Everything Reminds Me Of Something Else

I have reached that stage of my life where nearly everything that happens of any significance reminds me of something else. Sometimes something happens and it reminds me of an event from a week or two before, sometimes it reminds me of something that happened back in the 1980's or 1990's. Occasionally it reminds me of something older than that.

I am an Auburn fan. I have been ever since I was ten years old, I am currently sixty three years old. During those 53 years I have seen a lot. This current years football season has reminded me of a lot of things. The most recent being the 2004 season. Also I have had old feelings that reminded me of when Bo Jackson played. I've even had some emotions similar to the early seventies when Pat Sullivan was there and the 1972 Iron Bowl when what looked like a losing cause turned into a spectacular delight.

Since the news broke week before last on the allegations against Cam Newton, I have been trying to put it in perspective. What does this remind me of from the past. Since the story is not over with yet, I am having a hard time figuring out exactly what it reminds me of but I have seen enough of the handling of the story and the slow leaking of information that I know what I am reminded of with regard to that.

It is a story that I have not thought about since I was in my late teens. Back then, we did not have Snopes so it might have been an urban legend, I don't know, but I do know that when I heard it, it troubled me greatly. This is how it was told to me. There was an old man that lived by himself out in the country, near Kellyton. He was a bit reclusive and did not have a lot of visitors. He was rumored to have a stash of cash hidden somewhere on his farm. One day, two or three people came up to his house and gained entry on some pretense. They overwhelmed the old man and tied him to a ladder back chair. They told him to tell them where his money was or they were going to hurt him. He told them he did not have any money. They took a pair of bolt cutters and cut off the end joint of one of his little fingers. After the commotion had settled down, they asked him again to tell them the location of his money. He again insisted that he had no money. They cut off another finger joint. They continued on that tact for several days. After a while, they apparently decided that the old man loved his money more than his fingers so they told him if he did not tell them where he had hid his money they were going to do something worse to him. He still insisted that he had not money. As it was told to me, they decided to band his arm with screen wire, so tight that the skin would pop through the grids on the wire and then shave it with a safety razor. The affect was to cut off hundreds of pieces of skin and open up his arm for bleeding and infection. The guys that told me this story said that after this had gone on for a few days and the old man still did not give up the location of his money, that the thieves took some household items and left, leaving him to die. If I remember correctly, a neighbor happened by for some reason and found him. That is all I remember of the story. I don't recall if the old man died, if the torturers were caught or any of that. It has been over 40 years since I first heard this story and about that many years since I had thought of it again, but there is something about the way the information has been presented about the Cam Newton controversy that brought that old story back to mind. Like I said, everything reminds me of something else.

The Economy

I read last week that the folks that determine such things decided that the recession ended in June 2009. I don't put too much faith in proclamations of that type. I really did not need them to tell me the country had entered a recession, therefore, I did not need them to tell me when they thought it was over.

I realize that there is a specific technical definition for a recession but where I come from we use a different methodology. When people start giving up their new pickup trucks that they are making payments on and start back driving the old clunker that has been parked in the backyard, we say times are getting tough. Some of you that are long suffering may recall that I warned of just such a happening several years ago. I noticed as I was out driving the highways and back roads that there were a lot more vehicles on the side of the road with for sale signs on them than there had been previously. This was an indicator of increased economic difficulty. Over the past few years, I have been noticing more and more little business closing. I would ride by a place that was selling used cars one week and the next week the lot was empty and the trailer or building shuttered.

Now, as I said, the powers that be say the recovery has started. In fact according to them it started over 15 months ago. But what about the street, what does it say? Well last week Linda had a bad cough and felt like some hot and sour soup would make her feel better. So, I headed down to the Pelham / Alabaster border to the little Chinese place in the Food Depot shopping center. When I got there, it was closed, the electric open sign was not just off, it was gone. The windows were covered with white paper. I looked through a crack and the tables were gone and the chairs were stacked in a corner. I don't care what the leading economic indicators say, when my favorite Chinese restaurant has to close, the economy is still in trouble.

But don't despair, the economy will recover at some point. New businesses will open and the folks driving the clunkers will get to trade for a new truck. As for the hot and sour soup emergency, when I called Linda to report the closing of the Chinese place, she reminded me that there was a Chinese place over in Helena so I went over there and got the soup.

Nobody Is Wrong All The Time

But sometimes it seems that I can come pretty damn close. I was just reading an article on al.com and of course since it is football season, it was about football. Actually since it was on al.com it does not make any difference that it is football season cause most al.com articles are about football, 24/7/365. Anyway, after I read the article, I drifted down to the comments prepared to once again be overcome by the stupidity. Well, to my amazement, the comments were lucid and to the point and more amazingly, even though there were comments by both AU and UA fans, the comments were quite civil. This, right after I had just tweeted a few days ago about how all the people posting comments on al.com seemed to be in bred idiots.

That is just one instance but it quickly brought to mind something that happened last night. Linda and I were watching the Braves vs the Marlins and Derrick Lee was up to bat for the Braves. I made the comment that Derrick was having a hard time recently and did not seem to be able to get a hit. The next pitch, he hit a double.

This is not a recent thing with me either. Back when I worked for a living and did a little stock investing on the side I had a co-worker and a supervisor, half jokingly I think, offer to give me $20 if I would tell them which stock I was about to buy just before I bought it. They said they were going to sell it short and make a mint. Who could blame them, at one time I had a record of about a dozen stocks in a row that immediately went down significantly right after I bought them.

I've thought about this and I believe I am prophetic. No I did not say pathetic, I said prophetic. I think that in my mind, there is a little camera that sees into the future, unfortunately it is a old film camera that does its own developing and produces negatives. So, everything I see is upside down and backwards. Kind of explains a lot doesn't it?

Illegal Aliens

Every where I turn lately, I hear or see some one complaining about illegal aliens. I guess I am kind of thick, but I really don't see a lot of problem around here. Granted, they may have some problems out in Arizona and I believe they need to do what they have to do to address their problems, but I don't see much of a problem here in central Alabama. I have challenged a few people about what the problem is and I usually hear one of two things. They are taking our jobs, or we can't afford to pay them welfare and food stamps to live here.

Well, if you see someone that you are pretty certain is an illegal alien and you want the job that he or she is doing, go to their employer and tell them you want that job. When the employer tells you it is filled, go to the suspected illegal alien and tell them you are gonna report them to the INS. If they pull out a green card or a proof of citizenship, apologize and move on. If they turn tail and run, go back to the employer and sign up. Then enjoy your $5 hour weed eating job. Problem one solved.

As far as the welfare and food stamps business goes, it is not the fault of the illegal alien for taking the government subsidies, it is the fault of the government for paying them to begin with. If you don't like that an illegal alien is getting government benefits then complain to your man or woman in Montgomery. If they stop it fine, if they don't vote them out and vote someone in that will. Problem two solved.

If there are other problems that I am unaware of feel free to bring them to my attention.

Weak Points

My daddy, who was a mechanic all his life, used to say that every vehicle ever made had a weak point. Some part or system that did not perform as well or last as long as the rest of the vehicle. One of his stories revolved around a situation that came up because of such a weak point.

Back in 1959, he was running a little garage in Stewartville. A young man of the community came to him and told him that he was going to build up a hot rod and wanted to know if my dad had a good V8 engine that he would sell him cheap. My dad told him that he did in fact have an V8 engine from a 1955 Buick that he would let him have for $50. Now this was when Coca Colas were still 5 cents so $50 was not a small amount of money, but it was much less than what the young man expected to pay. He asked my dad what was wrong with it? Nothing, there is just not any demand for them. The boy was skeptical and did not buy the engine. My dad said that the reason there was no demand for them was that they would run forever. Unfortunately they were coupled to Dyna-Flo transmissions which were not so robust. The transmission was the weak point on the 55 Buick and a good transmission was what everyone was searching for, they already had a good engine. My Dad always finished the story by saying that if he had asked $200 for the engine, the boy would have bought it.

As I have gotten older, I have decided that cars are an appropriate metaphor for all things in the universe, including people. We all have our weak points. Fortunately in most cases, the weak points offset each other. I may be good in math, you may be good in the arts, someone else has a talent for cooking. It all kind of works out most of the time.

However, there is one weak point that seems to afflict a majority of our species. It is the desire for complexity. Look around you. Everywhere you look you will see people dedicating their lives to making things increasingly complex. Ultimately all things touched by human hands reach a level of complexity that is unworkable, unsustainable and they ultimately collapse. In some cases the collapse comes quickly. VCRs for instance had already become completely impossible to program before DVD players came along and put them out of their misery. In other instances the rigging and iterations drag on for centuries. Most governments and many religions fall into that category.

Don't despair though, just as the DVD replaced the unprogramable VCR, so to will other devices and systems replace all the current ones that are becoming overly complicated. Of course as soon as these new simple systems arrive on the scene, the majority will set about to complicate them as quickly and completely as is possible. Such seems to be our nature.

Most People Don't Read

I went to Mule Day in Winfield this weekend. I set up there each year and sell surplus camo pants and shirts and various other items I have accumulated over the years. Northwest Alabama seems to have been hit by hard times long before the bust of 2008. Every year I hear of new plant closings in NE Ala. At one time, it was typical for me to take in enough money at Mule Day to cover my expenses for several weeks. One year I even had enough to go a long way toward buying Christmas. Now, things are not as good. I am lucky if I make my space rent and gas money. If I did not already have my inventory paid for, I could not afford to go. A good business man probably wouldn't go anyway, but I've never been accused of being a good business man.

This year I decided I was gonna try something radical. I was going to sell every item I had for $5.00 each. Mind you some of this stuff cost me more than $5.00 but I wanted to generate some business. Besides, it isn't doing me any good sitting in storage collecting dust. Better $5.00 in my pocket than a dust catcher on a rack. This was a radical departure from what I have done in the past. One or two years I had put individual price tags on all items, that was a nightmare. Most years I have had a price list for the various sizes like $9.00 for smalls, $12.00 for mediums and $15.00 for larges.

I knew going in that people were not going to be ready for one price fits all, but it works for the dollar store, why not for me? I created six signs. Two of them said "All items on Hangers $5.00", three had "$5" covering the entire sign and one said "Pants $5.00, Shirts $5.00, Tees $5.00, Coats $5.00". In spite of having these six signs placed strategically around the booth, about half the folks came up to me and said something like "how much for your pants?"

One guy stopped in front of my "Pants $5.00, Shirts $5.00, Tees $5.00, Coats $5.00" sign, read it out loud, looked at me and grinned and said wouldn't it just be easier to say everything $5. I pointed him to the two signs that said just that and laughed. Then I told him that even with all those signs I still get folks asking how much for a certain item. Maybe I am wrong, maybe people do read, they just don't believe what they are reading.

As for the results of my new sales tactic, I did take in more money this year than I did in 2009 but after I cover my space rent and gas, I won't be taking any Caribbean cruises with what is left.

College Football

Ecclesiastes 3:1 (King James Version) says "To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:" To my way of thinking, the time for the purpose of playing college football is 1:30 PM on a Saturday afternoon in the Fall of the year.

When I was growing up I was told that "there is a time and place for everything." We've already covered the time for playing college football, as to the place, it should be a field of grass with surrounding seating to accommodate the spectators.

Hopefully the day will be bright and clear with a slight bit of a nip in the air and a few leaves falling in the road as you drive to the game. However, that is not a requirement. It can also be hot or cloudy or rainy or cold enough for hog killin'. All are permissible, just not desirable.

As a point of personal preference, I think the absolute best place for a college football game is located at 32.602256, -85.489138. There is the slight possibility that some others might feel differently.

My Home Phone Number

When I moved to Pelham in 1978, I got a new phone number. I say new, in fact it was new to me but it was the same number that the previous resident had. I never did understand that, as I thought that the phone company always held those numbers back for six months. Anyway, for years after I first moved here, I got calls intended for the Rev. Williams that had lived here. Eventually I guess the word got around and I stopped receiving his calls.

Time past, things changed and before you know it cell phones came on the scene. I was on my third or fourth cell phone with about as many carriers when I decided that I no longer needed a home phone. Sources smarter than I am insisted that it would be a shame for me to give up my home phone number that I had for so many years. I compromised and rolled it out to a VOIP carrier. After a couple of years, the carrier folded and I rolled it to another VOIP carrier. This summer I got an email from that second carrier saying that they too were going out of business.

Over the years, fewer and fewer of my friends and relatives call me on my home phone. In fact, fewer and fewer of them call me at all, but that is another matter that primarily revolves around the grim reaper. So, when this latest VOIP carrier folded, it would have been an opportune time to let the old phone number go. I was about ready to do just that when I remembered that I had a Pageplus prepaid phone that I use in areas where my regular cell phone carrier does not work. Why not just roll the old home number to the prepaid cell. Yeah, that's the ticket. So, that is what I did.

The VOIP phone usually went directly to voice mail but the prepaid cell is set up to ring 4 or 5 times and then go to voice mail. It sits here on my desk and when it rings, I see the caller id. I had been aware that I got a lot of telemarketer calls from looking at the VOIP log, but now that the number is right here before me, I have started checking the calls as they come in and actually programming a name into the cell to associate with these calls. So now when I get a call I look down and see, Scam, GiftCard Scam, Telemarketer, Security Sys, etc.

One of these days, when I am sufficiently satisfied that no one that I know is ever going to call me on the old number, I'll let it go. In the meantime it is interesting to see the diversity of scammers and telemarketers that are in operation. It almost reminds me of the good old days of identifying DX stations on a shortwave radio.

Tax Cuts

I never saw a tax cut I did not like. I don't care it if only affects the richest 1 percent of the population, I'm for it. Why? Because any tax dollar that is not collected is a tax dollar that some shithead bureaucrat can't use to make life worse for us citizens. Every time I make a statement like that I always encounter someone who says something like, "oh, we have to collect taxes so we can have roads, schools, health care, head start , medicare, an army, navy, police, firemen, etc, etc, etc."

I for one think that very little of what the government does could not be done better by someone else, but I'll play the silly game. Ok, we got to have some tax money for a few pet projects. Why not use the approach of the former president of the company where I worked. The story goes that he was telling some of his subordinates that there had to be a reduction of personnel. They were pissing and moaning about how they could not do the job with less people and service would be affected. He is supposed to have said, ok, lay off people until the lights blink (it was an electrical utility) and then hire that last person you laid off back.

Why don't we do that with taxes. Start reducing and keep reducing until something important suffers. I don't mean until we have to cut funding for the arts so some guy can't get his funds to make a statue covered in urine. I mean cut taxes and spending until something really important is affected, then raise them back enough to cover that project.

And, don't let the bureaucrats do the cutting. They always pick out things like parks, libraries, other stuff that people actually get some good out of and close them to increase the pain level and make people want to put things back like they were. No, put together a citizens oversight committee and let them determine what government programs to de-fund and the order for cutting them off. One other stipulation, no one that is receiving money from the government could serve on the committee.

Bank Signs

I was riding down Hwy 31 this morning and noticed that there was a sign crew changing the sign in front of the Wachovia bank to a Wells Fargo sign. Seems like it was only a couple of years ago that the same sign was a Southtrust sign and they were changing it to a Wachovia sign. Maybe that is because it really was only a couple of years ago.

Back in the late 1940's or early 1950's, my parents went over to Alexander City and opened an account with the Alexander City Bank. At the time, Rockford did not have a bank. The two that were there before the depression, folded during the depression and no one bothered to open a new one after the depression ended. Even when a new bank opened in Rockford in the late 1960's my folks kept their account with the Alexander City Bank. By that time they had a really good working relationship with the Alexander City Bank folks and saw no reason to change. Some time in the 1990's, I think, bank deregulation came along an big banks started buying little banks. Southtrust bought the Alexander City Bank and made it a Southtrust branch. Along with the change came a big new expensive looking sign. Then a few years back, Southtrust went toes up and Wachovia took them over compliments of the FDIC or some such. Voilà, up pops a new expensive looking sign with Wachovia's name on it. Now all the Wachovias are becoming Wells Fargos with more new expensive looking signs.

I've got an idea. I know that banks are kinda stretched for funds right now so maybe rather that spending all that money for fancy new signs, maybe they should just get one of those rent-a-signs. You know the kind, arrow across the top with flashing lights, white plastic panels with black moveable letters. I am sure that the monthly rental on one of those would be a lot cheaper than these fancy new signs they are putting in place. Especially here in central Alabama where there used to be a beaucoup of them until the law closed all the bingo parlors down. Those signs are probably languishing in someones storage yard and they would likely rent them real cheap. Who knows, the banks might even be able to come up with enough money to buy them outright.

Yep, put up the portable sign, then, in six months when Citi or Bank of America or whoever the hell else it is that buys them out or takes over their failed assests comes along, all they will have to do is re-arrange the black plastic letters to the new banks name. Save themselves and their investors a lot of money. I realize that it will hurt the sign companies a little bit, but there are enough other businesses failing and new ones taking their place that I think the sign companies will have enough business to get by.

Captain Tolley's Creeping Crack Cure

I could not remember whether or not I had written about this before so I did a search of this blog and did not come up with anything so...

I don't know about you but during my life time, I have been tormented by leaks. The house at Pentonville has a roof leak in one of the back bedrooms that defies all attempts at repair. My folks house at Slickhill had its share of leaks and I have had them here and also in the GMC motorhome that I used to own. I've caulked, tarred, siliconed and who know what all else with limited success.

When I bought my current truck camper, the guy that I got it from said that one of the things he did every year was to recaulk the seams. I got some 3M 5200 and used it on three or four places and it worked great but I still had one leak on the dinette seat that I could not stop. Water was seeping in where it attached to the wall. I worked and worked with it to no avail. I finally decided that the window was to blame. I resealed around the gasket with black silicone and it helped but I still had a leak. Then one day I was reading on one of the RV forums and someone mentioned Captain Tolley's Creeping Crack Cure. At first I though it was some kind of joke but someone else responded that they too had used it to stop a troublesome leak. I did some googling and found that it did exist. It is an english product that was originally developed to seal hairline cracks in sailboats. It is pricey at $19.00 for 8 ounces, but I had spent a lot more than that in total with marginal results so I ordered a bottle.

It smells like latex paint and looks like skim milk. You pour it on in a fine bead. In the places where it disappears capillary action has drawn it in to the leak. You just keep applying it every 30 minutes of so until none is drawn in. I did that on my camper window and it worked like a charm. It has been several months and numerous hard rains since I first used it and the camper has not leaked a drop. This stuff is great and I don't intend to ever be without a bottle of it again. If you have a troublesome leak and everything else has failed, try Captain Tolley's Creeping Crack Cure. It sure worked for me.

Fire Ants

I think I wrote a while back about how this year has been different with the blueberries ripening at a later date than usual. Something else hit me yesterday that I really had not thought about until now. There are no fire ants in my yard this year. For the first time that I can recall, and I have lived here for about 32 years, there is not a single fire ant mound in my yard. That is very unusual. I have always been plagued with fire ants. One year I counted 120 mounds in just the mowed portion of my 2 acres. This year there are no mounds and as best I can determine, no fire ants either. This is not the result of anything I have done. I quit putting out fire ant poison several years ago since it did not appear to do any good. Maybe they are just taking a year off and resting underground but they certainly aren't running around my yard like they have in the past.

Comida Típica

A while back I was reading a blog or a travel log where someone had traveled in Mexico and Central America and he or she was talking about eating comida típica. I am a threat to try exotic foods so I googled comida típica to see what it was. I discovered that it just meant typical food or food commonly served. In the region in question, that turned out to be rice, beans, salsa, tortillas and maybe some pork or chicken. Kind of like a #3 at your local Mexican restaurant.

I had not though of comida típica for awhile until last night. I was eating supper over at Lindas and we were having chicken, mac and cheese, peas, sliced tomatoes and onion. It dawned on me that for the time of year and place we were, that we were having comida típica for supper.

The Blueberries Were Late This Year

Back when my parents were still alive, they planted several blueberry bushes around their home in Coosa County. Mama and Daddy are gone, but their blueberry bushes continue to bear fruit. Every year in late June and early July, the berries start to ripen. Some years there is a big crop, some years not so many. Regardless of the crop size, for every year since the bushes originally started bearing, the berries have always seemed to ripen on the same schedule. First the big bush up near the house by the chinaberry would start to ripen. Then the bushes at the edge of the front yard and by the garage and finally the ones in the back near the green house. Most years by my birthday on July 11th they were about gone. As soon as the last of the crop ripens, the song birds, crows and turkeys move in and pretty well clean the bushes up.

Yesterday, July 16th I went down there with my daughter and my oldest grandson to pick berries. There were still plenty of ripe berries and a few pink ones. From the looks of it, there will be some berries for at least another week. It seems to me that the entire season has shifted forward this year by 10 to 14 days. Maybe not, maybe I am just getting old and have started remembering things differently but my sister insists that all the berries were gone last year by the weekend following the 4th. Maybe she is getting old too.

Zoning

When I worked at the power company, I had a supervisor that was also an attorney. Nice guy and very intelligent. I always liked him alot and agreed with him on most everything. One thing we did disagree on was zoning. I am totally and absolutely against zoning. I feel that if a person owns a piece of property, they should be allowed to do with it as they please. Of course there are some things that would not be allowed because they are against the law, like running a cathouse, or making moonshine whiskey, but if it ain't illegal, then it should be allowed. He always countered my argument that owners need protection. One time I remember him offering up the example of what if someone built a nice home and then someone moved in next door and built a hog farm. At the time, I did not have a good answer, now many years later I realize that the answer to that is if you fear what your neighbor might do, move into a subdivision that has suitable covenants and restrictions and a HOA that will enforce them. Or, if you really want to be safe, buy enough property so that your nearest neighbor will be so far away that they could crap in their front yard and you still would not care.

Most folks would agree with my former supervisor. They say what can it hurt to have a zoning board to look out for the interests of the people. If you agree, take a look at this article from al.com . That is what happens when you have a zoning board. You give some people a little power and they go batshit crazing if anyone challenges it. Over the years I have had some friends in Gardendale but I don't know anybody that lives there now. If I did, I would ask them if all of the city's business was taken care of in such good shape that they had the spare money laying around to pay the legal fees required to fight a zoning battle all the way to the Alabama Supreme Court. All of this over 21 inches in variances and on top of all that they lost. Nope, my old supervisors argument may sound good, but in the real world, zoning equals trouble.

Emotional Topics

Every body knows that there are certain topics that should be avoided when you are talking to a diverse group of people. They are politics, religion, sex, abortion and guns. There are probably others but those 5 are the ones that I have been taught to avoid like the plague. The reason of course is that these are emotional topics. You can almost never have a reasonable conversation with someone of an opposing view point on an emotional topic. You both have a strong opinion and react emotionally when ever you sense that it is being challenged. For that reason, when you are talking to or with a large , diverse group, you avoid those topics.

The internet is a diverse group. In fact it may comprise the single largest diverse group in the entire world. Even it's small subgroups and forums can be large and diverse. I am a member of one yahoo group that claims it has over 6000 members. Only about 2 dozen people post to it regularly but there are apparently a lot of us lurkers out there. Because these groups are so large and diverse, most of them have a ground rule that prohibits discussions that involve the aforementioned emotional topics. The obvious exceptions are groups where one or more of the emotional topics are the stated subject of interest of the group itself.

Lately, I have noticed that there is a new subject that is being discussed more and more and every time it comes up, it is just like a discussion of one of the 5 emotional topics I mentioned previously. That topic is anthropogenic global warming (AGW). You would think that something with roots in data that can be observed scientifically like AGW could be discussed logically without emotion to a point where some general concensus could be reached, but believe me, it ain't happening. If you dare to question any of the claims made by Mr Gore in his book, you will be swarmed on like someone who kicked a yellowjacket nest. After seeing this happen repeatedly, I thought about suggesting to group moderators to include AGW as a 6th emotional topic to be prohibited, but the more that I think about it, I don't think we need to add a 6th topic. We just need to realize that for some people, AGW has become a religion and as such is already prohibited from discussion.

Apple's New iPhone

At the risk of sounding judgmental, I have to admit that the whole time I was reading this article and watching the included video, the expression "shitforbrains" kept popping into my head. I suspect that if the people involved knew me and knew much about me, they would be thinking the same of me for a whole different set of reasons.

Lightning

Back when I worked for the local electric utility company, there was a lot of talk about lightning. There were even people whose job it was to use a computer program to keep a data base on lightning strikes. Lightning is a definite concern for electric utilities in the southeastern USA.

Recently, it became a definite concern for me as well. On Saturday April 24th, about mid morning, a single stroke of lightning burned out my desktop computer, cable modem, wireless router, magicjack and digital TV converter. There had been a moderate thunderstorm earlier in the morning and I had turned off and unplugged the computer while it was going on. I did that because in 2009 I had lost three desktop computers during a thunderstorm. Anyway, the thunderstorm on the 24th had passed, I thought, and I had hooked the computer back up and was reading some emails when there was a bright flash, a wisp of smoke from the computer and a deafening clap of thunder all simultaneously.

It has taken me until this week to get everything back working. I've got my fingers crossed but I have also been shopping for some surge protection.

If you know a little science

If you know a little science, you already knew the two key points that this guy is making. Unfortunately, most Americans don't know a little science.




Also unfortunately, I see that YouTube has chosen to delete the video. It has been awhile since I saw the video and don't recall the second point but I am fairly sure that the first point was that water vapor is the primary greenhouse gas. Everything else is relatively inconsequential.

I suppose it is still too early to point out the falacies in man made global warming and not be censored.

Hubris

Wikipedia says that Hubris "means extreme haughtiness or arrogance. Hubris often indicates being out of touch with reality and overestimating one's own competence or capabilities, especially for people in positions of power."

Ford Motor Company used to have a slogan, "Quality is Job One." I think that based on the definition above, we could easily paraphrase Ford and adopt "Hubris is Job One" as our national slogan.

Constitutionality

The system we have in this country where the Supreme Court decides the constitutionality of laws makes about as much sense as you having an agreement with a friend that if you and he get into a disagreement, y'all will let his older brother decided which of you is right.

A Beater With A Heater

Back in 2004 I went up to Pittsburg (PA not TN) and bought a 1979 Mercedes 300D. I got it cheap because it was what they call up there "a beater". I didn't want a real nice car because I was going to experiment with running cooking oil in it and I didn't want to spend big bucks on something I might screw up. Until my trip up north, I don't recall ever hearing the expression beater.

Best I could tell, a beater is a cheap car that is used as transportation in the winter time when there is salt on the roads. Down here, we have cheap cars but the folks that have them drive them year round.

Back in the summer of 2008 I made a trip to Alaska. I feel in love with the place and have been working on a way to get back up there ever since. Ultimately, I would like to relocate there for at least part of the year. In my spare time I read forums that discuss life in Alaska. Many of them have a mix of people like me that are wannabes and resident Alaskans. This past week I read a thread and someone mentioned having a "beater with a heater". Just for the hell of it, I Googled "beater with a heater 'site:craigslist.org'" and found that it is not just an Alaskan expression. In fact one of the ads was for Gulfport. Must have been written by a relocated yankee. From the number of ads nationwide, beaters with heaters must be fairly popular. Considering that my yard in full of what could be loosely classifed as beaters, I think maybe I need to get an Automobile Dealers License and open up Beater Motor Company LLC. Who knows, if it was profitable enough, it might help me finance my move to Alaska.

The Census

I got my census form 2 or 3 weeks ago. I looked at it, decided it did not ask any questions that I had a problem answering and laid it aside. Why did I lay it aside. Because it said that they wanted to count where people were on April 1. Thats today. I had every intention of waiting until today to fill it out. Last week I got a little post card reminding me that they had not received my response yet and by law I had to submit my census form. Well, I had every intention of submitting it but I was gonna wait until today because that is when they said the count was for. I went ahead and filled it out when I got the little card and sent it in. Nothing has changed since I filled it out so the info they got is correct but why tell people you want to know what their status is on April 1 and then get upset because they are waiting until April 1 to respond. I've seen several media articles lamenting the poor response to the census. I suspect part of that is because people are following the instructions they were given. I hope the government is gonna run the new healthcare system better than they have this census but I doubt it.

Get Out While The Getting Is Good

Have you noticed how many career politicians are giving up their jobs and not running for re-election lately? Did you ask yourself why someone would give up a high paying job with virtually certain employment (over 90% of incumbents are re-elected.)? I've got an idea and it revolves around the subject phrase, "get out while the getting is good." Politicians are not stupid. They are probably corrupt and maybe inept, but not stupid. They have spend a lifetime suckling at the teat of the government cow, but they know that the cow is fixing to go dry. They, better than most of us, know how the system works and they recognize when the scam is about to play out. Like rats deserting a sinking ship, they are headed over the side. Better to be out in open water swimming than to be sucked down with the ship.

Most of the US citizens alive today were born and have lived in relatively prosperous, peaceful times. Sure, there have been a lot of wars and police actions, but they have been somewhere else. And sure, we have sent many of our brightest and best to fight and die in these places, but most folks did not have to go and were affected indirectly at most. No, its been guns and butter through out most of our lives and people tend to think that how it has been is how it's gonna be. Unfortunately for all of us, actions have consequences. As a nation, we have done a lot of imprudent things. We have told ourselves that we were doing the right things, but calling a pig's ear a silk purse does not make it so.

The politicians know this and they are taking their lifetime pensions with their superior health care plans and heading off into sunset. Best to be long gone when the shit hits the fan. Many folks I am sure doubt this, after all, things have been good for so long, and our intentions are good, but you can't spend more than you make, kill anyone that disagrees with you and expect it to go on forever. Sooner or later the cows come home and unfortunately, I fear our herd is quickly becoming dry.

One of these days ...

One of these days I am gonna drop dead. When I do, some of my friends and family will no doubt say they knew I should have been going to the doctor. If I had, they (the doctors) would have caught that and treated it. Well, they will probably be right, but it won't make me any difference because I will be dead.

So far in my life I have been blessed with very good health. Since I have not been sick a lot, I have not had to go to the doctor much. Sometimes I think that I have not been sick a lot because I don't go to the doctor much. It's funny about people and doctors. Who do you know that takes his car into his mechanic every year and asks him to check and see if there is something that needs fixing? Sure, people have their cars oil changed and they put additives in their gas tank, but that is just routine maintenance like taking vitamins and supplements would be for a person. And people check their coolant and oil levels and look out for their check engine light on their cars, much like getting a blood pressure cuff and regularly checking blood pressure would be to an individual, but who among us would ever consider driving up to a dealership and asking them to see if they could find something on their car that needed replacing?

But that is exactly what well care is all about. When you feel fine and you go to a doctor, he or she is going to find something that needs treating. Its what they do. They have a hammer in their hand; you are the nail. And what does all that treatment accomplish? Mostly it winds up putting you on prescription drugs that may mitigate the symptoms of one thing and create or exacerbate the symptoms of half a dozen others. In a recent article, Bill Sardi made this statement, "The only three proven medical technologies are (a) mending broken bones; (b) replacing cloudy cataracts; (c) repairing decayed teeth. The rest are questionable." When I first read this, I was a little taken aback, but then I remembered where I had read recently that it had never been statistically proven that anyone had lived longer because of heart surgery. How much of what passes for medicine today is really just "busy work"?

Now obviously there are people who suffer from conditions that need medicine and treatment. Insulin dependent diabetics are the first ones that pop to my mind. I am sure that you can think of dozens if not hundreds of other conditions, but these are people who are sick. And also keep in mind that insulin does not cure diabetes, it just enables the diabetic to live longer with the ailment. Clearly, I am not encouraging anyone to go against their own judgment. If you feel a need to go to a doctor, even though you fell fine, by all means go, but when you hear about me dying, don't despair. I may not have lived every minute possible, but I did enjoy some extra time along the way that others lost sitting in waiting rooms.

I lied

In my previous post I said that I was not gonna address the Okaloosa County Florida Sheriff's deputies arresting a 11 year old girl for throwing a plastic pistol at her father. I lied. I just can't let this go. I am gonna stay away for the obvious question of how in the hell did they find out about it. We all know that a lot of folks in this country should not have kids in the first place, but stupid people do procreate. Nope, I am not gonna get into that. What I am gonna say is that if Okaloosa County Florida has enough deputies on the force that they have time to go out and arrest 11 year old girls for throwing toy pistols, maybe they should look at their law enforcement budget. All I hear lately from bureaucrats and politicians all over the country is how they don't have enough money and they are going to have to figure out a way to raise fees or taxes and increase their revenue so they don't have to cut back services. Seems to me that arresting 11 year old girls for throwing toy guns is a service that folks could do without at least until times got better. I wonder how many other public "services" could be scaled back in these tight times.

There is so much wrong and ....

Back when I was younger, I used to hear older folks (people who were younger then than I am now) talking about how bad it had gotten and they just didn't know what was gonna become of all of us. I always promised myself that I would not ever get like that and I've tried my damnest to follow through on that promise.

I've always said "there is so much wrong and we are gonna have to do a lot to straighten it out." At least that is what I have said up until today. Then I read this news article." In case the link is dead when you read this, the article is about a 11 year old girl that was arrested by Okaloosa County Sheriff’s deputies for domestic battery. What did she do? She threw a plastic pistol at her father because he put her in time out. The plastic pistol cut his scalp. This is so wrong on so many levels that I am not gonna even start addressing all of them. You can figure it out for yourself. But this incident is the straw that broke the camels back. From now on, I am gonna say, there is so much wrong and there is no way in hell we are gonna straighten it out. As the mogambo guru is always saying, "We are freakin doomed."

They Got A Problem

I was just reading about some of the backlash by people upset with the recent passage of the health care bill. It reminded me of something I have read many times. To paraphrase, No government exists except by consent of the governed. On the surface, that might seem untrue. Many people will point to brutal dictatorships that exist currently or have existed in the past and say they exist through the use of force and not because of consent. But do they? Certainly they use force, but can force alone subdue all of the people all of the time? I think not. So long as enough people are reasonably satisfied with their circumstances, even the most brutal governments can hold on, but there comes a time when enough people are unhappy and they will demand and bring a change. If the people have confidence in the process, the change can be peaceful. Unfortunately for the powers that be, times are sort of rough for a lot of people right now. Couple that with the government passing laws that are unpopular with a significant portion if not a majority of the people and it creates a dangerous situation. Our government officials may not be in eminent danger of being voted out of office or worse yet being lynched, but I think they got a problem.

AL.com Comments

I know, I've bitched about them before, but I can't help it. I just finished reading some articles on AL.com and for some masochistic reason, I read the comments. My experience frustrated me so much that I just have to vent.

I have lived in Alabama all my life and have traveled in the United States a bit. I have met people in lots of places and for the most part, I found them all to be very similar. I don't think that the folks in other places are that much smarter or more impressive than the folks I have known in Alabama. But, when I read the comments on AL.com, I wonder who in the hell are the people that are writing them? I'm not talking about spelling, grammar, punctuation, capitalization or anything like that. After all, its the internet, those things don't count for as much and we all take short cuts. Nope, I am talking about stupid, stupid, stupid remarks. Who are these idiots that perpetrate this madness?

I could give you examples, but it pains me too much to recount what I have read. Better I just rant here to blow off a little steam. If you doubt me, go to AL.com and click on an article, any article and read the comments and then see if I am wrong.

The Problem

"It’s not what people don’t know that’s the problem, but what they think they know that just ain’t so." - Will Rogers

Spyder Solitaire

Well I have found a new distraction to eat up my time. The other day Linda told me that she had a game called Spyder Solitaire on her computer and that she had been playing it and loved it. She told me to check mine and see if I had it. I assured her I did not as I don't play games on the computer and never install them. Opps, turns out SS comes with Windows XP. I have only recently started using XP. I bought a refurbrished Dell on eBay and it had XP installed. Before that, I had used an older Dell with W2K. The old machine did everything I needed but an early morning thunderstorm took it out along with my phone server and my Ubuntu linux machine.

Anyway, I do have Spyder Solitaire and it is kind of addictive. I think I like it better than regular solitaire, and I love to play the regular version. For now, I am limiting myself to about a half dozen games at a sitting and no more than 3 or 4 sittings per day. Since the weather has been cold, I have been staying kind of cabin bound anyway, but when warm weather gets here, I may have to relegate myself to only late night games just before bedtime. To explain how bad this is, I've even located a linux version and loaded it on to my eee PC so I can play when I travel. I guess its just another life lost to addiction.

TSA Anal Cavity Searches

Not yet, but give it time. I just read this article on CNN about the TSA reaction to the attempted Christmas flight bombing. It's just a matter of time until some wacko sticks a homemade explosive device up his poop shoot and tries to detonate it while the plane is in the air. As soon as he does, the TSA will start immediately having passengers strip, (what difference does it make, their machine already lets them see you naked) bend over and be probed anally.

As for me, I would not currently get on a plane for any reason short of saving my life or the life of a close loved one.

Taking A Chance

Funny how when you get to thinking about one thing, it leads you to another, and then another and finally you are thinking about something far removed from where you started. All the current news about the "Bingo Raids" got me to thinking about gambling in general. Gambling, like drinking, religion, abortion and politics, is a hot button topic. Hot button topics are apt to stir up controversy whenever they enter a conversation. I'm not gonna discuss any of them here today but I am gonna recount a story that this topic brought to mind.

Years ago, at the company where I worked, we played a game called check poker. I'm sure it, or a variant of it was played through out the country. We got paid every other Friday and our company was big enough that all the checks had 5 or 6 digit sequence numbers in the upper right hand corner. Before the checks were handed out, a group of us, usually the same suspects, would put $1 each in a pool. Then when we got our checks, we would compare the check numbers as if they were poker hands, 1 of a kind, a pair, 3 of a kind , 4 of a kind, full house and straight were all possible. The person with the best hand took the pot.

Not everyone played. I suspect that some were too tight and afraid they might loose a dollar. Some didn't want to be seen as associating with "our" kind, except as work forced it. Others maintained that it was gambling and was immoral. When any one brought up the moral argument, there was a guy, whose name happened to be "Guy" who loved to tell the story of an old switchboard wireman that was in his crew when he worked in the field. The old wireman was named Tony. By all accounts, Tony was a good man and a hard worker. I met him myself and remember him to be rather loud, funny and good natured. He was of Italian decent and I suspect he was a good Catholic. I did not know him that well but Guy said that Tony was hard against any form of gambling. It may have been from a personal experience or from something that happened in his family, I don't know, but it is said that he hated any form of gambling. But Tony always participated in check poker. The more sensitive portion of our population would let something like that slid, but the folks in Tony's crew, in fact the folks in all of our field crews were not the kind of folks to let anything slide. They were the in your face types. If they sensed hypocrisy or inconsistency they would confront you immediately. When payday rolled around and check poker was being played, someone new to the crew or someone that had recently discovered Tony's hatred for gambling, would challenge him about the paradox of him playing check poker when he hated gambling. Tony's answer was that check poker was not gambling, it was just "taking a chance."

Often I tell stories because they reinforce some point I want to make but not this time. I told you this story because I like it. Of course it probably does not mean as much to you if you can't put faces with these names, but I can and as I said, I like it.

Good Guys and Bad Guys

Next Tuesday the final season of the TV series "Lost" begins. Last night, I watched last season's final episode on Hulu. Not to give away any spoiler info but in it Ben does what I would call a bad thing. Through out the entire series, Ben has been heard to tell people, "we are the good guys."

It is said, and I believe, that your brain works on problems while you sleep. Apparently, last night, my brain worked on the problem of Ben, a self proclaimed good guy, doing a bad thing. This morning I woke up thinking of this famous quote by Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson:

There is so much good in the worst of us, an so much bad in the best of us, that it behooves all of us not to talk about the rest of us.

I have to admit that it has crossed my mind that an alternate solution might be that Ben is lying about being a good guy.

I Do Too!

Maybe Bigger Is Better

I originally wrote this back in January 2010 but somehow it got saved as a draft and never was published. I was doing some house keeping in my blog files tonight (8 July 2010) and ran across it. I read it and still feel about the same way so here it is:

I was born and raised in Alabama and have spent most of my life here. It has always been my home. I have traveled often but usually in the SE US. I have made one trip to England, a couple of trips to Canada and 3 or 4 out west. After traveling, I have always returned and in my mind I've thought, there really is no place like home. But that has changed in the last few years. A few years ago, my daughters family moved to Texas. I've been out there to visit several times and I have to say that I really like Texas. Then in 2008, I drove up to Alaska. It was great. If I could get used to the cold in the winter, I believe I could live my life out in Alaska. I'm temped to say that bigger is better and that the big states have something the others don't. Then I remember that I was very impressed with South Dakota and figure It might be a good place to live as well.

Alabama is not the worse place in the world and I am pretty happy here but I definitely have found some other places that seem like they would be a good replacement.

Back From Texas

We got back from Texas this week. We had been out there for the birth of my second grandson. Ford Miller Jones. He is a sweetie, just like his older brother Gantt. Since he was born in Texas, he is a native texan. I guess one of these days he will be driving a car with two stickers on the bumper. One, with the Texas single star that says "Native Texan" and another on the other side that says "Don't mess with Texas."