That's a lot of food on a lot of tables.

He earned that money, it's his. Let him keep it.

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One thing they probably ought to do

is remove the cap on paying into social security.

Currently we pay a 6.2% Social Security tax, the employer matches that with another 6.2% and the self-employed pay 12.4%. It caps when you make $176,100. After that you stop paying the SS tax.

I disagree with that and think that the tax should not have a cap on it.

For the people that blame billionaires for everything including athlete's foot this possibly is one thing I think they are right about.

Maybe someone will come here and disagree with me but don't bother if you make over $176,100/year. After all, you have a vested interest in this issue.

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Years ago I acquired a long gone now telephone receiver

that had a long cord on it. In mate spring and summer it sat on the front seat of my pickup.

Sometimes if I pulled up next to a car at a red light that a passenger with the window open I'd grab the receiver, hold it out to the passenger and say, "It's for you."

Most people would chuckle but about a third of them would take it, put it up to their ear and say, "Hello."

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John Fetterman just lambasted his own party.

over their conduct at Trump's speech. I'm not surprised. 

He is an interesting character and while I certainly would not vote for him I do have a certain amount of respect for him because he sometimes gets out of lock step with the Democratic party.

He's certainly a character and is known for his less than businesslike attire, wearing a hoodie and shorts to the inauguration which doesn't really bother me.

He seems to go his own way and vote his conscience which is rather refreshing even though I generally don't agree with him and would not vote to reelect him as our values are different. Still, he at least makes me think a little every so often.

He's caught my interest and I'm going to keep and eye on him.

On the other hand maybe he's just an out and out nut case. He ran against Dr. Oz who didn't strike me as the sharpest tool in the shed.

Who knows?

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It saves energy!

The house came with pretty good thermo pane windows that are still doing a  pretty good job of doing what they were designed to do which is all well and good. When I touch them they are warm which is a far cry from the old single pane windows I grew up with.

Someone suggested I put in replacement windows to save money on heating bills. I glanced at the prices, about $2000/hole. Times 11 is $22K which will buy an awful lot of natural gas.

If I could save an average of $10/month that would mean about $120/ year. Do the math. It's not worth it. 183 years is a long time to break even. $22,000/120=183.33

Then you have to look at the manufacturing process which used various things such as petroleum, possibly wood, silica and so on. Those windows take time, energy and so on and so forth.

When you look at the entire picture you're probably not doing the earth a favor. You're sure not doing your wallet a favor, either.

The whole thing reminds me of the woman that takes her bottles to the recycler in the next town every week. It's not very much glass, a small number of bottles and jars but it's off to the recyclers every single week. The gas, wear and tear on her car probably does more damage to the planet than the recycling saves. If she got a good sized bin and didn't take the glass to the recycler until the bin was full she's probably actually be doing some good.

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One of the things my dad said once or twice.

One day I mentioned that a guy that lived nearby had a job offer that he refused, opting to stay working for the town. The offered job paid more money.

"Walter is not too bright," Dad answered. "But he knows he is not too bright and knows that some day he will be old. Walter is doing what is right for Walter. Eventually the town will be paying Walter a pretty good pension and he'll be OK for life."

Looking back on things that's pretty much what happened to Walter. He never got rich but he managed to raise a couple of kids that I believe turned out OK.

I asked him what his retirement plan was and he grinned. "Kiddo, I won't be around long enough to retire. I'll probably be out of here as soon as Suziebell is squared away. My job will be done."

He was right on that one. Shortly after he paid for my sister's senior year tuition he dropped dead.

I miss him.

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Today I replace a light switch.

Which I already see is not going to be simple for some damned reason.

I was right. I had to rewire the fixture. the switch was OK

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Things to do if you truly stand by Ukraine.

They need money. Give them a good chunk of yours. Not some crummy $100 to salve your conscience, but some real money. Dig into your savings, 401K whatever and cough up 50% of what you have.

Show the world you care. Set a good example.

The other thing you can do to stand by them is join the International  Legion for the Defense of Ukraine. It's open to those between the ages of 18 and 60 which is interesting because the draft age there is 25 but that's OK. Enlist now! Show people that you really do stand by Ukraine. Don't think I am kidding because reports (unconfirmed) are out there saying between 2-3000 have and some have been killed.

Don't worry, if something is wrong with you and they won't take you then send your children instead and let them get shot at while the the Ukrainian youngsters between the age of 18 and 25 get to hang around back on the block. Have your 19 year old come home in a box while the Ukrainian kids are dancing in the night clubs.

If you truly stand by Ukraine then by all means prove it.

Otherwise shut the hell up.

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Someone asked me why the price of eggs is so high.

I carefully explained they were subject to the laws of supply and demand and there was a shortage.

When they asked me why there was a shortage I explained that recently a large number of roosters started identifying as hens.

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Zelensky is a sad sack.

Here's a sample of army 'recruiting' in Ukraine.

You can clearly see the level of support for the war there.

Zelensky should be hanged by an angry Ukrainian mob.

While Vietnam wasn't the most popular war the United States has ever fought, we never reverted to the tactics of the Royal Navy's press gangs. It appears the Ukrainian government has.

Not one more dime, not one more bullet. If Zelensky wants peace, by all means help him achieve it. If not then let him stew in his own juices.

https://x.com/MyLordBebo/status/1895752927991792126

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