Cranberry bogs, eh? That'll work. Peat isn't something you can cultivate. It's either already there, growing, or it isn't. Our good friends at Wikipedia have a nice article about peat; I didn't know peat accumulates at the blazing rate of 1mm per year.
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The mention of sections and acreage got me thinking of the old days in the Planning Division of Model Cities, where I did stuff involving charts, graphs, and lots of maps. Forgot most of it, but recall lots of talk about sections, townships, and ranges.
The cool thing was going to City Hall to the Department of Development & Planning on the 11th floor where you could buy aerial photos of the city for one dollar. They were big, about 24 inches square, and only covered one square mile. Lots of detail for studying land use and figuring out how to spend all that federal money that was rolling into the cities at the time.
They weren't real photos, but halftone images reproduced like engineering drawings using ammonia. Unless kept in a dark container they faded after time; you didn't keep them on display but they were good enough to use for research purposes.
So, looking at those aerial photos you'd know that you were looking at one square mile, 640 acres. Each full city block is 1/8 mile, so you got 64 full city blocks, 10 acres each, per square mile. But sidestreets cut those full blocks in half, into what I'll call a "short block" of 5 acres. Then the alley cuts the short block in half, to 2 1/2 acres.
City folk are usually clueless when visualizing acreage, but I knew then that my Uncle Vernie's dairy farm of 240 acres was a decent bit of land.
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The AR-15 (Armalite Model 15) was adopted by the US military as the M16 after Colt bought Armalite and made some mods. The M15 was a variant of the M14 but there's a new M15 that looks a lot different (Google Images). Source: Wikipedia.
I preferred the M14 myself. With it's nice wooden stock it seemed to me be a swell deer rifle, good and hefty with a satisfying kick. Not so good in jungle combat, I've heard. And I've never hunted deer, either.
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Exaggeration for effect is perfectly acceptable, Uncle Ken. Last time I checked your creative license was still valid.
But I found something fishy about the city's measurements. Wells is 200W and State is 0, so that should be 1/4 mile, right? Using the measuring tool in Google Earth the distance is about 300 feet longer than it should be. I think the city fudged the numbers at some time; I've seen the same thing on the near south side. Up until about 600S (maybe further) the numbering doesn't measure up to one full block equaling 1/8 mile. More study is required.
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According to some studies about the generosity of nations, the US is #2 after Myanmar. Albania is #83...
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Is there a consensus on the identity of dead horses and the futility of flogging same? Don't need a zombie equine uprising.
And I see that images can be inserted...anybody try that? Images might sully the elegant simplicity of Institute's proceedings, though.
Tuesday, July 12, 2016
I went to Bog 'n Berry Days and all I got was this cool hat
I too went google earthing after Old Dog lauded the adventure.
Naturally I was looking for a watering hole, but I didn't find nothing,
Then I went down to street view, and by gum it was rainy and foggy, you
could see dew drops on the googlemobile windows, and then I turned a
corner by the Subway at Main and Mackinaw and it was bright sunlight,
and there was the bar, Club 27. Nice building, but just two
little windows, neither of which sport a beer sign. A bar without beer
signs, I don't know.
Further researching the topic I went to Yelp and their ilk, and you know what, nada. Here's your chance Beagles, stroll in all casual like and pull out a pad of paper and let it drop to the owner that you are planning on giving Club 27 it's first Yelp review, and very likely you will find lots of cold free yellow ones in clean glasses coming your way, or you might find the sidewalk coming your way as I imagine they don't take kindly to pretentious twits in the land on top of the hat on top of the hat on the top of Michigan.
But if the latter should be the case you might notice that the cloudy day is gone and now it is bright sunshine. I'm not saying the google driver might have been depressed by all that rain and fog and stopped into Club 27 for a few tall yellow beers and by the time his spirits were lifted so were the clouds. Well, actually I guess I am.
Peat moss really? Where does it go? Does anybody up there use it to heat their homes? Well I have to tell you even when the sun came out, Cheboygan looked a bit dismal. I think you could use a little festival, I'm thinking Bog 'n Berry days with stands selling peat moss and cranberries and maybe little hats like the hat on the top of the hat on top of Michigan. Plenty more good ideas where that came from, don't hesitate to ask.
Yes it is four short blocks between the Merchandise Mart and the condo. I exaggerated for effect ok? Speaking of effect there is also that close to home effect where you can handle a full bladder fine for awhile but once you get close to home your urges increase exponentially.
Does socialism stink? Isn't that the gummint that Europe is always accused of having, and don't they do well enough? What is our form of gummint? Is it better than what they have there? I think it's pretty close either way, so why not just say all gummint stinks? I hear it said all the time, generally when people don't want to raise taxes that will leak into the pockets of poor people or raise the minimum wage that Americans are a very generous people. But I don't know, more generous than who? I don't think they are any more generous than say, Albanians.
Talking about background checks is as stupid as my ranting about banning semi automatic weapons. Neither will ever happen.
Further researching the topic I went to Yelp and their ilk, and you know what, nada. Here's your chance Beagles, stroll in all casual like and pull out a pad of paper and let it drop to the owner that you are planning on giving Club 27 it's first Yelp review, and very likely you will find lots of cold free yellow ones in clean glasses coming your way, or you might find the sidewalk coming your way as I imagine they don't take kindly to pretentious twits in the land on top of the hat on top of the hat on the top of Michigan.
But if the latter should be the case you might notice that the cloudy day is gone and now it is bright sunshine. I'm not saying the google driver might have been depressed by all that rain and fog and stopped into Club 27 for a few tall yellow beers and by the time his spirits were lifted so were the clouds. Well, actually I guess I am.
Peat moss really? Where does it go? Does anybody up there use it to heat their homes? Well I have to tell you even when the sun came out, Cheboygan looked a bit dismal. I think you could use a little festival, I'm thinking Bog 'n Berry days with stands selling peat moss and cranberries and maybe little hats like the hat on the top of the hat on top of Michigan. Plenty more good ideas where that came from, don't hesitate to ask.
Yes it is four short blocks between the Merchandise Mart and the condo. I exaggerated for effect ok? Speaking of effect there is also that close to home effect where you can handle a full bladder fine for awhile but once you get close to home your urges increase exponentially.
Does socialism stink? Isn't that the gummint that Europe is always accused of having, and don't they do well enough? What is our form of gummint? Is it better than what they have there? I think it's pretty close either way, so why not just say all gummint stinks? I hear it said all the time, generally when people don't want to raise taxes that will leak into the pockets of poor people or raise the minimum wage that Americans are a very generous people. But I don't know, more generous than who? I don't think they are any more generous than say, Albanians.
Talking about background checks is as stupid as my ranting about banning semi automatic weapons. Neither will ever happen.
Monday, July 11, 2016
From Guns to Cranberries
I was not familiar with the Soviet SKS so I looked it up on Wiki. The gun was designed in 1943 and was standard issue in the Soviet bloc militaries for some time. It is classified as a semi automatic carbine, which means it was not designed for fully automatic firing. I am more familiar with the AK-47, which was the first firearm to be called an assault rifle, and can be fired in both the semi and fully automatic mode. The AK-47 should have made the SKS obsolete, but Wiki says that the SKS was issued to Soviet troops extensively long after the AK-47 came on the scene.
The M-14 was America's answer to the AK-47. That's the rifle I carried in my army days. I thought it was a big improvement over the old M-1, but it was soon phased out in favor of the M-16. I hear people referring to the M-15 as the standard assault rifle, and I'm not sure what they are talking about. I remember reading about an AR-15 that came out about the same time as the M-16, but I thought it was a light weight survival weapon that was carried by airplane pilots for use in case they went down and had to walk back home. I'll have to look that one up one of these days, maybe tomorrow.
I am familiar with that thing by Lake 16, although I have not been out that way in decades. First of all, Lake 16 is called that because it is located in Section 16. A section is a square mile of land, containing 640 acres more or less, and they all have numbers. Part of the Lake 16 shoreline is on state land, and part of it is on private land. The private part was bought some decades ago by the Black Forest Peat Moss Company. They had great plans, but ultimately went bankrupt after skimming the best of the peat moss off the top layers. Some time later it was bought by a guy named Hugget, who had experience growing cranberries in Wisconsin. He hired some people and dug the peat moss pits out deeper, selling the low grade moss for whatever he could get. Then he turned the pits into cranberry beds, which was his main reason for buying the place. Last I heard, the cranberry farm was still in business and doing well. My neighbor was their general manager for some years back in the 90s. He got me a job there after the paper mill closed, but I didn't last long. I thought the work was too hard for what it paid, a conclusion that my neighbor eventually came to himself.
The M-14 was America's answer to the AK-47. That's the rifle I carried in my army days. I thought it was a big improvement over the old M-1, but it was soon phased out in favor of the M-16. I hear people referring to the M-15 as the standard assault rifle, and I'm not sure what they are talking about. I remember reading about an AR-15 that came out about the same time as the M-16, but I thought it was a light weight survival weapon that was carried by airplane pilots for use in case they went down and had to walk back home. I'll have to look that one up one of these days, maybe tomorrow.
I am familiar with that thing by Lake 16, although I have not been out that way in decades. First of all, Lake 16 is called that because it is located in Section 16. A section is a square mile of land, containing 640 acres more or less, and they all have numbers. Part of the Lake 16 shoreline is on state land, and part of it is on private land. The private part was bought some decades ago by the Black Forest Peat Moss Company. They had great plans, but ultimately went bankrupt after skimming the best of the peat moss off the top layers. Some time later it was bought by a guy named Hugget, who had experience growing cranberries in Wisconsin. He hired some people and dug the peat moss pits out deeper, selling the low grade moss for whatever he could get. Then he turned the pits into cranberry beds, which was his main reason for buying the place. Last I heard, the cranberry farm was still in business and doing well. My neighbor was their general manager for some years back in the 90s. He got me a job there after the paper mill closed, but I didn't last long. I thought the work was too hard for what it paid, a conclusion that my neighbor eventually came to himself.
This and that...
A while back Uncle Ken expressed a little frustration about Mr. Beagles' point of view in that it was too reasonable, and there was little to argue about. And I agree, but I'll attribute it to the hard earned wisdom of a life well lived. Appears to me that modern news media likes a binary model; good/bad, black/white, Republican/Democrat, conservative/liberal, with no appreciation of the many shades of gray or nuance.
Consider socialism. As a form of government, it stinks. But if we, in our society of plenty, can't take care of those in need or show compassion to the less fortunate then we stink, on ice.
Americans as a rule are very generous people; we like to help folks out and we don't need socialism to do it. A problem is that a lot of dough is given to charities of all kinds, but it seems that too much money fails to reach the folks that need it. Skimming? Administrative overhead? Government programs are, well, government programs, often poorly managed. Look at the VA. There's a good solution somewhere, but I don't know what it is.
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The background checks for firearm ownership don't seem to be very effective. Too many loons have properly registered weapons. How about a process where you need to have references from *known* responsible gun owners? You would need to have someone vouch for you, to attest to your general character. A criminal record in itself should not prevent you from gun ownership; a lot of people turn their lives around and live good and decent lives. Alas, many don't. But if a guy (and it's usually men but that is changing) has no criminal record or history of mental illness but is quick to anger, especially after a few beers, he should not have a weapon. Same thing with any extreme animosity to any group of people. You could be a nice guy, but if you *really* hate Cubs fans (understandable, I know), folks from Indiana, short people, hipsters, whatever, again...no gun for you. I know a lot of people that I would trust with any type of weapon, and some I wouldn't trust with a plastic fork.
And speaking of loons with weapons, the guy in Dallas used a seventy year-old Soviet SKS. There's a license for those old weapons; I think they're called Curios & Relics, and they can be shipped to your home. Sleep tight.
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Although I have Google Earth on my iPad, I never had it on the laptop. Something about Uncle Ken's statement of a four block walk from the Merchandise Mart didn't sound right, so I installed the latest Google Earth, and Jeez Louise! The 3D buildings are amazing, as is street view. Quite a rabbit hole...it's like zooming around on a magic carpet, looking at all the cool stuff. Or maybe the Eye of God. Oh, it's four short city blocks from the Mart to Marina City, but only 1/4 mile. Still a long way if the bladder is full.
And as long as I had the Eye of God in focus, I decided to take a peek at the Greater Cheboygan Metropolitan Area and I found something curious. There's an odd development in the Mackinaw State Forest, east of Cheboygan off of highway 23. It's right next to Lake Sixteen (odd name, like Area 51) and about a mile long. There's a few small buildings, and only one road in and out. I can't tell what it is, except maybe a fish hatchery. Perhaps Mr. Beagles can enlighten me, unless he has to kill me afterwards.
Consider socialism. As a form of government, it stinks. But if we, in our society of plenty, can't take care of those in need or show compassion to the less fortunate then we stink, on ice.
Americans as a rule are very generous people; we like to help folks out and we don't need socialism to do it. A problem is that a lot of dough is given to charities of all kinds, but it seems that too much money fails to reach the folks that need it. Skimming? Administrative overhead? Government programs are, well, government programs, often poorly managed. Look at the VA. There's a good solution somewhere, but I don't know what it is.
-----
The background checks for firearm ownership don't seem to be very effective. Too many loons have properly registered weapons. How about a process where you need to have references from *known* responsible gun owners? You would need to have someone vouch for you, to attest to your general character. A criminal record in itself should not prevent you from gun ownership; a lot of people turn their lives around and live good and decent lives. Alas, many don't. But if a guy (and it's usually men but that is changing) has no criminal record or history of mental illness but is quick to anger, especially after a few beers, he should not have a weapon. Same thing with any extreme animosity to any group of people. You could be a nice guy, but if you *really* hate Cubs fans (understandable, I know), folks from Indiana, short people, hipsters, whatever, again...no gun for you. I know a lot of people that I would trust with any type of weapon, and some I wouldn't trust with a plastic fork.
And speaking of loons with weapons, the guy in Dallas used a seventy year-old Soviet SKS. There's a license for those old weapons; I think they're called Curios & Relics, and they can be shipped to your home. Sleep tight.
-----
Although I have Google Earth on my iPad, I never had it on the laptop. Something about Uncle Ken's statement of a four block walk from the Merchandise Mart didn't sound right, so I installed the latest Google Earth, and Jeez Louise! The 3D buildings are amazing, as is street view. Quite a rabbit hole...it's like zooming around on a magic carpet, looking at all the cool stuff. Or maybe the Eye of God. Oh, it's four short city blocks from the Mart to Marina City, but only 1/4 mile. Still a long way if the bladder is full.
And as long as I had the Eye of God in focus, I decided to take a peek at the Greater Cheboygan Metropolitan Area and I found something curious. There's an odd development in the Mackinaw State Forest, east of Cheboygan off of highway 23. It's right next to Lake Sixteen (odd name, like Area 51) and about a mile long. There's a few small buildings, and only one road in and out. I can't tell what it is, except maybe a fish hatchery. Perhaps Mr. Beagles can enlighten me, unless he has to kill me afterwards.
screen door summers
The Merchandise Mart was built to display furniture. You could set
up suites of rooms with like bedroom and frontroom sets and the buyers
could come by and look them over. Maybe that is where the idea of
living your whole life there came from, maybe you could sleep in a
different bed every day of the year.
It was generally closed to the public and only wholesale buyers could enter. Anymore you can stroll the two bottom floors, which are mostly tile shops and there is a pretty good food court, and most importantly a bathroom where somebody say, getting off the el train from Irving Park after having downed five pints of Daisy Cutter, can pause to refresh before walking the four blocks home, and then doesn't have to crash through the doorway towards the bathroom scaring the bejesus out of his kitties.
I'll tell you what is wrong with gun checks, they'll never happen, because it sounds like gun control, it sounds like jerking Old Betsy out of a law abiding citizen's hands, and that will never be allowed. There was some kerfuffle a week or two ago after Orlando, the dems proposed a couple timid bills and the reps a couple still more timid and nothing happened. Now we have the Dallas incident. Nobody seems to be talking much about that guy's weapon, and let me say this about that. If we outlawed
- And here I went to the google machine, what exactly was it? You feel a little odd quoting from some site called Controversial Times, controversial to who? Looked vaguely right wing to me and sure enough they are all about how it wasn't the AR-15, or any of those currently popular firearms, but it is a semi automatic -
semi automatics some hunters might have to aim more carefully before they shoot, and some sharpshooters would suffer the inconvenience of having to leave their rifle at the shooting gallery, and some nervous Nellies, who obviously aren't living right if they have that many enemies, would have to rely on lesser firearms to protect themselves, but those five cops would not be dead.
We haven't mentioned ahem, recent developments. You know how I feel about these incidents, everybody gets all riled up, and then we have some national conversation, or maybe we just call for a national conversation,and don't get around to it, and some politicians try to score some kind of advantage, and then in the end everything kind of simmers down, until the next incident, and then everybody gets fired up and says how many more times. As many times as you got Jack.
You know Blacks and Whites get along a little uneasily her in the USA, but we aren't the Serbs and the Croats. Hopefully we don't become that way.
Gun sales do increase after every incident and every speech by Obama, or really any Democrat, but gun owners in the USA are significantly down over the past thirty years, so it's basically fewer people with more guns.
I remember the rags aline guy, or I think I do, traveling slowly down the alley throughout the screen door summer, his hoarse voice somehow melodious over the tweets of the birdies and laughter of the children, or maybe I just think I do. Same difference I guess. I also remember some guy coming around with a pony and a little cowboy outfit that the kid could don and have his photo taken on the pony, but maybe I just saw that in a movie. Again, same difference. Oh and the knife sharpener guy, he had a bit of a risque reputation as I recall, like the grinning milkman.
The Mom network. I think Monday was washday and Tuesday was ironing, and I forget what the others were because I was a boy and I would never have to worry about that, I would have an uncomplaining little woman to take care of all that for me. My favorite was Monday, washday. Between the bungalows and the garages were backyards divided by short fences so you could see all down the line, and on Mondays every one of those yards was filled with billowing sheets and embarrassing underwear and it all smelled of soap, wonderful, just wonnerful.
It was generally closed to the public and only wholesale buyers could enter. Anymore you can stroll the two bottom floors, which are mostly tile shops and there is a pretty good food court, and most importantly a bathroom where somebody say, getting off the el train from Irving Park after having downed five pints of Daisy Cutter, can pause to refresh before walking the four blocks home, and then doesn't have to crash through the doorway towards the bathroom scaring the bejesus out of his kitties.
I'll tell you what is wrong with gun checks, they'll never happen, because it sounds like gun control, it sounds like jerking Old Betsy out of a law abiding citizen's hands, and that will never be allowed. There was some kerfuffle a week or two ago after Orlando, the dems proposed a couple timid bills and the reps a couple still more timid and nothing happened. Now we have the Dallas incident. Nobody seems to be talking much about that guy's weapon, and let me say this about that. If we outlawed
- And here I went to the google machine, what exactly was it? You feel a little odd quoting from some site called Controversial Times, controversial to who? Looked vaguely right wing to me and sure enough they are all about how it wasn't the AR-15, or any of those currently popular firearms, but it is a semi automatic -
semi automatics some hunters might have to aim more carefully before they shoot, and some sharpshooters would suffer the inconvenience of having to leave their rifle at the shooting gallery, and some nervous Nellies, who obviously aren't living right if they have that many enemies, would have to rely on lesser firearms to protect themselves, but those five cops would not be dead.
We haven't mentioned ahem, recent developments. You know how I feel about these incidents, everybody gets all riled up, and then we have some national conversation, or maybe we just call for a national conversation,and don't get around to it, and some politicians try to score some kind of advantage, and then in the end everything kind of simmers down, until the next incident, and then everybody gets fired up and says how many more times. As many times as you got Jack.
You know Blacks and Whites get along a little uneasily her in the USA, but we aren't the Serbs and the Croats. Hopefully we don't become that way.
Gun sales do increase after every incident and every speech by Obama, or really any Democrat, but gun owners in the USA are significantly down over the past thirty years, so it's basically fewer people with more guns.
I remember the rags aline guy, or I think I do, traveling slowly down the alley throughout the screen door summer, his hoarse voice somehow melodious over the tweets of the birdies and laughter of the children, or maybe I just think I do. Same difference I guess. I also remember some guy coming around with a pony and a little cowboy outfit that the kid could don and have his photo taken on the pony, but maybe I just saw that in a movie. Again, same difference. Oh and the knife sharpener guy, he had a bit of a risque reputation as I recall, like the grinning milkman.
The Mom network. I think Monday was washday and Tuesday was ironing, and I forget what the others were because I was a boy and I would never have to worry about that, I would have an uncomplaining little woman to take care of all that for me. My favorite was Monday, washday. Between the bungalows and the garages were backyards divided by short fences so you could see all down the line, and on Mondays every one of those yards was filled with billowing sheets and embarrassing underwear and it all smelled of soap, wonderful, just wonnerful.
Sunday, July 10, 2016
Background Checks
I don't remember ever being inside the Merchandise Mart, but I remember hearing that you could be born and live your whole in there, womb to tomb. Well, maybe there weren't any tombs, but there was at least one undertaker who could take you to one on the outside.
There are two things wrong with those background checks for gun purchasers. One is that gun shows and private sales are exempt, it only covers federally licensed firearm dealers. With all the hand held computers they have nowadays, there is no reason they couldn't make the gun shows do it, but I don't know how they could regulate private sales between individuals. The other thing is that they don't check your mental health records. They ask you on the form you fill out if you are a convicted felon, a drug addict, or a mental patient, but the only thing they check with their computer is your police record. I suppose there are privacy laws, but laws can be changed. You want privacy, don't buy a gun.
I saw on the TV news the other day that firearm sales generally increase right after a mass shooting. I already knew that they increased every time Obama makes a speech about gun control. Come to think of it, he probably makes a speech about gun control right after there is a mass shooting, so maybe they are counting the same increase in firearm sales twice.
I have said before in this forum that I would support some reasonable gun law changes if I could be assured that they would go only so far and no farther. Call me "paranoid", but I still haven't gotten over my concern about creeping socialism, even though international socialism seems to have gone extinct in 1990. Maybe that's another dead horse that we don't need to be flogging anymore.
There are two things wrong with those background checks for gun purchasers. One is that gun shows and private sales are exempt, it only covers federally licensed firearm dealers. With all the hand held computers they have nowadays, there is no reason they couldn't make the gun shows do it, but I don't know how they could regulate private sales between individuals. The other thing is that they don't check your mental health records. They ask you on the form you fill out if you are a convicted felon, a drug addict, or a mental patient, but the only thing they check with their computer is your police record. I suppose there are privacy laws, but laws can be changed. You want privacy, don't buy a gun.
I saw on the TV news the other day that firearm sales generally increase right after a mass shooting. I already knew that they increased every time Obama makes a speech about gun control. Come to think of it, he probably makes a speech about gun control right after there is a mass shooting, so maybe they are counting the same increase in firearm sales twice.
I have said before in this forum that I would support some reasonable gun law changes if I could be assured that they would go only so far and no farther. Call me "paranoid", but I still haven't gotten over my concern about creeping socialism, even though international socialism seems to have gone extinct in 1990. Maybe that's another dead horse that we don't need to be flogging anymore.
Loose thoughts...
These little strolls down memory lane have become distracting and a whole bunch of random thoughts keep bubbling up...Winky Dink! Mary Hartline (Super Circus)! Housecalls by doctors! Mailmen carrying big leather bags! Toy pistols with those red rolls of caps! Lik-M-Ade! Wax lips!
Arggh...time to let it go. Too bad that kids these days will never enjoy the sublime pleasure of going on a date with their sweetie snuggled next to them on a bench seat...no seatbelts, y'know.
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The Merchandise Mart is still there, going strong. Fun place to wander around in, looking at all the showrooms. If you have a business/retail license and a gift of gab you can look at the stuff up close. I've always enjoyed the busts of businessmen on the pedestals that look like giant Pez dispensers.
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While reviewing previous Institute posts, I noticed that one topic (of many) was a "draw", one Yea, one Nay, and that is gun control. Actions of the past week have forced my hand and I have to chime in, but I won't change anyone's mind...I'm still torn.
I personally don't mind anyone having a properly licensed & registered firearm, but just don't shoot me, okay? And make sure it's locked up tight so some curious kid doesn't play with it or some relative of questionable behavior wants to "borrow" it.
If you live in stable area you have no need for any firearm for personal protection. Maybe it will give you peace of mind, but I read that 65% of firearm deaths are suicides, so you gotta wonder if there is any screening for poor impulse control.
I'm not sure if people are getting crazier or if media attention makes it appear that way. It's not news when folks are just getting along and living normal lives. The "normals" aren't outnumbered by the crazies, yet.
-----
It will be interesting to see how the presumptive nominees of both parties will be spinning these issues of public safety. Less than two weeks until the possible chaos in Cleveland; get your popcorn ready.
Is 2016 a make it or break it time for the good ol' U.S. of A? The fact that issues are being confronted and discussed should give me a bit of optimism but I fear that too few are being reasonable.
Arggh...time to let it go. Too bad that kids these days will never enjoy the sublime pleasure of going on a date with their sweetie snuggled next to them on a bench seat...no seatbelts, y'know.
-----
The Merchandise Mart is still there, going strong. Fun place to wander around in, looking at all the showrooms. If you have a business/retail license and a gift of gab you can look at the stuff up close. I've always enjoyed the busts of businessmen on the pedestals that look like giant Pez dispensers.
-----
While reviewing previous Institute posts, I noticed that one topic (of many) was a "draw", one Yea, one Nay, and that is gun control. Actions of the past week have forced my hand and I have to chime in, but I won't change anyone's mind...I'm still torn.
I personally don't mind anyone having a properly licensed & registered firearm, but just don't shoot me, okay? And make sure it's locked up tight so some curious kid doesn't play with it or some relative of questionable behavior wants to "borrow" it.
If you live in stable area you have no need for any firearm for personal protection. Maybe it will give you peace of mind, but I read that 65% of firearm deaths are suicides, so you gotta wonder if there is any screening for poor impulse control.
I'm not sure if people are getting crazier or if media attention makes it appear that way. It's not news when folks are just getting along and living normal lives. The "normals" aren't outnumbered by the crazies, yet.
-----
It will be interesting to see how the presumptive nominees of both parties will be spinning these issues of public safety. Less than two weeks until the possible chaos in Cleveland; get your popcorn ready.
Is 2016 a make it or break it time for the good ol' U.S. of A? The fact that issues are being confronted and discussed should give me a bit of optimism but I fear that too few are being reasonable.
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