https://a.msn.com/r/2/BBQjfcl?m=en-us&referrerID=InAppShare
I just read about the earthquake that hit the Anchorage area today. I was there in 1963, missing the big one they had in 1964 by about nine months. When I was working on the pig farm in nearby Palmer I remember feeling a faint rumble like the ones at my grandmother's house when a train went by, only there were no train tracks anywhere near that pig farm. When I asked the other guys about it, they said that it was probably an earthquake, which was no big deal because they get them all the time around there. The article said that about 300,000 people currently live in Anchorage. It was only 20,000 when I was there, and the population of the whole state was only 200,000. Looks like I got out of there just in time.
Friday, November 30, 2018
enemy of my eneny
I don't remember Fish Police as a tv show. I remember the character Fish on the Barney Miller police show. I don't generally favor animation, but having said that I am a big fan of The Simpsons and South Park, when it isn't featuring that awful Mr Hankey.
Old Dog has gone positively Mayberry with his depiction of the cane pole and the can of red wrigglers, I'll wager he tossed those awful city shoes aside and was trailing his toes in the wake of the little boat with the putt putt motor. Well the putt putt motor is my idea, maybe it was a rowboat. Rowboats are nice. One summer the family rented a cabin somewhere up in Michigan and there was a rowboat and you couldn't keep me out of it. There was fishing too, some suicidal blue gills I think, who you just put on a bit of bologna or it might have been a safety pin and before the bologna got wet you had a fish on the end, sometimes you didn't even need the bologna. Great fun, but then when I saw my grandfather sitting at a table of dead fish cleaning them, I kind of lost interest.
I believe I previously pointed out the downside of the enemy of my enemy is my friend in that once the enemy is beaten down, the enemy of that enemy is stronger so now he becomes my enemy and my former enemy, who is the enemy of my former friend now becomes my friend. It sounds kind of middle eastern to me but wiki tells me that the first mention of it they can find is in Sanskrit around 400 BC.
The first time I remember hearing the phrase was sometime before the Iranian revolution when Iran and Iraq had some border dispute. Naturally there were Kurds in the region and I believe Iraq was arming the Kurds who were in rebellion against Iran, although it could have been the other way around. Proud people those Kurds. This is where I first learned that their army was called the Peshmerga which in Kurdish meant We who are about to die. Tough and proud people those Kurds.. Anyway somewhere along the line Iraq and Iran came to an agreement, and the one side stopped arming the Kurds and the other side swept in and the Peshmerga did indeed become those who were about to die.
They are playing a similar role in the mideast today, being the enemy of whoever's enemy and therefore the friend of whoever and meanwhile piling up real estate, until they become the enemy.
It has been ever so. Before the Crusades the middle east was full of warring states (like the northern Italy of The Prince), making and breaking alliances between each other. Then along came the Crusaders who didn't play by the rules. United under their faith, they presented a united front and wham bam took Palestine and the Holy Land, But after a hundred or so years of reclining on their divans eating dates and reading poetry the culture of the mideast took them over and they started to play by the local rule of the enemy of my enemy and sometimes they fought with Arabs against fellow Christians,and eventually Saladin united the Arabs under their faith and blew the Europeans out of the middle east.
If we consider friends positive and enemies negative, we see that the enemy of my enemy, (-1)X(-1), becomes +1, a friend. Whereas the friend of my friend, (+1)X(+1), becomes +1,a friend, rather than -1, an enemy.
Mike Royko was indeed an asshole, and he drank a lot. Nobody is perfect.
Old Dog has gone positively Mayberry with his depiction of the cane pole and the can of red wrigglers, I'll wager he tossed those awful city shoes aside and was trailing his toes in the wake of the little boat with the putt putt motor. Well the putt putt motor is my idea, maybe it was a rowboat. Rowboats are nice. One summer the family rented a cabin somewhere up in Michigan and there was a rowboat and you couldn't keep me out of it. There was fishing too, some suicidal blue gills I think, who you just put on a bit of bologna or it might have been a safety pin and before the bologna got wet you had a fish on the end, sometimes you didn't even need the bologna. Great fun, but then when I saw my grandfather sitting at a table of dead fish cleaning them, I kind of lost interest.
I believe I previously pointed out the downside of the enemy of my enemy is my friend in that once the enemy is beaten down, the enemy of that enemy is stronger so now he becomes my enemy and my former enemy, who is the enemy of my former friend now becomes my friend. It sounds kind of middle eastern to me but wiki tells me that the first mention of it they can find is in Sanskrit around 400 BC.
The first time I remember hearing the phrase was sometime before the Iranian revolution when Iran and Iraq had some border dispute. Naturally there were Kurds in the region and I believe Iraq was arming the Kurds who were in rebellion against Iran, although it could have been the other way around. Proud people those Kurds. This is where I first learned that their army was called the Peshmerga which in Kurdish meant We who are about to die. Tough and proud people those Kurds.. Anyway somewhere along the line Iraq and Iran came to an agreement, and the one side stopped arming the Kurds and the other side swept in and the Peshmerga did indeed become those who were about to die.
They are playing a similar role in the mideast today, being the enemy of whoever's enemy and therefore the friend of whoever and meanwhile piling up real estate, until they become the enemy.
It has been ever so. Before the Crusades the middle east was full of warring states (like the northern Italy of The Prince), making and breaking alliances between each other. Then along came the Crusaders who didn't play by the rules. United under their faith, they presented a united front and wham bam took Palestine and the Holy Land, But after a hundred or so years of reclining on their divans eating dates and reading poetry the culture of the mideast took them over and they started to play by the local rule of the enemy of my enemy and sometimes they fought with Arabs against fellow Christians,and eventually Saladin united the Arabs under their faith and blew the Europeans out of the middle east.
If we consider friends positive and enemies negative, we see that the enemy of my enemy, (-1)X(-1), becomes +1, a friend. Whereas the friend of my friend, (+1)X(+1), becomes +1,a friend, rather than -1, an enemy.
Mike Royko was indeed an asshole, and he drank a lot. Nobody is perfect.
Thursday, November 29, 2018
"What I Have Written, I Have Written"
Please excuse my silence of the last couple of days. I just can't think of anything to say about our current subjects of discussion that I haven't already said. My esteemed colleagues might be interested, however, in the origin of the out of context Biblical quote that I used for the title of this post.
Pontius Pilate was the Roman official who reluctantly condemned Jesus to death on the cross. He didn't really want to do it, but he was under a lot of pressure from the Sanhedrin, the Jewish puppet governing body whose members felt threatened by the popularity that Jesus had with the people. After unsuccessfully trying to pass the buck to his boss King Herod, Pilate finally issued the order, but he wasn't happy about it. Although popular folklore paints Pilate as a bad guy, some Biblical historians believe that he was just a weak willed politician who was trying to avoid conflict and hang onto his job. Did you ever notice that the artistic renderings of the crucifixion feature a sign above Jesus' head that says "INRI". Those initials stand for "Jesus Christ King of the Jews" in Latin. Pilate ordered that sign to be placed there, which upset some of the Sanhedrin guys who told him that it would have been more appropriate for the sign to have read "This Man Said He Was King of the Jews". To this Pilate sardonically replied, "What I have written, I have written."....Hey, I said that I quoted it out of context!
Pontius Pilate was the Roman official who reluctantly condemned Jesus to death on the cross. He didn't really want to do it, but he was under a lot of pressure from the Sanhedrin, the Jewish puppet governing body whose members felt threatened by the popularity that Jesus had with the people. After unsuccessfully trying to pass the buck to his boss King Herod, Pilate finally issued the order, but he wasn't happy about it. Although popular folklore paints Pilate as a bad guy, some Biblical historians believe that he was just a weak willed politician who was trying to avoid conflict and hang onto his job. Did you ever notice that the artistic renderings of the crucifixion feature a sign above Jesus' head that says "INRI". Those initials stand for "Jesus Christ King of the Jews" in Latin. Pilate ordered that sign to be placed there, which upset some of the Sanhedrin guys who told him that it would have been more appropriate for the sign to have read "This Man Said He Was King of the Jews". To this Pilate sardonically replied, "What I have written, I have written."....Hey, I said that I quoted it out of context!
Friend or foe?
Fish Police isn't a very original idea. Perhaps Uncle Ken has forgotten that it was the title of an animated television series from the early 90s. And not a bad show as I recall, absurd and amusing in it's own way. Some episodes are available on YouTube but I haven't checked them out yet.
I don't think many city folk give much thought to their state's Department of Natural Resources (DNR) which is why I think the efforts to protect the sturgeon is very admirable. Wildlife conservation would be impossible without the efforts of the hunters and fishermen but many urbanites don't (or can't) understand that. I've never gone hunting but I went fishing quite a bit during the annual Wisconsin forays. Nothing fancy, just a cane pole off the side of a little boat on small lakes with red wrigglers as the bait of choice. That was the first thing we did when we went fishing, dig up some worms, and baiting the hook was quite an art as I recall. There was one time we went thrashing through the woods to a little stream for some trout. I was just a little kid, maybe ten, and it was very grueling, hiking what seemed like miles through overgrown fields to reach the stream. I didn't catch anything but I was short on patience and spent most of the time wandering around, slipping on mossy rocks. That was the deepest and darkest woods I've ever been in and kind of spooky now that I think about it.
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The enemy of my enemy is my friend.
That phrase has been used in this forum and I'm seeing it often in other media but it's making less and less sense to me. There is a big difference between a friend and a temporary ally and the logic of the statement eludes me. Is the friend of your enemy also your enemy? I think we all have had friends who were also friends of people we couldn't tolerate but we didn't hold that against them. And suppose you switch the terms around, making it "the friend of my friend is my enemy." That doesn't make a lick of sense no matter how you look at it and I expect to be chided for my flawed reasoning. Have at it, guys.
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Royko was bound by contract to produce five columns a week, and if he had his druthers I'm sure those clunkers would have been spiked, never seeing the light of day. And before Uncle Ken sprains his shoulder in patting himself on the back in comparison to Mike Royko he should remember that, by many accounts, Royko was full of himself and an insufferable asshole. Played a good softball game, though.
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I mentioned Big Corn recently and found another interesting data point. Two companies have 78% of the corn seed market and I was surprised at what they are: DowDupont and Bayer, two companies not known for their agricultural products. And Nestle is the Big Dog (Pussy?) when it comes to dry cat food. Candy bars and cat food represent a broad portfolio; I thought that last Crunch Bar I had tasted funny. What a world we live in.
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I don't know if Uncle Ken's felines watch any TV but I found something he might like to try, a calming video for cats. It could be useful when he's out of the apartment for an extended period of time but I would exercise caution. Instead of calming them down it may frustrate them and they'll end up tearing his place apart.
I don't think many city folk give much thought to their state's Department of Natural Resources (DNR) which is why I think the efforts to protect the sturgeon is very admirable. Wildlife conservation would be impossible without the efforts of the hunters and fishermen but many urbanites don't (or can't) understand that. I've never gone hunting but I went fishing quite a bit during the annual Wisconsin forays. Nothing fancy, just a cane pole off the side of a little boat on small lakes with red wrigglers as the bait of choice. That was the first thing we did when we went fishing, dig up some worms, and baiting the hook was quite an art as I recall. There was one time we went thrashing through the woods to a little stream for some trout. I was just a little kid, maybe ten, and it was very grueling, hiking what seemed like miles through overgrown fields to reach the stream. I didn't catch anything but I was short on patience and spent most of the time wandering around, slipping on mossy rocks. That was the deepest and darkest woods I've ever been in and kind of spooky now that I think about it.
-----
The enemy of my enemy is my friend.
That phrase has been used in this forum and I'm seeing it often in other media but it's making less and less sense to me. There is a big difference between a friend and a temporary ally and the logic of the statement eludes me. Is the friend of your enemy also your enemy? I think we all have had friends who were also friends of people we couldn't tolerate but we didn't hold that against them. And suppose you switch the terms around, making it "the friend of my friend is my enemy." That doesn't make a lick of sense no matter how you look at it and I expect to be chided for my flawed reasoning. Have at it, guys.
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Royko was bound by contract to produce five columns a week, and if he had his druthers I'm sure those clunkers would have been spiked, never seeing the light of day. And before Uncle Ken sprains his shoulder in patting himself on the back in comparison to Mike Royko he should remember that, by many accounts, Royko was full of himself and an insufferable asshole. Played a good softball game, though.
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I mentioned Big Corn recently and found another interesting data point. Two companies have 78% of the corn seed market and I was surprised at what they are: DowDupont and Bayer, two companies not known for their agricultural products. And Nestle is the Big Dog (Pussy?) when it comes to dry cat food. Candy bars and cat food represent a broad portfolio; I thought that last Crunch Bar I had tasted funny. What a world we live in.
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I don't know if Uncle Ken's felines watch any TV but I found something he might like to try, a calming video for cats. It could be useful when he's out of the apartment for an extended period of time but I would exercise caution. Instead of calming them down it may frustrate them and they'll end up tearing his place apart.
self critique
Well shit, cold snowy morning, no paper at my door yet and no posts to work from, just me walking the lonely halls of the Institute, my cries of "Oh my Goid am I here all alone," echoing uselessly off the stones of the wall. Nothing to critique but myself.
That first paragraph for example doesn't really hold together. It's supposed to be sort of an oblique comment on D and D at the border only with me playing the part of D and D to help those big Herdez semis cross the border. I did manage to throw in a couple Marty Robbins songs (Streets of Laredo and Big Iron), so what the paragraph lacks in logical order it makes up for in literary allusions so I'll let it stand.
That teargas thing, I had seen some of the photos and skimmed some of the headlines, but I hadn't looked into it any deeper. There was some outrage about it I knew, but these things with the dramatic photos are often overplayed, and I believe in keeping your powder dry for bigger issues, like separating kids from their parents and not keeping track of either so they can be joined later. I was going to phrase that something like I don't like getting my powder wet over small stuff, but when you pull the trigger it's not like your powder gets wet so what is up with that?
Well it appears that the phrase, wrongly attributed to Cromwell, was used to mean more to be prepared, than to choose your battles wisely. I think anymore it has come to be used in the latter sense also, but perhaps I am wrong about that.
I have mentioned that thing about those Champaign Thanksgivings previously and perhaps I was repeating it too often, but I have a warm spot for those days and it was a way to lead into that universal Black Friday thing, Interesting how we Americans strip holidays of any original meaning to capitalize on the capitalism of them and then they become palatable for the rest of the world.
The D and D article did not go very deeply into D and D and whether or not they were lone cowboys or part of some larger group, and they didn't get any explanation for what they thought they were doing beyond a few phrases, so who really knows what they are up to. Beagles sees them as latter day yeomen taking up arms for their country, and I see them as guys who like to play with their guns. I guess this one of those dead horses that Old Dog complains about me beating, but I believe it was well phrased (especially with that reference to the fish police) and I'll let it stand.
In summing up, I'd give myself three stars. A little sloppy, but with some interesting points and some nice phrases and references. I complained to someone years ago that Royko, while generally very good, wrote some clunkers, and the reply was that he had to put out product five days a week. Do
I have the nerve to compare myself to the late great Mike? Well mebbe, mebbe I do.
That first paragraph for example doesn't really hold together. It's supposed to be sort of an oblique comment on D and D at the border only with me playing the part of D and D to help those big Herdez semis cross the border. I did manage to throw in a couple Marty Robbins songs (Streets of Laredo and Big Iron), so what the paragraph lacks in logical order it makes up for in literary allusions so I'll let it stand.
That teargas thing, I had seen some of the photos and skimmed some of the headlines, but I hadn't looked into it any deeper. There was some outrage about it I knew, but these things with the dramatic photos are often overplayed, and I believe in keeping your powder dry for bigger issues, like separating kids from their parents and not keeping track of either so they can be joined later. I was going to phrase that something like I don't like getting my powder wet over small stuff, but when you pull the trigger it's not like your powder gets wet so what is up with that?
Well it appears that the phrase, wrongly attributed to Cromwell, was used to mean more to be prepared, than to choose your battles wisely. I think anymore it has come to be used in the latter sense also, but perhaps I am wrong about that.
I have mentioned that thing about those Champaign Thanksgivings previously and perhaps I was repeating it too often, but I have a warm spot for those days and it was a way to lead into that universal Black Friday thing, Interesting how we Americans strip holidays of any original meaning to capitalize on the capitalism of them and then they become palatable for the rest of the world.
The D and D article did not go very deeply into D and D and whether or not they were lone cowboys or part of some larger group, and they didn't get any explanation for what they thought they were doing beyond a few phrases, so who really knows what they are up to. Beagles sees them as latter day yeomen taking up arms for their country, and I see them as guys who like to play with their guns. I guess this one of those dead horses that Old Dog complains about me beating, but I believe it was well phrased (especially with that reference to the fish police) and I'll let it stand.
In summing up, I'd give myself three stars. A little sloppy, but with some interesting points and some nice phrases and references. I complained to someone years ago that Royko, while generally very good, wrote some clunkers, and the reply was that he had to put out product five days a week. Do
I have the nerve to compare myself to the late great Mike? Well mebbe, mebbe I do.
Wednesday, November 28, 2018
black Friday around the world
I reckon the Jewel in Old Dog's deep north neighborhood is far enough from me that I won't be cleaning out its shelves in my hoarding junket in preparation for the border wars. By gum mebbe I oughta go down to Indiana and buy one of them cheap shooting irons and head down to the border to see if there are any big Herdez semi trucks idling south of the streets of Laredo and see what kind of persuading I can do with that big iron on my hip to get that truck through. Yep, that's probably what I ought to do.
I didn't read real close on the tear gas on the border thing. It seems maybe the issue is shooting our tear gas across the border into another country. Just in the face of it, seems kind of rude. Would we like the Canadians to build pancake houses on the border and send the smell of maple syrup wafting across the border. Hum, well yes, I suppose we would, unless it was that syrup that made you shit on the spot.
This Friendsgiving sounds like those Champaign Thanksgivings of my yore with the cheap food in the ratty apartment and lots of beer. I think it's more a thing of youth when you are a little estranged from your family and the allure of your cool new friends, so much cooler than your stodgy old family, is so strong that you would rather be with them than nagging mom and pop. But t seems as years go by your friends begin to seem not all that good, and you family not all that bad.
At my Thanksgiving this year my nephew asked his girlfriend, who is a Filipina, if they had Thanksgiving in her country. That was kind of a stupid question, but I learned later that the rest of the world, has adopted Black Friday. Well why not they have adopted Christmas, the Santa Christmas, not the Baby Jesus Christmas, which I think makes perfect sense because it is even more blatantly about stuff than the 25th.
Beagles and I read the same article, but obviously we have different slants on the issue. I like this fish patrol guys just fine, but I don't think they have much in common with the Cowboys and Mexican guys. "Gentlemen, let's go down to the river and monitor the situation with the sturgeon and if there is something nefarious going on we shall alert the proper authorities." sounds pretty reasonable and if I was a bleeding heart sturgeon guy and had some time on my hands, I might be of a mind to join them,.
But if I hear somebody saying, "Hey guys let's grab our guns and go down to the border and keep them Mexicans out, and if we happen to run into some drug smugglers or whatever we'll let Old Betsy do our talking for us, what could go wrong?" I think I would discover that my calendar was all booked up.
I didn't read real close on the tear gas on the border thing. It seems maybe the issue is shooting our tear gas across the border into another country. Just in the face of it, seems kind of rude. Would we like the Canadians to build pancake houses on the border and send the smell of maple syrup wafting across the border. Hum, well yes, I suppose we would, unless it was that syrup that made you shit on the spot.
This Friendsgiving sounds like those Champaign Thanksgivings of my yore with the cheap food in the ratty apartment and lots of beer. I think it's more a thing of youth when you are a little estranged from your family and the allure of your cool new friends, so much cooler than your stodgy old family, is so strong that you would rather be with them than nagging mom and pop. But t seems as years go by your friends begin to seem not all that good, and you family not all that bad.
At my Thanksgiving this year my nephew asked his girlfriend, who is a Filipina, if they had Thanksgiving in her country. That was kind of a stupid question, but I learned later that the rest of the world, has adopted Black Friday. Well why not they have adopted Christmas, the Santa Christmas, not the Baby Jesus Christmas, which I think makes perfect sense because it is even more blatantly about stuff than the 25th.
Beagles and I read the same article, but obviously we have different slants on the issue. I like this fish patrol guys just fine, but I don't think they have much in common with the Cowboys and Mexican guys. "Gentlemen, let's go down to the river and monitor the situation with the sturgeon and if there is something nefarious going on we shall alert the proper authorities." sounds pretty reasonable and if I was a bleeding heart sturgeon guy and had some time on my hands, I might be of a mind to join them,.
But if I hear somebody saying, "Hey guys let's grab our guns and go down to the border and keep them Mexicans out, and if we happen to run into some drug smugglers or whatever we'll let Old Betsy do our talking for us, what could go wrong?" I think I would discover that my calendar was all booked up.
Tuesday, November 27, 2018
A Different Article
Apparently the article that Uncle Ken read in his local paper is not the same article that I found on my news app. The guys I read about didn't seem to be particularly dumb or fanatical. One of them said that he armed himself after being shot at a few times. Don't forget that there are drug smugglers out there as well as poor migrants seeking a better life for themselves and their families. My article reported that the Border Patrol agents had mixed feelings about the militias. They appreciate the help, but are a little worried that the weekend warriors might get carried away and get somebody hurt, which hasn't happened yet. You may remember I reported that a previous article, to which I didn't provide a link, said that the militias had agreed to stay out of the way when the Caravan hit the border, but that they would be ready to back up the Border Patrol if needed. I think these militias are local groups that are not affiliated with any umbrella organization, but I don't know that for a fact. I don't think it would be better for everyone if they stayed home. It would be better for the illegals, but not necessarily better for the rest of us.
I don't think that our local fish patrols are armed, at least not officially. Some of them might have concealed carry permits, but it's not a requirement of the job. They have the full support of the DNR. It started some years ago when the DNR reported that they were considering closing the season because the sturgeon population had gotten too low. Some local fishermen got together and asked what they could do to help. At one of the meetings, the DNR admitted that closing the season would have a limited effect because more sturgeon were being taken illegally than legally. I don't know whose idea it was to recruit a volunteer fish patrol, but the proposal was adopted, and the organization "Sturgeon for Tomorrow" was formed. I think they also help with tagging and egg collecting.
About that "chicks up front" thing, remember that you heard it first from Talks With Beagles.
I don't think that our local fish patrols are armed, at least not officially. Some of them might have concealed carry permits, but it's not a requirement of the job. They have the full support of the DNR. It started some years ago when the DNR reported that they were considering closing the season because the sturgeon population had gotten too low. Some local fishermen got together and asked what they could do to help. At one of the meetings, the DNR admitted that closing the season would have a limited effect because more sturgeon were being taken illegally than legally. I don't know whose idea it was to recruit a volunteer fish patrol, but the proposal was adopted, and the organization "Sturgeon for Tomorrow" was formed. I think they also help with tagging and egg collecting.
About that "chicks up front" thing, remember that you heard it first from Talks With Beagles.
Not much gas in gasoline
The next time I need salsa I'll have to try that brand that Uncle Ken mentioned. Usually I go for some hot sauce and not salsa; to me, salsa is more of an item used as a dip with tortilla chips, something used in combination with guacamole. Ketchup is supposed to be a little sweet, I think, but maybe that's the way it's always been in order to appeal to the American palate. I don't stock ketchup in my larder and it's been a long time since I've used any. There doesn't seem to be any tomato taste in ketchup any more but it could be my taste buds are losing their mojo. Is it just me or does it seem like a lot of food items are tasting sweeter? There seems to be a lot of added sugar in everything these days, whether it's the corn stuff or the cane stuff. As an example it's almost impossible to find a reasonably priced peanut butter without any sugar added. Mr. Beagles mentioned that when ingredients are removed the price goes up, like when they took the lead out of gasoline, but that may be a different case. Removing the lead lowers the octane rating of gasoline so they probably had to add something else to keep the engine from knocking. High octane leaded gasoline was great until we found out how toxic it is; the manufacturers knew but the general public didn't. They kept that secret a long time.
Can the stuff you buy at the local Shell station even be called gasoline any more? Some of it is only 15% gasoline (E85), the rest of it is ethanol. I'm not sure if you can even buy alcohol-free gasoline any more, but I haven't kept up with the fuel situation since I got rid of my bike. Modern vehicles with their computerized fuel systems don't have a problem with alcohol in the fuel but older vehicles with carburetors had all kinds of problems with the alcohol dissolving certain engine parts, or so I've heard.
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What's the big deal about the use of tear gas at the border? It was done a few times during the Obama administration from what I've read and it wasn't a big deal then. Tear gas is a great way to get an unruly crowd to back off and there's nothing better to clear out your sinuses. My only exposure to tear gas was in the army, not an experience I wish to repeat. Rumor had it they had other types of gas available, including one that would make you defecate on the spot. I would hate to see a cloud of that stuff blowing my way. Maybe when they were testing those different gases they came up with phrase "either shit or go blind."
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The delayed Thanksgiving meal at my sister's place was nice, but not very traditional. No turkey or mashed potatoes, there was curry honey chicken and couscous instead; very tasty. The young folk (Millennials?) have come up with a new holiday, Friendsgiving. Same kind of meal as Thanksgiving but with friends and no family, held the Saturday after the Thursday meal. Seems like a good idea to me; you don't have to choose between spending the holiday with your family or your friends, you can do both. The kids are alright.
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It's hard for to determine whether or not General Motors is in any real financial trouble with the plant closings. Demand for regular cars is way down and they are stopping production of six models. Trucks and SUVs are selling great, though. Some automotive pundits are speculating that the plant closings are only temporary and are a ploy to put GM in a better position when it comes time to renegotiate union contracts next year. Time will tell what's going to happen next; Trump is in a real tizzy about this but he'll never admit that his tariff policies have anything to do with GM's problems. During the Eisenhower administration some guy said, "What is good for the country is good for General Motors—and vice versa," but Trump has turned that idea on it's head. What a world we live in.
Can the stuff you buy at the local Shell station even be called gasoline any more? Some of it is only 15% gasoline (E85), the rest of it is ethanol. I'm not sure if you can even buy alcohol-free gasoline any more, but I haven't kept up with the fuel situation since I got rid of my bike. Modern vehicles with their computerized fuel systems don't have a problem with alcohol in the fuel but older vehicles with carburetors had all kinds of problems with the alcohol dissolving certain engine parts, or so I've heard.
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What's the big deal about the use of tear gas at the border? It was done a few times during the Obama administration from what I've read and it wasn't a big deal then. Tear gas is a great way to get an unruly crowd to back off and there's nothing better to clear out your sinuses. My only exposure to tear gas was in the army, not an experience I wish to repeat. Rumor had it they had other types of gas available, including one that would make you defecate on the spot. I would hate to see a cloud of that stuff blowing my way. Maybe when they were testing those different gases they came up with phrase "either shit or go blind."
-----
The delayed Thanksgiving meal at my sister's place was nice, but not very traditional. No turkey or mashed potatoes, there was curry honey chicken and couscous instead; very tasty. The young folk (Millennials?) have come up with a new holiday, Friendsgiving. Same kind of meal as Thanksgiving but with friends and no family, held the Saturday after the Thursday meal. Seems like a good idea to me; you don't have to choose between spending the holiday with your family or your friends, you can do both. The kids are alright.
-----
It's hard for to determine whether or not General Motors is in any real financial trouble with the plant closings. Demand for regular cars is way down and they are stopping production of six models. Trucks and SUVs are selling great, though. Some automotive pundits are speculating that the plant closings are only temporary and are a ploy to put GM in a better position when it comes time to renegotiate union contracts next year. Time will tell what's going to happen next; Trump is in a real tizzy about this but he'll never admit that his tariff policies have anything to do with GM's problems. During the Eisenhower administration some guy said, "What is good for the country is good for General Motors—and vice versa," but Trump has turned that idea on it's head. What a world we live in.
I want my Herdez
The article I had trouble accessing, though I later found it in the Sunday edition of the Trib was the one about Dumb and Dumber toting firearms at the border. Their colorful nicknames and the way they made up names for geographic locations and that they seemed ahem, not very well read, made me think of them as adolescent cowboys,
The article was kind of short and didn't give much information about the situation. Were they part of some bigger movement or just a couple guys with nothing better to do on the weekend? I noticed that the border patrol would rather those guys stayed at home.
I wonder if that fish patrol is also armed, for you know, their protection. Well isn't it the aim of the gun nuts that we all be armed for our protection whether we are going to the bar or to school or to the church of our choice? They only time being armed for my protection may have helped me out was that time I got mugged, but even then I have to think that if the muggers had also been armed for their protection, it may have come out much worse than me losing my wallet.
If there is a possibility that those guys would need to use their firearms at the border, wouldn't everybody be better off if they stayed at home?
I did hear something on the chicks in front front yesterday afternoon. I was just dropping off for my nap when some Trump guy was being interviewed on CNN, (yes I have it on all the time. I'm sick) and he didn't use the exact words chicks up front, but he did allude to the carvaners employing the tactic. Unfortunately the interviewer did not ask him how he knew that and I did not catch his name.
Okay I went to the google machine to see if I could find this guy and apparently a lot of Foxies and Breitbarts are saying it, but none of them are saying where exactly they heard it, and as far as I know with all the cameras down there, there is no photographic proof.
And now Trump, who claims they did not use tear gas at the border, wants to close the whole damn border. I expect I better get out to the Jewel and buy all the Herdez on the shelves.
The article was kind of short and didn't give much information about the situation. Were they part of some bigger movement or just a couple guys with nothing better to do on the weekend? I noticed that the border patrol would rather those guys stayed at home.
I wonder if that fish patrol is also armed, for you know, their protection. Well isn't it the aim of the gun nuts that we all be armed for our protection whether we are going to the bar or to school or to the church of our choice? They only time being armed for my protection may have helped me out was that time I got mugged, but even then I have to think that if the muggers had also been armed for their protection, it may have come out much worse than me losing my wallet.
If there is a possibility that those guys would need to use their firearms at the border, wouldn't everybody be better off if they stayed at home?
I did hear something on the chicks in front front yesterday afternoon. I was just dropping off for my nap when some Trump guy was being interviewed on CNN, (yes I have it on all the time. I'm sick) and he didn't use the exact words chicks up front, but he did allude to the carvaners employing the tactic. Unfortunately the interviewer did not ask him how he knew that and I did not catch his name.
Okay I went to the google machine to see if I could find this guy and apparently a lot of Foxies and Breitbarts are saying it, but none of them are saying where exactly they heard it, and as far as I know with all the cameras down there, there is no photographic proof.
And now Trump, who claims they did not use tear gas at the border, wants to close the whole damn border. I expect I better get out to the Jewel and buy all the Herdez on the shelves.
Monday, November 26, 2018
And So it Begins
Sorry that Uncle Ken had trouble accessing my link. Maybe he will have better luck with this one, although he may have already seen the story on TV since it came from CNN.
https://a.msn.com/r/2/BBQ7Q2J?m=en-us&referrerID=InAppShare
To make a long story short, some caravan people made a rush at the border and Border Control agents used tear gas to disperse them. Some have accused them of using excessive force, but I think they used the minimum force necessary to accomplish their mission, which is consistent with what I learned in my military riot control training. I doubt that this will be the end of matter, though. As the caravan people keep piling up at the border, they will likely become more aggressive, and our guys will have to escalate accordingly. Like I said in the beginning, this is not going to be pretty.
The article about the citizen militias did not paint them as adolescent cowboys. The are armed for their own protection but, so far, all they have done is spot the illegals and report them to the Border Patrol. We actually have something like that in our neck of the woods, except they are guarding spawning sturgeon against poachers. We have a small population of lake sturgeon in one of our inland lakes, and they run up the Black River to spawn in the spring. The river is quite shallow, which makes the fish vulnerable to illegal spearing. There is a short season in February when a limited number of sturgeon may be speared through the lake ice, and the only reason that is still open is that volunteers patrol the Black River during the spawning run. They are not supposed to confront any poachers they see, just use their cell phones to call in the DNR agents to make the bust. This program has been going on for some time, and I have never heard anything bad about it.
https://a.msn.com/r/2/BBQ7Q2J?m=en-us&referrerID=InAppShare
To make a long story short, some caravan people made a rush at the border and Border Control agents used tear gas to disperse them. Some have accused them of using excessive force, but I think they used the minimum force necessary to accomplish their mission, which is consistent with what I learned in my military riot control training. I doubt that this will be the end of matter, though. As the caravan people keep piling up at the border, they will likely become more aggressive, and our guys will have to escalate accordingly. Like I said in the beginning, this is not going to be pretty.
The article about the citizen militias did not paint them as adolescent cowboys. The are armed for their own protection but, so far, all they have done is spot the illegals and report them to the Border Patrol. We actually have something like that in our neck of the woods, except they are guarding spawning sturgeon against poachers. We have a small population of lake sturgeon in one of our inland lakes, and they run up the Black River to spawn in the spring. The river is quite shallow, which makes the fish vulnerable to illegal spearing. There is a short season in February when a limited number of sturgeon may be speared through the lake ice, and the only reason that is still open is that volunteers patrol the Black River during the spawning run. They are not supposed to confront any poachers they see, just use their cell phones to call in the DNR agents to make the bust. This program has been going on for some time, and I have never heard anything bad about it.
Herdez Salsa Casera
I tried to read Beagles's article, but at some point I had to get an account or login to something to get it so I stopped there. But then Saturday afternoon, opening up my Trib in Al's Italian beef, there it was. Seemed like a few good old boys playing Cowboys and Mexicans. Probably more a danger to the border guard and to themselves than to any actual Mexicans. I was thinking I was glad that they were at the Texas border and not here because I'd hate to be around a bunch of guys with the minds of fourteen year olds with guns, but then I realized I am around a bunch of guys like that, and actual fourteen year olds to boot.
I'll buy the story about cranky does kicking henpecked males out of the bosky dell. I just didn't think they'd do it out of their good hearts.
I guess living in corn country for so many years i was maybe more aware of the generality of corn syrup in our foods. But the title kind of interested me. Is ketchup any good in Mexico? How could that awful concoction be good anywhere? I don't know how substituting cane sugar for corn syrup could make it much better, the worst thing about ketchup is its sweetness.. Actually I doubt that Mexicans eat much ketchup inasmuch as they have salsa. Allow me to put in a plug for my favorite salsa, Herdez Salsa Casera, readily available in Jewel stores across Chicagoland, though I don't know if it travels to that other border with maple rather than corn syrup as a sweetener. And whereas most of those salsas are made in like New Jersey Herdez is proudly hecho en Mexico. Geez I hope it doesn't fall victim to the trade wars.
I don't think slavery is why the pc folk don't like cane sugar, after all I don't think they hate cotton. Actually there is a far more potent force than pc and that is the Food Police which has put corn syrup on the shit list, because, well i am not sure, they are even more overbearing and sanctimonious than the pc folk, so I don't linger long on their explanations for anything.
Ethanol seemed like it would be a good idea but it turns out that it costs more energy to extract than oil out of the ground so is a net loss, but the farmers love it and that big primary takes place in Iowa so it remains, Whatever happened to switchgrass? .
I'll buy the story about cranky does kicking henpecked males out of the bosky dell. I just didn't think they'd do it out of their good hearts.
I guess living in corn country for so many years i was maybe more aware of the generality of corn syrup in our foods. But the title kind of interested me. Is ketchup any good in Mexico? How could that awful concoction be good anywhere? I don't know how substituting cane sugar for corn syrup could make it much better, the worst thing about ketchup is its sweetness.. Actually I doubt that Mexicans eat much ketchup inasmuch as they have salsa. Allow me to put in a plug for my favorite salsa, Herdez Salsa Casera, readily available in Jewel stores across Chicagoland, though I don't know if it travels to that other border with maple rather than corn syrup as a sweetener. And whereas most of those salsas are made in like New Jersey Herdez is proudly hecho en Mexico. Geez I hope it doesn't fall victim to the trade wars.
I don't think slavery is why the pc folk don't like cane sugar, after all I don't think they hate cotton. Actually there is a far more potent force than pc and that is the Food Police which has put corn syrup on the shit list, because, well i am not sure, they are even more overbearing and sanctimonious than the pc folk, so I don't linger long on their explanations for anything.
Ethanol seemed like it would be a good idea but it turns out that it costs more energy to extract than oil out of the ground so is a net loss, but the farmers love it and that big primary takes place in Iowa so it remains, Whatever happened to switchgrass? .
Sunday, November 25, 2018
Sugar is Sugar
Old Dog's link sounds a little paranoid but, like most stories, there is probably some truth in it. People have been arguing about sugar for as long as I can remember. By some accounts, sucrose (cane sugar) is supposed to be bad for you, but fructose (fruit sugar) is supposed to be okay, unless it's high fructose corn syrup. I looked it up once, and the only discernable difference between regular corn syrup and high fructose corn syrup is that high fructose corn syrup in more concentrated so they can use less of it, which saves them money. Nevertheless, high fructose corn syrup seems to have replaced cane sugar on the PC crowd's shit list. Cane sugar used to be raised by slave labor, and it might still be in some parts of the world, which is one of the reasons it used to be considered politically incorrect, but I'm not sure why they're currently down on high fructose corn syrup. Then there's beet sugar, which is made from sugar beets. I have never heard anything bad about it and, as far as I know, it's chemically indistinguishable from cane sugar.
Ethanol was allegedly put into gasoline to lessen our dependence on foreign oil, this at a time when half the oil produced in the United States was being exported. Last I heard, the development of fracking technology was supposed to have practically eliminated our dependence on foreign oil, but they're still putting ethanol in our gas. I don't think it's harmful to modern cars and trucks, but it's supposed to be bad for anything that has a carburetor instead of fuel injectors, which includes small engines like lawn mowers and chain saws. Two stations in Cheboygan sell ethanol free gas, at a higher price. It's like when they first put lead in the gas and raised the price, and then raised the price again when they took the lead out. Unbleached flour is like that too, more expensive than bleached flour. How can they justify charging more for not putting an additive into something?
Our whitetail deer generally shed their antlers in late December or early January. Our regular firearms deer season is November 15-30, which is timed to coincide with the peak of the rut (breeding season). Archery season runs from October 1 to December 31, so some of the late archers might run across an antlerless buck. Legal antler requirements vary from one Michigan county to the next. Separate licenses are also sold for antlerless deer. Each county has a different antlerless permit quota, based on how crowded the deer are perceived to be, and successful applicants are chosen by a random drawing. In Cheboygan County I am allowed two bucks, but one must have four or more antler points on one side. I was drawn for an antlerless permit this year as well, which doesn't always happen. I understand that deer are overpopulated in some parts of the state, but not here.
Ethanol was allegedly put into gasoline to lessen our dependence on foreign oil, this at a time when half the oil produced in the United States was being exported. Last I heard, the development of fracking technology was supposed to have practically eliminated our dependence on foreign oil, but they're still putting ethanol in our gas. I don't think it's harmful to modern cars and trucks, but it's supposed to be bad for anything that has a carburetor instead of fuel injectors, which includes small engines like lawn mowers and chain saws. Two stations in Cheboygan sell ethanol free gas, at a higher price. It's like when they first put lead in the gas and raised the price, and then raised the price again when they took the lead out. Unbleached flour is like that too, more expensive than bleached flour. How can they justify charging more for not putting an additive into something?
Our whitetail deer generally shed their antlers in late December or early January. Our regular firearms deer season is November 15-30, which is timed to coincide with the peak of the rut (breeding season). Archery season runs from October 1 to December 31, so some of the late archers might run across an antlerless buck. Legal antler requirements vary from one Michigan county to the next. Separate licenses are also sold for antlerless deer. Each county has a different antlerless permit quota, based on how crowded the deer are perceived to be, and successful applicants are chosen by a random drawing. In Cheboygan County I am allowed two bucks, but one must have four or more antler points on one side. I was drawn for an antlerless permit this year as well, which doesn't always happen. I understand that deer are overpopulated in some parts of the state, but not here.
Trying to ketchup
The wildlife commentary from Mr. Beagles is quite enjoyable and I'm always going down a rabbit hole to follow up on some of the topics. Antlers, for instance. I sort of knew the difference between antlers and horns but not to the level of detail that was provided in the recent postings. Only males of the Cervidae family (deer, elk, moose) have antlers except for caribou (elk, reindeer), where both sexes have them. The males shed their antlers in the fall after the rut and the females shed theirs in the spring. Females keep their antlers during their winter pregnancy; it helps them with the foraging for food. So, all of Santa's reindeer pulling that sleigh through the snowy skies are female. If they were male they would be antler-free which makes me wonder how Rudolph was able to keep her secret. If those reindeer want to identify as male it's fine by me but it could be a touchy subject to discuss around the Christmas tree with little ones present.
So, Mr. Beagles, have the deer already shed their antlers by the time hunting season rolls around? If they have, it must be difficult to distinguish between bucks and does at a distance. I think some states have different limits depending on gender but I don't know how that breaks down.
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Thanks for the condolences, guys. Not much you can say about funerals; I think they're all pretty much the same but I was wondering about one facet of the tradition. It seems that after every funeral there is a big meal, a final get-together for family and friends, and I'm curious how that started. I think it's a fine tradition, an affirmation that life goes on, we still gotta eat, and few places fit the bill better than a Wisconsin supper club.
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Just when I thought the topic of "peter out" petered out, I found a reference to peter that predates the previously noted citations and it has nothing to do with mining, gunpowder, or similarities to French farts. There is a book from 1754, The Scoundrels (sic) Dictionary, that deals with pickpockets, thieves, scalawags in general, and peter is used as noun dealing with theft. There must be a missing link connecting the two different meanings, to say nothing of the usage of peter as a description of male genitalia. Peter out can have many meanings, if you catch my drift.
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I don't want to badmouth Uncle Ken's watercolors but something I read recently makes me wonder if he has fallen under the sway of Big Corn. I didn't realize how pervasive that foodstuff is, not only in the foods we eat. I thought it was an interesting read and makes me want to try some Mexican ketchup.
So, Mr. Beagles, have the deer already shed their antlers by the time hunting season rolls around? If they have, it must be difficult to distinguish between bucks and does at a distance. I think some states have different limits depending on gender but I don't know how that breaks down.
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Thanks for the condolences, guys. Not much you can say about funerals; I think they're all pretty much the same but I was wondering about one facet of the tradition. It seems that after every funeral there is a big meal, a final get-together for family and friends, and I'm curious how that started. I think it's a fine tradition, an affirmation that life goes on, we still gotta eat, and few places fit the bill better than a Wisconsin supper club.
-----
Just when I thought the topic of "peter out" petered out, I found a reference to peter that predates the previously noted citations and it has nothing to do with mining, gunpowder, or similarities to French farts. There is a book from 1754, The Scoundrels (sic) Dictionary, that deals with pickpockets, thieves, scalawags in general, and peter is used as noun dealing with theft. There must be a missing link connecting the two different meanings, to say nothing of the usage of peter as a description of male genitalia. Peter out can have many meanings, if you catch my drift.
-----
I don't want to badmouth Uncle Ken's watercolors but something I read recently makes me wonder if he has fallen under the sway of Big Corn. I didn't realize how pervasive that foodstuff is, not only in the foods we eat. I thought it was an interesting read and makes me want to try some Mexican ketchup.
Friday, November 23, 2018
Boys Just Want to Have Fun
Boy deer and girl deer don't want anything to do with each other except during the fall breeding season. The rest of the year, the boys hang out with other boys and don't display nearly as much aggression as they do in the fall because, well, they're not horny. Their antlers fall off in the early winter and new ones grow back during the summer. During this time, it is said that the bucks are "in velvet". That's because the growing antlers are covered with a velvety looking membrane that has blood vessels in it and is quite fragile. This velvet dries up and falls off in early autumn and the antlers harden into bone. Then the bucks start to get antsy, sparing with each other, shredding the bark of trees, and rooting up patches in the ground. These "buck rubs" and "scrapes" may impress other bucks and deer hunters, but the does aren't remotely interested yet. As the season progresses, though, a doe may visit a scrape and piss on it, which is the closest thing deer have to sending love letters. Each doe will only be in heat (estrus) for a few days and, after that, it's "Good bye Charley!" All the does don't come into heat at once, and each one is quickly abandoned afterwards as her boyfriend goes searching for a new love interest.
The fawns are born about six months later and, as their due date draws near, the does become territorial, driving all other deer away, including any children from previous marriages that might still be hanging around. When her new baby is about a month old, Mamma mellows out a bit and will begin to allow her other kids to rejoin the entourage. By this time, the boy children may have drifted away and decided to hang out with other guys, who are relatively docile this time of year because, like I said, they're not horney. Since they take no part in child rearing, the bucks don't need as much quality food as the does, so they are not interested in fighting with some cranky mother over grazing rights.
Here's a new article about those citizen militias I was telling you about the other day:
https://a.msn.com/r/2/BBQ1IPk?m=en-us&referrerID=InAppShare
11/24/18 This just in: https://a.msn.com/r/2/BBQ2WME?m=en-us&referrerID=InAppShare
This sounds somewhat like a proposal I made awhile back. I am surprised that Mexico is agreeing to it, but then it's not a done deal yet.
The fawns are born about six months later and, as their due date draws near, the does become territorial, driving all other deer away, including any children from previous marriages that might still be hanging around. When her new baby is about a month old, Mamma mellows out a bit and will begin to allow her other kids to rejoin the entourage. By this time, the boy children may have drifted away and decided to hang out with other guys, who are relatively docile this time of year because, like I said, they're not horney. Since they take no part in child rearing, the bucks don't need as much quality food as the does, so they are not interested in fighting with some cranky mother over grazing rights.
Here's a new article about those citizen militias I was telling you about the other day:
https://a.msn.com/r/2/BBQ1IPk?m=en-us&referrerID=InAppShare
11/24/18 This just in: https://a.msn.com/r/2/BBQ2WME?m=en-us&referrerID=InAppShare
This sounds somewhat like a proposal I made awhile back. I am surprised that Mexico is agreeing to it, but then it's not a done deal yet.
black Friday
I'm sorry to hear that Old Dog, Boy I don't know what to add to that. Maybe Thanksgiving is the big family day. It's not as big as Christmas of course, but it doesn't have all those gaudy distractions, just sit across the table from each other and talk and eat. Sad the way our numbers dwindle. My condolences Old Dog.
I'm glad that Bambi (Bambette?) and fawn were spared by crusty old Elmer Fudd. There was some talk about Black Friday around my sister's table. None of us, of course, were damn fool enough to engage in that ritual, but we all knew people (well I didn't, but I know people who know people) thjat are up at the crack of dawn, or even once the turkey has been reduced to bones. The consensus seemed to be that it's not the bargains, but just a herd activity that some people like to take part in because it is part of the holiday.
I will be donning my Santa hat for the first time since maybe the day after New Years. I'll have to venture over the river and into the loop to get bags of red and green Hershey kisses to distribute to bums along with a few coins. I used to give dollars, but it cost me close to ten bucks to go to Walgreens and back. And I'll have to start turning on my lights at night. They don't look like much from ground level but they look nice from inside here.
You know there's another pre Christmas ritual now that I think about it, and that's complaining about how all the stores are putting out their Christmas stuff too early, right after Halloween, but now that Thanksgiving has been ripped from the calendar I guess it's okay to go head over heels into the tumult. I hate the music, but I guess there is nothing to be done about that.
I hate to be disagreeable, but not apparently enough to quibble over this little point, but I just don't see those boy deer giving up the prime land to the lady deer, just doesn't seem like the sort of thing that goes on in the animal kingdom.
Ah but hell, it's the holiday season, maybe they do. What do I know?
I'm glad that Bambi (Bambette?) and fawn were spared by crusty old Elmer Fudd. There was some talk about Black Friday around my sister's table. None of us, of course, were damn fool enough to engage in that ritual, but we all knew people (well I didn't, but I know people who know people) thjat are up at the crack of dawn, or even once the turkey has been reduced to bones. The consensus seemed to be that it's not the bargains, but just a herd activity that some people like to take part in because it is part of the holiday.
I will be donning my Santa hat for the first time since maybe the day after New Years. I'll have to venture over the river and into the loop to get bags of red and green Hershey kisses to distribute to bums along with a few coins. I used to give dollars, but it cost me close to ten bucks to go to Walgreens and back. And I'll have to start turning on my lights at night. They don't look like much from ground level but they look nice from inside here.
You know there's another pre Christmas ritual now that I think about it, and that's complaining about how all the stores are putting out their Christmas stuff too early, right after Halloween, but now that Thanksgiving has been ripped from the calendar I guess it's okay to go head over heels into the tumult. I hate the music, but I guess there is nothing to be done about that.
I hate to be disagreeable, but not apparently enough to quibble over this little point, but I just don't see those boy deer giving up the prime land to the lady deer, just doesn't seem like the sort of thing that goes on in the animal kingdom.
Ah but hell, it's the holiday season, maybe they do. What do I know?
Thursday, November 22, 2018
Over the River and Through the Woods
I saw a doe and fawn today but I let them walk away. It would have been a chancy shot anyway, and I didn't have the heart to break up such a nice family on Thanksgiving. I suppose they were heading over the river and through the woods to Grandmother's house for dinner. Our own Thanksgiving has been rescheduled for December 2 because some of the family had to work today and this weekend.
Deer don't have beds like we have beds, they just lay down wherever, but the impression they leave in the snow or grass when they do is called a bed. They don't sleep all night like we do either, they just doze off for an hour or two when they're not feeding. I read somewhere that a deer can't go more than six hours without eating. Most herbivores are like that because their food isn't as nutritious as the stuff we eat so they need to eat more of it. According to my hunting magazines, deer in agricultural neighborhoods have core bedding areas where they hang out during the day, but even then they have to get up and nibble on something periodically. Our local deer seem to wander around both night and day, alternately feeding and resting. They do tend to avoid large open fields in the daytime, but I have seen them out there on foggy days. The little rye patch in front of my blind is only 1/3 of an acre and is surrounded by cover, so the deer aren't usually shy about crossing it any time of the day or night.
The social behavior of whitetail deer varies with the seasons. In the winter they congregate in what are called "yards", but they're not like people's yards. A deer yard is a dense forest, usually consisting of mature conifers like white cedar. This provides shelter from the elements, but there must also be some kind of food source nearby, although deer need less food in the winter because their metabolism slows down. They disburse in the spring to give birth and raise their fawns. I have read that the bucks hang out in bachelor groups, relinquishing the prime territory to the women and children. If that's true, we must be living in prime territory because we almost never see bucks in the summer. The bucks are most active in the fall when they are courting the ladies. I have read that dominant bucks will tolerate subordinate bucks nearby as long as they don't try to breed, but I don't think I've ever seen two or more bucks traveling together in the fall.
My condolences to Old Dog on the loss of his cousin.
Deer don't have beds like we have beds, they just lay down wherever, but the impression they leave in the snow or grass when they do is called a bed. They don't sleep all night like we do either, they just doze off for an hour or two when they're not feeding. I read somewhere that a deer can't go more than six hours without eating. Most herbivores are like that because their food isn't as nutritious as the stuff we eat so they need to eat more of it. According to my hunting magazines, deer in agricultural neighborhoods have core bedding areas where they hang out during the day, but even then they have to get up and nibble on something periodically. Our local deer seem to wander around both night and day, alternately feeding and resting. They do tend to avoid large open fields in the daytime, but I have seen them out there on foggy days. The little rye patch in front of my blind is only 1/3 of an acre and is surrounded by cover, so the deer aren't usually shy about crossing it any time of the day or night.
The social behavior of whitetail deer varies with the seasons. In the winter they congregate in what are called "yards", but they're not like people's yards. A deer yard is a dense forest, usually consisting of mature conifers like white cedar. This provides shelter from the elements, but there must also be some kind of food source nearby, although deer need less food in the winter because their metabolism slows down. They disburse in the spring to give birth and raise their fawns. I have read that the bucks hang out in bachelor groups, relinquishing the prime territory to the women and children. If that's true, we must be living in prime territory because we almost never see bucks in the summer. The bucks are most active in the fall when they are courting the ladies. I have read that dominant bucks will tolerate subordinate bucks nearby as long as they don't try to breed, but I don't think I've ever seen two or more bucks traveling together in the fall.
My condolences to Old Dog on the loss of his cousin.
There have been better days
This is a disorienting Thanksgiving Day for the Old Dog. The usual plan rotates between a meal at my sister's or a trek to Milwaukee where a cousin lays out a big spread. Not this year. My cousin Pam, the host of the big meal, died last weekend from heart failure of some kind; I'm told she was in ill health for some time but this was unexpected. So, on Black Friday of all days, we'll be going north for a funeral. There may be some kind of dinner at my sister's home on Sunday but it won't be the same.
My mother's sister was childless so all of my first cousins are on my father's side of the family, nine in total. Pam was the third youngest and the first to pass away. A new trend has begun and before my thoughts get any darker and bum you guys out I'll let it go and catch up later during the weekend. Enjoy your leftovers.
My mother's sister was childless so all of my first cousins are on my father's side of the family, nine in total. Pam was the third youngest and the first to pass away. A new trend has begun and before my thoughts get any darker and bum you guys out I'll let it go and catch up later during the weekend. Enjoy your leftovers.
thanksgiving
Deer have beds? Well I guess everybody has to sleep somewhere. They aren't exactly herd animals like it seems their bigger forebears are, but they must get together sometimes so that the males can have those antler battles while the does look on coyly with their doe eyes. Otherwise I imagine Mom and the kids and Pop nest separately. I'm just speculating and at this point I could go to the wiki, but I guess I will let the deerslayer tell us himself.
I don't know why Beagles didn't toss in a little fender bender, an angry confrontation gradually melting into a realization on both sides that they had both been a little in the wrong, a hearty handshake and proclamation of brotherhood and peace on earth to all men, oh and why not some drug dealers and a car chase, and since the border is not far away some of those cool mounties in their cool hats? I did like the phrase winky-blinky and the image of that slow snake of cars herky jerking their way down the dark highway ahead,. I'll give him a B- for solid reportage, but a little imagination (the lost scarf alone, who hasn't lost a scarf, maybe a scarf knitted for him by his mama from rare fibers from his homeland, now occupied by an implacable foe against whom he has vowed revenge?) would have gotten him into A territory See it's not that hard.
Thanksgiving was a big day when I was a kid. My mother's parents lived just down the street so they would come by and with the folks and three kids it was a pretty full table in the dining room of the bungalow. Mogen David wine was passed around and even us kiddies got a dollop. This was the good stuff, nice and sweet, not like that awful bitter and sour stuff that those Frenchies drank. Mogen David would make a later appearance in my life as Mad Dog 2020, but that is another story.
I never liked turkey, but there were plenty of other dishes. Stuffing was good and stringbeans, and I liked the sweet potatoes with the melted marshmallows, mostly it was the marshmallows. And pumpkin pie, I still love pumpkin pie. My mother was like a traffic cop, making sure the dishes were going in the right direction, but kind of hurrying it so that you were still holding the mashed potatoes when the stringbean express was rushing in and you couldn't pass the mashed potatoes on because your sister was scooping the marshmallows off the sweet potatoes Once the rush was done she patrolled the plates to make sure that everybody had some of everything. Nerves got a bit frayed over the groaning table.
The best Thanksgivings though were years later with my beer drinking buddies in Champaign, somebody's cruddy apartment, some slapdash mess of food, and plenty of Falstaff beer. Ah those were the days my friend.
I don't know why Beagles didn't toss in a little fender bender, an angry confrontation gradually melting into a realization on both sides that they had both been a little in the wrong, a hearty handshake and proclamation of brotherhood and peace on earth to all men, oh and why not some drug dealers and a car chase, and since the border is not far away some of those cool mounties in their cool hats? I did like the phrase winky-blinky and the image of that slow snake of cars herky jerking their way down the dark highway ahead,. I'll give him a B- for solid reportage, but a little imagination (the lost scarf alone, who hasn't lost a scarf, maybe a scarf knitted for him by his mama from rare fibers from his homeland, now occupied by an implacable foe against whom he has vowed revenge?) would have gotten him into A territory See it's not that hard.
Thanksgiving was a big day when I was a kid. My mother's parents lived just down the street so they would come by and with the folks and three kids it was a pretty full table in the dining room of the bungalow. Mogen David wine was passed around and even us kiddies got a dollop. This was the good stuff, nice and sweet, not like that awful bitter and sour stuff that those Frenchies drank. Mogen David would make a later appearance in my life as Mad Dog 2020, but that is another story.
I never liked turkey, but there were plenty of other dishes. Stuffing was good and stringbeans, and I liked the sweet potatoes with the melted marshmallows, mostly it was the marshmallows. And pumpkin pie, I still love pumpkin pie. My mother was like a traffic cop, making sure the dishes were going in the right direction, but kind of hurrying it so that you were still holding the mashed potatoes when the stringbean express was rushing in and you couldn't pass the mashed potatoes on because your sister was scooping the marshmallows off the sweet potatoes Once the rush was done she patrolled the plates to make sure that everybody had some of everything. Nerves got a bit frayed over the groaning table.
The best Thanksgivings though were years later with my beer drinking buddies in Champaign, somebody's cruddy apartment, some slapdash mess of food, and plenty of Falstaff beer. Ah those were the days my friend.
Wednesday, November 21, 2018
Tracking Snow
Most hunters like to see some snow on the ground for deer season, just enough to see tracks but not enough to make it hard to get around in the woods. While it's possible to track a deer to it's bed and sneak up on him, it's not feasible where I hunt. The cover is too thick and my property is too small. All I would be doing is chasing the deer away. Nevertheless, it's nice to be able to see where the deer have been traveling and if any of them were in front of my blind since the last time I was there. It also makes it easier to find one that has been shot and ran off into the swamp to die. Even a deer that has been hit well can easily run a hundred yards before it goes down, and a hundred yards is a long way in heavy cover like I have on my land.
Snow conditions have been close to ideal this year, but there are no guarantees in this business. The deer in my neighborhood have lots of country to roam around in, and roam they do. I have read that it's possible to "pattern" deer in agricultural areas. They hide in the brush all day and come out into the fields to feed at night. Hunters try to ambush them on the established trails that connect the bedding and feeding areas. The deer around here don't seem to follow predictable patterns like that. You are just as likely to see one at noon as you are at dawn or dusk. All other factors being equal, the more time you can spend in the woods the more likely you are to see a deer.
I'm sorry Uncle Ken was disappointed that there was no crash sequence in my road trip story, but I am not about to put one in there just to entertain him. The point I was trying to make was the stupid way that some people drive. They must know better, but they do it wrong anyway. I'm surprised that there aren't more crashes than there are. Maybe there's some truth to that old saying, "God protects the fools and the drunks."
Speaking of Uncle Ken, congratulations on the sale of his painting.
Snow conditions have been close to ideal this year, but there are no guarantees in this business. The deer in my neighborhood have lots of country to roam around in, and roam they do. I have read that it's possible to "pattern" deer in agricultural areas. They hide in the brush all day and come out into the fields to feed at night. Hunters try to ambush them on the established trails that connect the bedding and feeding areas. The deer around here don't seem to follow predictable patterns like that. You are just as likely to see one at noon as you are at dawn or dusk. All other factors being equal, the more time you can spend in the woods the more likely you are to see a deer.
I'm sorry Uncle Ken was disappointed that there was no crash sequence in my road trip story, but I am not about to put one in there just to entertain him. The point I was trying to make was the stupid way that some people drive. They must know better, but they do it wrong anyway. I'm surprised that there aren't more crashes than there are. Maybe there's some truth to that old saying, "God protects the fools and the drunks."
Speaking of Uncle Ken, congratulations on the sale of his painting.
outgrowing coolness
The New Yorker article interested me because it addressed what I call noise in the world. This is the way that looking at say a grape gets more complicated than you would think it would be. It's supposed to be roundish, but it's not exactly, and in its brief life it already has already suffered some stains, and the light striking it is going to be effected by weather conditions and even your own cornea has defects. All these effects are kind of random, but there is a certain order in that randomness. Well I sold a painting last night so now I think I am a great artist/philosopher.
I never look at the online version of the New Yorker so I don't know what is there. I do see references to things to look up online, but I never follow through. I am kind of interested in the little link after the fiction. I like maybe half the stories but the end always comes abruptly and I wonder if I have missed something, but when I read the link it doesn't help me understand anything better.
When I wsa talking trash about pop music I guess what I was referring to was bubblegum music. A lot of fb posts consist of lists of top 40 songs of the late sixties and I remember most of them fondly. I guess I was thinking of songs piped into fast food joints, a lot of that synthetic sounding music and some grunting and groaning, and a lot of repetition with no lyrics to speak of.
When you're a kid, the older kids are always cooler, and this goes on as life goes on until sometime around the age of 25, when older people don't seem any cooler to you. I guess part of that is that your interest in coolness fades. It still exists here and there, but it is not that overriding a force that it was in the teens. I guess there is still some nostalgia within us oldsters for it. We like to think that young uns who are all into cool will think we are cool. You know, like Black people telling us Whiteys that we have soul. When I was trying to explain about my new painting series to those millennials in the beer garden at first I thought that they were interested and thought I was kind of cool and that pumped me up, but a few minutes later when I saw that they regarded me as some flakey coot that didn't bother me much. I guess that's maturity.
Well it is nice not to have the burden of cool, When I was young and cool if some clerk explained something to me and I didn't understand it I would never ask any questions because that wouldn't be cool. Anymore I have no trepidation about asking all the questions I want until I understand it exactly, or understand it as well as I am going to, That's pretty cool.
I followed Beagles' account of the dark and stormy night eagerly awaiting the thunk of his vehicle hitting something or being hit, but nothing happened. It's like recounting some horrific storm at sea and ending it by saying that no boats were sunk and all freight and passengers were delivered on time. Couldn't he at least have said that when they got back home he discovered that he had left his scarf at his daughter's?
I did think that msn meant msnbc and not Microsoft. My bad. I take it Bambi's luck is still holding out. Does snow make it easier to spot the deer.
I never look at the online version of the New Yorker so I don't know what is there. I do see references to things to look up online, but I never follow through. I am kind of interested in the little link after the fiction. I like maybe half the stories but the end always comes abruptly and I wonder if I have missed something, but when I read the link it doesn't help me understand anything better.
When I wsa talking trash about pop music I guess what I was referring to was bubblegum music. A lot of fb posts consist of lists of top 40 songs of the late sixties and I remember most of them fondly. I guess I was thinking of songs piped into fast food joints, a lot of that synthetic sounding music and some grunting and groaning, and a lot of repetition with no lyrics to speak of.
When you're a kid, the older kids are always cooler, and this goes on as life goes on until sometime around the age of 25, when older people don't seem any cooler to you. I guess part of that is that your interest in coolness fades. It still exists here and there, but it is not that overriding a force that it was in the teens. I guess there is still some nostalgia within us oldsters for it. We like to think that young uns who are all into cool will think we are cool. You know, like Black people telling us Whiteys that we have soul. When I was trying to explain about my new painting series to those millennials in the beer garden at first I thought that they were interested and thought I was kind of cool and that pumped me up, but a few minutes later when I saw that they regarded me as some flakey coot that didn't bother me much. I guess that's maturity.
Well it is nice not to have the burden of cool, When I was young and cool if some clerk explained something to me and I didn't understand it I would never ask any questions because that wouldn't be cool. Anymore I have no trepidation about asking all the questions I want until I understand it exactly, or understand it as well as I am going to, That's pretty cool.
I followed Beagles' account of the dark and stormy night eagerly awaiting the thunk of his vehicle hitting something or being hit, but nothing happened. It's like recounting some horrific storm at sea and ending it by saying that no boats were sunk and all freight and passengers were delivered on time. Couldn't he at least have said that when they got back home he discovered that he had left his scarf at his daughter's?
I did think that msn meant msnbc and not Microsoft. My bad. I take it Bambi's luck is still holding out. Does snow make it easier to spot the deer.
Tuesday, November 20, 2018
It Was a Dark and Stormy Night
We had to go to Petoskey yesterday, about 50 miles on primary and secondary roads. Light snow was falling when we left, but the temp was warm enough that it wasn't sticking and the pavement was just wet. "It could be worse", we agreed, and sure enough, it got worse on the way back. The snow intensified and started to accumulate on the road, and darkness was upon us.
Wet snow like that is the most dangerous kind because it's more slippery than the dry powder which we northerners generally experience for most of our winter. Common sense would tell you to leave plenty of following distance because it takes longer to stop under such conditions but, as somebody famous once said, "Common sense is no longer common". The traffic ahead was all bunched up and their taillights were going winky-blinky, which means they were using their brakes intermittently. I have seen this before and I always stay well back of such formations. A couple of guys passed me at one point, although I was going the same speed as the winky-blinky parade ahead of me, so passing me was unlikely to gain them a lot of ground.
Some years ago, I remember driving on I-75 in the daytime through a series of lake effect snow bands. The snow was plenty dry, but the visibility was intermittently poor. Common sense would tell you to slow down through the poor stretches and speed up through the clear stretches, but all the other cars were doing just the opposite. They would pass me when the visibility was bad, and then I would catch up and pass them in the next clear stretch. I don't know how many times we did this, but I was beginning to recognize some of the cars. At no time did I exceed the posted speed limit, so it's not like I was trying to race them or anything like that.
Uncle Ken expressed surprise the other day that I read Microsoft News and not Aljazeera. What have the two got in common? This is not the notorious MSNBC, this is the news app that came pre-installed in my computer. I suppose they have a bit of a port list to them, but I can work around that. I find it convenient because I can access this app without closing my window to the Institute, and then quickly come back and share what I have found with my esteemed colleagues. What's wrong with that?
Wet snow like that is the most dangerous kind because it's more slippery than the dry powder which we northerners generally experience for most of our winter. Common sense would tell you to leave plenty of following distance because it takes longer to stop under such conditions but, as somebody famous once said, "Common sense is no longer common". The traffic ahead was all bunched up and their taillights were going winky-blinky, which means they were using their brakes intermittently. I have seen this before and I always stay well back of such formations. A couple of guys passed me at one point, although I was going the same speed as the winky-blinky parade ahead of me, so passing me was unlikely to gain them a lot of ground.
Some years ago, I remember driving on I-75 in the daytime through a series of lake effect snow bands. The snow was plenty dry, but the visibility was intermittently poor. Common sense would tell you to slow down through the poor stretches and speed up through the clear stretches, but all the other cars were doing just the opposite. They would pass me when the visibility was bad, and then I would catch up and pass them in the next clear stretch. I don't know how many times we did this, but I was beginning to recognize some of the cars. At no time did I exceed the posted speed limit, so it's not like I was trying to race them or anything like that.
Uncle Ken expressed surprise the other day that I read Microsoft News and not Aljazeera. What have the two got in common? This is not the notorious MSNBC, this is the news app that came pre-installed in my computer. I suppose they have a bit of a port list to them, but I can work around that. I find it convenient because I can access this app without closing my window to the Institute, and then quickly come back and share what I have found with my esteemed colleagues. What's wrong with that?
Tuesday, too
Old Dog seems to spend a lot of time digging up oddities. It seems to me that he should include the New Yorker...
That was a good article and I don't know how I missed it; the New Yorker is one of the sites that I check out regularly. As a subscriber to the print edition of the magazine I wonder if Uncle Ken has noticed any difference in the content. Does the online version have additional content like little articles that may not warrant inclusion in the print edition?
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...but then pop music has always been awful.
Does Uncle Ken have a tin ear, never having enjoyed a tune that cause him to tap his toe in syncopated pleasure? The pop in pop music stems from popular, meaning that a lot of people liked it. Even classical music was wildly popular in it's day and not a high-brow form of entertainment. I understand that Mozart had quite an enthusiastic fan base, as did many other musicians of times gone by.
Modern music doesn't do much for me because it seems like I've heard it all before, only better. Current recording techniques allow very mediocre singers and musicians to sound better than they actually are, but that's just my opinion and I'll let this discussion peter out.
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I have to give Mr. Beagles some credit; Chicks Up Front is back in the spotlight, at least according to FoxNews. Homeland Security officials have asserted that the notorious caravan "is mostly made up of single adult or teen males and that the women and children have been pushed to the front of the line in a bid to garner sympathetic media coverage."
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Like Uncle Ken, I don't know many young people, but how young is young these days? Since I'm past my prime anyone younger than fifty or so seems kind of young to me and folks around thirty are like children. I think there is a natural tendency to want to associate with people that share many of our own experiences; we have a shared context as a point of reference in which to engage conversation. This can limiting when we try to cross the generation gap (or gulf) because our points of view are so different. A lot of things were weird, from our current vantage point, while growing up in the fifties and sixties but things are weirder today in a different way. Adjusting to the "new normals" is a daunting task and I am not sure if we are all up to it. Uncle Ken has generously provided a meaty morsel to gnaw on and I'm still chewing.
That was a good article and I don't know how I missed it; the New Yorker is one of the sites that I check out regularly. As a subscriber to the print edition of the magazine I wonder if Uncle Ken has noticed any difference in the content. Does the online version have additional content like little articles that may not warrant inclusion in the print edition?
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...but then pop music has always been awful.
Does Uncle Ken have a tin ear, never having enjoyed a tune that cause him to tap his toe in syncopated pleasure? The pop in pop music stems from popular, meaning that a lot of people liked it. Even classical music was wildly popular in it's day and not a high-brow form of entertainment. I understand that Mozart had quite an enthusiastic fan base, as did many other musicians of times gone by.
Modern music doesn't do much for me because it seems like I've heard it all before, only better. Current recording techniques allow very mediocre singers and musicians to sound better than they actually are, but that's just my opinion and I'll let this discussion peter out.
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I have to give Mr. Beagles some credit; Chicks Up Front is back in the spotlight, at least according to FoxNews. Homeland Security officials have asserted that the notorious caravan "is mostly made up of single adult or teen males and that the women and children have been pushed to the front of the line in a bid to garner sympathetic media coverage."
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Like Uncle Ken, I don't know many young people, but how young is young these days? Since I'm past my prime anyone younger than fifty or so seems kind of young to me and folks around thirty are like children. I think there is a natural tendency to want to associate with people that share many of our own experiences; we have a shared context as a point of reference in which to engage conversation. This can limiting when we try to cross the generation gap (or gulf) because our points of view are so different. A lot of things were weird, from our current vantage point, while growing up in the fifties and sixties but things are weirder today in a different way. Adjusting to the "new normals" is a daunting task and I am not sure if we are all up to it. Uncle Ken has generously provided a meaty morsel to gnaw on and I'm still chewing.
Tuesday Tuesday
I hope that there are connectivity problems up north and that Beagles is ok. I think Old Dog has a post Tuesday and Thursday and one other day over the weekend so he is not to be expected this morning, so in the meantime I am here on my lonesome this Tuesday morning with light snow and Thanksgiving just around the corner and after that the great yawning maw of Christmas followed by that long dark stretch of nothing but winter clear up to the yellow green ridge of spring cresting the horizon a little past March.
Am I stretching things out? Perhaps a bit. I touched briefly on the subject of the separation of the generations in my last post.. I noticed the other day that I hardly know anybody that was young. There is Jordan, the Friday night bartender, and generally there are one or two au pairs taking the watercolor class and that's it. What are young people up to these days?
Their phones I guess. I guess their phones are like portals to this whole world of like reddit and instagram, well probably what they are really into is stuff I wouldn't know the names of but I'll wager consists mostly of idle chatter and prettified pictures of themselves.
They appear to like music. They have all this awful pop music, but then pop music has always been awful. A lot of them still like that rap crap that you think would have faded out years ago. They still have rock and roll, but what little I hear of it on the radio it sounds kind of blah.
There is this socially aware thing, which I guess I should applaud, but so much of it seems to be channeled into that politically correct venue that one hates to engage in conversation with them lest one use the wrong word or phrase and be banished to the world of the enemy.
What are old people up to these days? It seems like for a long time all we did was watch Matlock, but I haven't heard that lately so maybe we are into something else. Does seem when I am among my generation I hear a lot about maladies and medicines, but I think it has ever been such, And then there is that rich vein of conversation: kids these days.
Monday, November 19, 2018
Monday Monday
Three years ago as I left the Ten Cat a snowstorm hit. It was a wet windy one, not really sticking, but swirling and slicking the streets. It was a pretty thing, made the city look dramatic, I was new to my super phone and took a series of photos of my trip back. Pretty nice photos but they sat on my hard drive doing nothing. You know I paint in series, corn, tomatoes, cats in many variations. When I first start on a series I am kind of pumped up, this will be so cool. I feel like I am on the right track, but after a dozen or so, the track becomes a rut that I am stuck in, and I am thinking about what the new one will be. It's kind of unsettling, like reaching for the trapeze as you soar across the big top, maybe mosaic women, mosaic trains, maybe full bore abstract, none of these really fit my hand, and then I remembered those photos, and now I am off on a swing,
What a fabulous idea I thought Friday night as I headed out to the beer garden to clear my head. There were some young uns out there and after exchanging some pleasantries I thought maybe they would be interested in sharing my vision. They were receptive for the first few sentences, but then the sidelong glances, and doubtless some rolling off of the eyes discreetly beyond my vision.
Well so it goes. I am writing this in response to Old Dogs' finding things interesting that others don't. Well their loss, that's they way I look at it, and likely Old Dog also looks at it the same way.
I was a youth once, as were we all, and I remember when old people spoke to me it was never very interesting, what did they know? And now I am on the other side and I feel like I should somehow stay in touch with they young, but generally a few sentences in and I am glancing sideways, what do they know?
I didn't mean to imply that audios and videos were inferior to reading, just that I personally am not into them.
Oh I don't think signing a simple piece of paper paves the way to totalitarianism. Totalitarianism. Took a ride to the wiki. Originally to the guys that made up the name, it was not a bad thing. Everything in the state must work for the good of the state, some people here lately think everything must work for the good of the country. Anyway there would be no such thing in OBHP. You could be a commie, a fascist, whatever. Consider the Freedom Caucus and the Tuesday Group in the Republican party. They are factions, not parties. If you wanted to drop out of one and join the other you wouldn't have to make any declarations or sign any papers.
Consider the Communist party, Consider The Death of Stalin. A lot of shaking up at the top, but in the end, the leader is going to be some commie, life will go on for Ivan Six Pack. But what happens when that final cheeseburger stops the heart of Orangey? Trumpism consists of whatever he is thinking at the current time. With no Trump there is no Trumpism. Where will the Trumpists go? Who will be able to pick up the mantle? Will there be a competition between republican leaders to see who can say the most insulting stupid things to be most like The King?
Well that was a distraction.
Okay within the OBHP every election would be like a primary. You would have to get petitions so there wouldn't be a thousand people on the ballot. Instead of there being a republican, a democrat, a libertarian, and a green. There would be four OBHP candidates who happened to have those respective leanings and I think that would give the green and libertarian more respect which I think is what Old Dog wants.
Here is an article about AI and media that might be of interest: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/11/12/in-the-age-of-ai-is-seeing-still-believing
Old Dog seems to spend a lot of time digging up oddities. It seems to me that he should include the New Yorker in that searching. a lot of interesting things within his pages, and generally better written than those other sites.
What a fabulous idea I thought Friday night as I headed out to the beer garden to clear my head. There were some young uns out there and after exchanging some pleasantries I thought maybe they would be interested in sharing my vision. They were receptive for the first few sentences, but then the sidelong glances, and doubtless some rolling off of the eyes discreetly beyond my vision.
Well so it goes. I am writing this in response to Old Dogs' finding things interesting that others don't. Well their loss, that's they way I look at it, and likely Old Dog also looks at it the same way.
I was a youth once, as were we all, and I remember when old people spoke to me it was never very interesting, what did they know? And now I am on the other side and I feel like I should somehow stay in touch with they young, but generally a few sentences in and I am glancing sideways, what do they know?
I didn't mean to imply that audios and videos were inferior to reading, just that I personally am not into them.
Oh I don't think signing a simple piece of paper paves the way to totalitarianism. Totalitarianism. Took a ride to the wiki. Originally to the guys that made up the name, it was not a bad thing. Everything in the state must work for the good of the state, some people here lately think everything must work for the good of the country. Anyway there would be no such thing in OBHP. You could be a commie, a fascist, whatever. Consider the Freedom Caucus and the Tuesday Group in the Republican party. They are factions, not parties. If you wanted to drop out of one and join the other you wouldn't have to make any declarations or sign any papers.
Consider the Communist party, Consider The Death of Stalin. A lot of shaking up at the top, but in the end, the leader is going to be some commie, life will go on for Ivan Six Pack. But what happens when that final cheeseburger stops the heart of Orangey? Trumpism consists of whatever he is thinking at the current time. With no Trump there is no Trumpism. Where will the Trumpists go? Who will be able to pick up the mantle? Will there be a competition between republican leaders to see who can say the most insulting stupid things to be most like The King?
Well that was a distraction.
Okay within the OBHP every election would be like a primary. You would have to get petitions so there wouldn't be a thousand people on the ballot. Instead of there being a republican, a democrat, a libertarian, and a green. There would be four OBHP candidates who happened to have those respective leanings and I think that would give the green and libertarian more respect which I think is what Old Dog wants.
Here is an article about AI and media that might be of interest: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/11/12/in-the-age-of-ai-is-seeing-still-believing
Old Dog seems to spend a lot of time digging up oddities. It seems to me that he should include the New Yorker in that searching. a lot of interesting things within his pages, and generally better written than those other sites.
Sunday, November 18, 2018
Walking and chewing gum
It's not that I'm afraid to be exposed to alien propaganda...I would rather spend them doing something that interests me.
Fair enough. One of my bad habits is thinking that because I find something interesting others will also find it interesting, and that is seldom the case. Too much of my time is spent following the news and I think it's because of morbid curiosity more than anything else, like watching a train wreck. This comes at a cost in that too much mental energy is wasted on things that are beyond my control, things that I am not actively involved in, and daily routines can suffer. It's not good if you fall behind in your laundry.
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I like to read. I am not a fan of videos or audio anything.
That's odd since Uncle Ken subscribes to Netflix. Is he listening to the news and reading the funny papers while he watches movies? I like to read, too, but I enjoy it better without any distractions; total silence is best for me. Certain activities lend themselves well to mental multitasking but being a passive participant is not necessarily a bad thing. It depends on the individual, I suppose, but billions of dollars are spent by folks who attend events where they do little more than watch and listen. I think it's unfair to state that either active or passive participation is better than the other; as long as you are enjoying the experience, who cares? If I want to give something my total attention, whether it's a book, a movie, some music, or doing the dishes, well, that's within my rights. And if I want to do a couple of things at once I can do that, too. but I'm not sure if I'll be able to do any of them as well as they could have been done by themselves. It depends on a lot of things and is not something that I've tested.
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I wonder what Old Dog means about recent discussions going in circles. That would imply that they got back to where they started and in my humble opinion they mainly just peter out.
Point taken. I was thinking of the One Big Happy Party idea and it still doesn't make sense to me. Signing any document stating that you will not form another party is a little heavy handed unless you like totalitarianism, don't you think? If OBHP is such a good idea I think most political organizations would have coalesced into such a beast by now, but they haven't. Political Science is not one of my strengths but I think that as organizations grow in size they tend to split into smaller groups based on shared interests and priorities. A one party system would be static and exclusive but a multi-party system would be dynamic and inclusive, in my opinion. A one party system would be a step backwards to the age of kings and emperors. They had a very successful run, while it lasted, but then the little guys gained a voice and that was that.
Fair enough. One of my bad habits is thinking that because I find something interesting others will also find it interesting, and that is seldom the case. Too much of my time is spent following the news and I think it's because of morbid curiosity more than anything else, like watching a train wreck. This comes at a cost in that too much mental energy is wasted on things that are beyond my control, things that I am not actively involved in, and daily routines can suffer. It's not good if you fall behind in your laundry.
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I like to read. I am not a fan of videos or audio anything.
That's odd since Uncle Ken subscribes to Netflix. Is he listening to the news and reading the funny papers while he watches movies? I like to read, too, but I enjoy it better without any distractions; total silence is best for me. Certain activities lend themselves well to mental multitasking but being a passive participant is not necessarily a bad thing. It depends on the individual, I suppose, but billions of dollars are spent by folks who attend events where they do little more than watch and listen. I think it's unfair to state that either active or passive participation is better than the other; as long as you are enjoying the experience, who cares? If I want to give something my total attention, whether it's a book, a movie, some music, or doing the dishes, well, that's within my rights. And if I want to do a couple of things at once I can do that, too. but I'm not sure if I'll be able to do any of them as well as they could have been done by themselves. It depends on a lot of things and is not something that I've tested.
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I wonder what Old Dog means about recent discussions going in circles. That would imply that they got back to where they started and in my humble opinion they mainly just peter out.
Point taken. I was thinking of the One Big Happy Party idea and it still doesn't make sense to me. Signing any document stating that you will not form another party is a little heavy handed unless you like totalitarianism, don't you think? If OBHP is such a good idea I think most political organizations would have coalesced into such a beast by now, but they haven't. Political Science is not one of my strengths but I think that as organizations grow in size they tend to split into smaller groups based on shared interests and priorities. A one party system would be static and exclusive but a multi-party system would be dynamic and inclusive, in my opinion. A one party system would be a step backwards to the age of kings and emperors. They had a very successful run, while it lasted, but then the little guys gained a voice and that was that.
Friday, November 16, 2018
beating dead horses over the head
Well, I for one, certainly never let having nothing to say keep me from making a post, Actually it's pretty rare that I have nothing to say. As I go about my day thoughts occur to me and I file them away in the Beaglestonian file cabinet. But even when the cabinet is bare if I just put down my head and type some sort of idea pops into my head, Like the smell of napalm in the morning, the feel of my fingers clicky clacking across the keyboard inspires me of a morning,
I wonder what Old Dog means about recent discussions going in circles. That would imply that they got back to where they started and in my humble opinion they mainly just peter out. Hum, peter out. The phrase goes back to the gold rush. The least likely explanation is that it has something to do with St Peter and his faith dwindling at some point. Not likely those sour-dough-chawing old miners would go for a biblical metaphor. The second most unlikely explanation has something to do with a French word which I doubt that those miners would have any knowledge of except what they came across in one of those French whorehouses which likely dotted them thar hills alive with the scrapping of pans. Well certainly anything coming out of a French Whorehouse would be a suitably interesting story, but it appears most likely it has something to do with saltpeter. which is what made the mashed potatoes in my college dorm and likely in those military messes taste so good. But as an explanation for a figure of speech leaves me unaroused.
Since Beagles is the one being praised for his brevity, and Old Dog is the one doing the praising it seems that kindly Uncle Ken is being singled out for beating the dawgs and some poor dead horse over the head. Of course the way I see it is that I bring interesting meaty subjects to the long table of the Beaglestonian dining hall, that are best savored, and ruminated upon rather than spitting out the first bite with a ptui, but I guess that's just me,
I like to read. I am not a fan of videos or audio anything. Reading fills me up, I feel like I am an active participant. Listening or watching I feel passive.like I am being spoon-fed. I can't just sit and watch or listen, I have to be doing something else to be fully occupied and likely that will distract me from whatever i am watching/listening to. Reading, if I'm not sure of something I can always go back a sentence or paragraph or two, whereas with the media I would have to go through some mechanical process to rewind and you can't just go back to a certain point.
I guess those audio books would be fine if you were driving somewhere, or doing something sort of boring, The gym is boring, and I have taken to listening to podcasts or RadioLab, which works just fine, but I would never listen to them just sitting around staring.
Subjectively it seems like I retain those podcasts pretty well, but I think if I was not doing anything else my mind would wander.
I think I've read two or three of Beagles's Caravan links (strangely enough from msn, this from guy who doesn't trust aljazeera) and I have yet to read one that alarms me. Let me know when they are knocking on your door.
Tell Bambi I am rooting for him.
I wonder what Old Dog means about recent discussions going in circles. That would imply that they got back to where they started and in my humble opinion they mainly just peter out. Hum, peter out. The phrase goes back to the gold rush. The least likely explanation is that it has something to do with St Peter and his faith dwindling at some point. Not likely those sour-dough-chawing old miners would go for a biblical metaphor. The second most unlikely explanation has something to do with a French word which I doubt that those miners would have any knowledge of except what they came across in one of those French whorehouses which likely dotted them thar hills alive with the scrapping of pans. Well certainly anything coming out of a French Whorehouse would be a suitably interesting story, but it appears most likely it has something to do with saltpeter. which is what made the mashed potatoes in my college dorm and likely in those military messes taste so good. But as an explanation for a figure of speech leaves me unaroused.
Since Beagles is the one being praised for his brevity, and Old Dog is the one doing the praising it seems that kindly Uncle Ken is being singled out for beating the dawgs and some poor dead horse over the head. Of course the way I see it is that I bring interesting meaty subjects to the long table of the Beaglestonian dining hall, that are best savored, and ruminated upon rather than spitting out the first bite with a ptui, but I guess that's just me,
I like to read. I am not a fan of videos or audio anything. Reading fills me up, I feel like I am an active participant. Listening or watching I feel passive.like I am being spoon-fed. I can't just sit and watch or listen, I have to be doing something else to be fully occupied and likely that will distract me from whatever i am watching/listening to. Reading, if I'm not sure of something I can always go back a sentence or paragraph or two, whereas with the media I would have to go through some mechanical process to rewind and you can't just go back to a certain point.
I guess those audio books would be fine if you were driving somewhere, or doing something sort of boring, The gym is boring, and I have taken to listening to podcasts or RadioLab, which works just fine, but I would never listen to them just sitting around staring.
Subjectively it seems like I retain those podcasts pretty well, but I think if I was not doing anything else my mind would wander.
I think I've read two or three of Beagles's Caravan links (strangely enough from msn, this from guy who doesn't trust aljazeera) and I have yet to read one that alarms me. Let me know when they are knocking on your door.
Tell Bambi I am rooting for him.
Thursday, November 15, 2018
Long Day, Short Night
My post was short last night because I was tired, tired of repeating myself, and just plain tired. I got up early yesterday to make bread and I was planning to get up even earlier today for opening day of deer season. I can get up early if I have a reason to, but I certainly wouldn't get up early just to read the newspaper. I prefer to do that in the evening while drinking beer and smoking cigarettes. I seldom go online until after supper, so anything I read on my news app is old news to Uncle Ken. On the other hand, anything he reads at 5:00 AM might be old news by the time I read about it, and the situation might have changed by then. For instance, he keeps insisting that this Caravan thing is no big deal, but the articles I have read suggest that it's a big deal indeed. I haven't posted all of them, but here's another one that is new to me, although I can't say that it surprises me:
https://a.msn.com/r/2/BBPKy3D?m=en-us&referrerID=InAppShare
I have heard of Aljazeera, but I have never read any of it, just as I never read the Russian newspapers during the Cold War era. It's not that I'm afraid to be exposed to alien propaganda, it's just that there are only so many hours in a day, and I would rather spend them doing something that interests me. Our local paper doesn't have much in the way of real news, it's mostly school sports and social crap, but they do print a few news articles and one decent opinion page. If I want more information, I can always get it on line. I am not exactly a news junkie, but I pay more attention to it now than I ever did, mostly due to the influence of my esteemed colleagues at the Beaglesonian Institute.
I didn't see any deer today and my trail camera only captured one poor image in three days, but there are tracks all over the place and the season is young.
https://a.msn.com/r/2/BBPKy3D?m=en-us&referrerID=InAppShare
I have heard of Aljazeera, but I have never read any of it, just as I never read the Russian newspapers during the Cold War era. It's not that I'm afraid to be exposed to alien propaganda, it's just that there are only so many hours in a day, and I would rather spend them doing something that interests me. Our local paper doesn't have much in the way of real news, it's mostly school sports and social crap, but they do print a few news articles and one decent opinion page. If I want more information, I can always get it on line. I am not exactly a news junkie, but I pay more attention to it now than I ever did, mostly due to the influence of my esteemed colleagues at the Beaglesonian Institute.
I didn't see any deer today and my trail camera only captured one poor image in three days, but there are tracks all over the place and the season is young.
The mind's eye blinks
The more I read about the caravan the more I suspect that it isn't really much of a story and is veering towards Wag the Dog territory. Seven (or ten or fifteen) thousand refugees sounds like an awful lot of people but if you compare it to the hundreds of millions legal border crossings each year it becomes a more like a rounding error. The authorities seem to have the situation well in hand in Tijuana; some guys have been climbing the fence and when border agents approach them they scoot back to the Mexican side. I'm not going to say the caravan has become a circus but some of those refugees seem to be having too much fun but I could be wrong. When this is all over a small percentage of refugees will be admitted, after lengthy processing, and Mexico will be stuck with everyone else.
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The brevity of Mr. Beagles' latest post was unexpected but I'm not disturbed by it. There is such a thing as beating a dead horse and some of the recent discussions have gone nowhere, except in circles, in my opinion. Maybe it's just a matter of style; Mr. Beagles expresses an opinion and leaves it at that without beating you over the head.
His perception of Al Jazeera, for instance; it seems to me that he is not that familiar with their content. Although their point view is pro-Arab it does not mean that they are anti-US and their reporting is surprisingly objective, all things considered. Based in Qatar, Al Jazeera has a lot of enemies in the Mid-Eastern community, particularly the Saudis. I don't buy everything Al Jazeera reports but a different point of view doesn't hurt. A recent video I saw included that slain reporter, Khashoggi, and it was chilling to hear him express fear for his life.
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Since I don't normally buy a daily paper I didn't pay much attention to Uncle Ken's comments about the comics pages but then I saw it for myself, and Wow! It's like the paper has been gutted. The fact that they spread some of the comics in the classified ad section tells me that they are trying to beef up the number of ad pages, a long time source of revenue for all newspapers, to make it seem larger than it actually is. The Chicago Sun-Times could already be dead but doesn't know it yet, another victim of the Internet Age. The loss of print media is a terrible price to pay for the immediate gratification of online news and information. I wonder how well we will adapt, or if we will be able to.
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Have either of you guys listened to any audio books, the newfangled method of reading without reading? As an avid reader I've long dismissed them, but then I stumbled across a ten-hour reading of Orwell's 1984 and I am impressed. The aural version adds a depth I did not expect and in some ways is superior to the written word, giving my mind's eye a significant boost and is a different form of engagement. I'll have to do some research on this, to see if there are comparisons between the written and the aural regarding comprehension and retention of information. Any guesses on how they measure up?
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The brevity of Mr. Beagles' latest post was unexpected but I'm not disturbed by it. There is such a thing as beating a dead horse and some of the recent discussions have gone nowhere, except in circles, in my opinion. Maybe it's just a matter of style; Mr. Beagles expresses an opinion and leaves it at that without beating you over the head.
His perception of Al Jazeera, for instance; it seems to me that he is not that familiar with their content. Although their point view is pro-Arab it does not mean that they are anti-US and their reporting is surprisingly objective, all things considered. Based in Qatar, Al Jazeera has a lot of enemies in the Mid-Eastern community, particularly the Saudis. I don't buy everything Al Jazeera reports but a different point of view doesn't hurt. A recent video I saw included that slain reporter, Khashoggi, and it was chilling to hear him express fear for his life.
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Since I don't normally buy a daily paper I didn't pay much attention to Uncle Ken's comments about the comics pages but then I saw it for myself, and Wow! It's like the paper has been gutted. The fact that they spread some of the comics in the classified ad section tells me that they are trying to beef up the number of ad pages, a long time source of revenue for all newspapers, to make it seem larger than it actually is. The Chicago Sun-Times could already be dead but doesn't know it yet, another victim of the Internet Age. The loss of print media is a terrible price to pay for the immediate gratification of online news and information. I wonder how well we will adapt, or if we will be able to.
-----
Have either of you guys listened to any audio books, the newfangled method of reading without reading? As an avid reader I've long dismissed them, but then I stumbled across a ten-hour reading of Orwell's 1984 and I am impressed. The aural version adds a depth I did not expect and in some ways is superior to the written word, giving my mind's eye a significant boost and is a different form of engagement. I'll have to do some research on this, to see if there are comparisons between the written and the aural regarding comprehension and retention of information. Any guesses on how they measure up?
the world is going to hell
November 15, 2018, the world is going to hell. It was only a few months ago that I would wake around five, and as I crossed from the bathroom to the kitchen I would glance at the door where the light peeking in underneath it would be broken by the heft of my papers, freshly delivered, which would be waiting patiently for my perusal. I would fix my coffee and my yogurt, take them, along with the papers, to the computer, where a posting (perhaps two) of some goodly length would be awaiting my opportunity to set things straight. I was ready to start my day. Life was good.
Newspapers, as we know, are not what they once were, a mere shadow of themselves, particularly national and world news is sketchy, which is a pity, but I always liked the features, the columns and best of all, tucked like a creamy nougat center into the middle of the Sun-Times, the comics. Three full pages of them, half of which were decent.
Maybe a month ago there was an article tucked in a corner of maybe the third page about changes to be made in the Sun-Times, and one of those changes was that they were cutting the comics down to one page, and a few others spread out through the classifieds, a shrunken, spattered, less creamy, nougat center.
And the papers no longer arrive at five. My regular steady paperwoman, who I always gave forty bucks (forty bucks!) every Christmas, so appreciative was I of the steady early arrival of the paper, essential to me for starting my day, has apparently found the grind too grinding and taken on a relief worker who has not the same devotion to punctuality, and on her days who knows when the paper will arrive. Yesterday we crossed paths as I was accompanying Sweetie on her dawn patrol in the hallway at seven AM. (Seven AM!). I spoke sharply to her about the hour, but she, like so many of her frivolous generation was just like la de da, so it goes.
We boomers know that our parents were The Greatest Generation because they whipped the Krauts, and I like to think of us as The Pretty Good Generation because even though we failed to whip the Viet Cong, we did keep them from landing on our California beaches. At least I could expect, in the midst of my shattered morning routine a post of some length (though often misguided) from the freehold of Beaglesonia.
But what is this today? A single paragraph, and a short one at that with a link to an article about something that I read about in the (shrunken) paper of late yesterday morn?
I would think he would be glad that it was landing in California, even further from him and that it was easily turned away by the local border patrol without even those thousands of troops sitting in barracks tossing cards into hats in Texas, but I reckon he is still fearing illegal immigrants under his bed. Something I fear not at all, because right here in The Kingdom of Uncle Ken, the world is going to hell.
Newspapers, as we know, are not what they once were, a mere shadow of themselves, particularly national and world news is sketchy, which is a pity, but I always liked the features, the columns and best of all, tucked like a creamy nougat center into the middle of the Sun-Times, the comics. Three full pages of them, half of which were decent.
Maybe a month ago there was an article tucked in a corner of maybe the third page about changes to be made in the Sun-Times, and one of those changes was that they were cutting the comics down to one page, and a few others spread out through the classifieds, a shrunken, spattered, less creamy, nougat center.
And the papers no longer arrive at five. My regular steady paperwoman, who I always gave forty bucks (forty bucks!) every Christmas, so appreciative was I of the steady early arrival of the paper, essential to me for starting my day, has apparently found the grind too grinding and taken on a relief worker who has not the same devotion to punctuality, and on her days who knows when the paper will arrive. Yesterday we crossed paths as I was accompanying Sweetie on her dawn patrol in the hallway at seven AM. (Seven AM!). I spoke sharply to her about the hour, but she, like so many of her frivolous generation was just like la de da, so it goes.
We boomers know that our parents were The Greatest Generation because they whipped the Krauts, and I like to think of us as The Pretty Good Generation because even though we failed to whip the Viet Cong, we did keep them from landing on our California beaches. At least I could expect, in the midst of my shattered morning routine a post of some length (though often misguided) from the freehold of Beaglesonia.
But what is this today? A single paragraph, and a short one at that with a link to an article about something that I read about in the (shrunken) paper of late yesterday morn?
I would think he would be glad that it was landing in California, even further from him and that it was easily turned away by the local border patrol without even those thousands of troops sitting in barracks tossing cards into hats in Texas, but I reckon he is still fearing illegal immigrants under his bed. Something I fear not at all, because right here in The Kingdom of Uncle Ken, the world is going to hell.
Wednesday, November 14, 2018
The Fire Next Time
Not that I expect it will change Uncle Ken's mind, but here's the latest Caravan news. It looks like their invasion route is taking them straight into California. I wonder if they know that the whole state is currently on fire.
https://a.msn.com/r/2/BBPIQqm?m=en-us&referrerID=InAppShare
https://a.msn.com/r/2/BBPIQqm?m=en-us&referrerID=InAppShare
Have a nice slice of chocolate cake Mr Prez, with my special icing.
The big difference between OBHP and no party at all would be that you would have to sign something agreeing not to form a formal party (I think money sharing would be the main definition of a formal party). If you broke that rule you would be kicked out of OBHP and since that is the only party allowed you wouldn't be able to run for anything. The problem with the more the merrier is that if the party decides to do something you have to go along with that to get your money,
This Armistice Day thing, the railing about Florida not counting all its votes, the recent impending beheadings with Madame Melani joining the sharp-axed crew, do seem to be signs of Trump going off the railings. I looked up martial law and it's a bit complicated, referring mostly to military rule over civilians. I don't think you could use martial law to put in a supreme court justice or pass a bill through congress or even to ban a pesky reporter.
Those press conferences are mostly circuses. I don't think much information comes out of them. I think what the prez hates most about the press, maybe even more than calling him a liar, is that they backtalk him. He has always been surrounded by yes men and he hates backtalk. I don't see the White Shadow making any overt moves, not if he's smart. Interesting that his man is now being considered for the soon to be late Kelly's post. So much easier to slip something into the diet coke from that cozy relationship.
Aljazeera is not run by a bunch of Islamic terrorists, in fact it is frequently the enemy of them as well as of the bloody sword dancing Saudis. But they are Arabs so I think in Beagles' world outlook that makes them terrorists. I don't think clicking on their link would bring terrorism right into Beagles' frontroom, any more than clicking a link on The Caravan brings busboys storming into his kitchen to whisk away the empty coffee cup and wipe down his table.
This Armistice Day thing, the railing about Florida not counting all its votes, the recent impending beheadings with Madame Melani joining the sharp-axed crew, do seem to be signs of Trump going off the railings. I looked up martial law and it's a bit complicated, referring mostly to military rule over civilians. I don't think you could use martial law to put in a supreme court justice or pass a bill through congress or even to ban a pesky reporter.
Those press conferences are mostly circuses. I don't think much information comes out of them. I think what the prez hates most about the press, maybe even more than calling him a liar, is that they backtalk him. He has always been surrounded by yes men and he hates backtalk. I don't see the White Shadow making any overt moves, not if he's smart. Interesting that his man is now being considered for the soon to be late Kelly's post. So much easier to slip something into the diet coke from that cozy relationship.
Aljazeera is not run by a bunch of Islamic terrorists, in fact it is frequently the enemy of them as well as of the bloody sword dancing Saudis. But they are Arabs so I think in Beagles' world outlook that makes them terrorists. I don't think clicking on their link would bring terrorism right into Beagles' frontroom, any more than clicking a link on The Caravan brings busboys storming into his kitchen to whisk away the empty coffee cup and wipe down his table.
Tuesday, November 13, 2018
It's Complicated
After a brief internet search, I don't know a whole lot more about it than I did before, but I understand that applying for VA health care benefits is a complicated process. I don't think you can just sign up for it yourself, I think you have to see somebody who guides you through the maze of paperwork. Your eligibility depends on a multitude of factors like where and when you served, where you live now, and how much money you make. I also think you can't just go to any doctor you want, you have to go to a VA hospital or clinic. There was some talk a few years ago about establishing a VA clinic in Cheboygan because our local vets had to travel a long way to the nearest one. The clinic ended up being established in Mackinaw City instead of Cheboygan, which is not so bad I guess.
I heard something about that mortgage benefit when we were building our first house, but I didn't understand how it worked and, looking back on it, I don't think the guy who was advising me did either. We ended up borrowing the money from my grandmother and refinancing through a bank a few years later.
I am reluctant to click on Uncle Ken's link because it has the word "Aljazeera" in it. Isn't that the news media outfit that's run by a bunch of Islamic terrorists?
Speaking of links, here's another one about the Caravan:
https://a.msn.com/r/2/BBPFIn3?m=en-us&referrerID=InAppShare
I heard something about that mortgage benefit when we were building our first house, but I didn't understand how it worked and, looking back on it, I don't think the guy who was advising me did either. We ended up borrowing the money from my grandmother and refinancing through a bank a few years later.
I am reluctant to click on Uncle Ken's link because it has the word "Aljazeera" in it. Isn't that the news media outfit that's run by a bunch of Islamic terrorists?
Speaking of links, here's another one about the Caravan:
https://a.msn.com/r/2/BBPFIn3?m=en-us&referrerID=InAppShare
The more the merrier
It's been a long time since I enjoyed any VA benefits; I was eligible for 36 months of educational benefits but I only used nine of them to finish college and a very short stint of grad school. I don't know what benefits are available right now but I understand that the VA is a mess, with the hospitals being in particularly bad shape.
One benefit I remember is that your first mortgage was guaranteed and that you could buy a home with almost no money down with reasonable interest rates. Mr. Beagles might know more about that than I do and I suspect that policies have changed over the decades. The money to pay for all those good benefits may no longer be available; I don't know.
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Uncle Ken's One Big Happy Party proposal is intriguing but what sense does it make? There doesn't seem to be any difference to me between one party and no party at all but I have to give it more thought. Until then I will stick to my preference of The More The Merrier system with multiple parties, more than the current two party system. I don't like the binary nature of only two parties where you are forced to decide between these guys and those guys; life and politics aren't like that.
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I don't know what to make of the recent Armistice Day observations in Paris but it looks like the Europeans are showing some spine, with Macron being the most vocal. It's not a good thing if the Europeans feel that their biggest threats come from China, Russia, and the US. Maybe they're just being paranoid but a lot of the last two big wars were fought on French soil so they have a vested interest. I'd be paranoid, too.
Having the US clumped together with those guys as a threat to Europe is unsettling but there may be something to it. According to the AP, fifty nations and over 150 tech companies pledged yesterday to do more to fight criminal activity on the internet. Three nations did not sign the pledge: China, Russia, and the US. Kind of makes you wonder, doesn't it?
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Just spit-balling now, but I wonder if Pence is warming up in the bullpen. The loss of the House to the Democrats will be fatal to Trump but the new people won't be sworn in until January and a lot could happen until then. Instead of backing down Trump doubles down on everything; it didn't take him long to dump Sessions and more heads are expected to roll soon including Kelly, one of the few adults left in the room. Trump is the kind of guy who would declare Martial Law if he thought he could get away with it. What a world we live in.
One benefit I remember is that your first mortgage was guaranteed and that you could buy a home with almost no money down with reasonable interest rates. Mr. Beagles might know more about that than I do and I suspect that policies have changed over the decades. The money to pay for all those good benefits may no longer be available; I don't know.
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Uncle Ken's One Big Happy Party proposal is intriguing but what sense does it make? There doesn't seem to be any difference to me between one party and no party at all but I have to give it more thought. Until then I will stick to my preference of The More The Merrier system with multiple parties, more than the current two party system. I don't like the binary nature of only two parties where you are forced to decide between these guys and those guys; life and politics aren't like that.
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I don't know what to make of the recent Armistice Day observations in Paris but it looks like the Europeans are showing some spine, with Macron being the most vocal. It's not a good thing if the Europeans feel that their biggest threats come from China, Russia, and the US. Maybe they're just being paranoid but a lot of the last two big wars were fought on French soil so they have a vested interest. I'd be paranoid, too.
Having the US clumped together with those guys as a threat to Europe is unsettling but there may be something to it. According to the AP, fifty nations and over 150 tech companies pledged yesterday to do more to fight criminal activity on the internet. Three nations did not sign the pledge: China, Russia, and the US. Kind of makes you wonder, doesn't it?
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Just spit-balling now, but I wonder if Pence is warming up in the bullpen. The loss of the House to the Democrats will be fatal to Trump but the new people won't be sworn in until January and a lot could happen until then. Instead of backing down Trump doubles down on everything; it didn't take him long to dump Sessions and more heads are expected to roll soon including Kelly, one of the few adults left in the room. Trump is the kind of guy who would declare Martial Law if he thought he could get away with it. What a world we live in.
a few nuts and bolts for OBHP
I don't know what elections were like in the Soviet Union way back when but here is an interesting article on the way they are now https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/russian-elections-follow-soviet-tradition-180316202457460.html
Interesting in the way the commissars know Putin would win in a fair election, but figuratively stuff the ballot boxes anyway just to get a good turnout. Kind of the way we used to do in Chicago. And speaking of stuffing ballot boxes isn't it outrageous the way Trump is calling to stop counting ballots in Florida before all the votes are in, many of them from the armed forces, and speaking of the armed forces, isn't it disgraceful how he dodged the WW I memorial? Though I hear that stiff rubber rain boats can chafe a sensitive bone spur.
It turns out that my voting no on all the judges paid out after all. One of the bad apples didn't get reelected and my vote was one of those that sank his ship. Two little lines connected for Uncle Ken, a giant step towards good government for the good people of Chicagoland.
Well maybe not a giant step, likely a lot of bad apples still got through. That whole system of voting for all the judges is a bad apple itself. A better system would be to vote for people who appoint them, then the appointees might be careful who they appoint lest they themselves get voted against,.
Further down the ballot I voted, like Beagles, for people I never heard of running for offices I didn't know existed, the only difference being I voted dem where he voted rep. Something wrong with the current system right there. In the OBHP system there would just be names. I could easily consult some sort of web page or paper or Youtube-esque video that would give me some info on all the candidates. I think most voters would do that, would prefer that to all those insane mailers that stuff the mailbox and commercials that clog the airways. I wonder if the candidates were allowed one single campaign commercial. Would they fill them with crap the way they do the many they air now?
What is this about free medical care being available if the veteran is poor enough? I thought all veterans were eligible for VA care?
Interesting in the way the commissars know Putin would win in a fair election, but figuratively stuff the ballot boxes anyway just to get a good turnout. Kind of the way we used to do in Chicago. And speaking of stuffing ballot boxes isn't it outrageous the way Trump is calling to stop counting ballots in Florida before all the votes are in, many of them from the armed forces, and speaking of the armed forces, isn't it disgraceful how he dodged the WW I memorial? Though I hear that stiff rubber rain boats can chafe a sensitive bone spur.
It turns out that my voting no on all the judges paid out after all. One of the bad apples didn't get reelected and my vote was one of those that sank his ship. Two little lines connected for Uncle Ken, a giant step towards good government for the good people of Chicagoland.
Well maybe not a giant step, likely a lot of bad apples still got through. That whole system of voting for all the judges is a bad apple itself. A better system would be to vote for people who appoint them, then the appointees might be careful who they appoint lest they themselves get voted against,.
Further down the ballot I voted, like Beagles, for people I never heard of running for offices I didn't know existed, the only difference being I voted dem where he voted rep. Something wrong with the current system right there. In the OBHP system there would just be names. I could easily consult some sort of web page or paper or Youtube-esque video that would give me some info on all the candidates. I think most voters would do that, would prefer that to all those insane mailers that stuff the mailbox and commercials that clog the airways. I wonder if the candidates were allowed one single campaign commercial. Would they fill them with crap the way they do the many they air now?
What is this about free medical care being available if the veteran is poor enough? I thought all veterans were eligible for VA care?
Monday, November 12, 2018
Nyet!
I think all the Russian premiers during the Soviet era were ultimately canned by the party except for Stalin, who died in office. The people only got to vote on their local leaders, who then elected district leaders, who then elected provincial leaders, who then elected national leaders. There may have been more steps in the process, but you get the idea. There was only one candidate on the ballot, and the people got to vote either "yes" or "no". If the "no" votes won, the party would nominate another candidate and hold the election all over again. That seldom happened because the citizens were more or less forced to vote. Well, not exactly forced, let's say "strongly encouraged". Factories were shut down and the employees were marched through the snow to the polling place on election day, which couldn't have been lots of fun for them. If they voted the candidate down, they would just have to march through the snow again to vote for somebody that probably wasn't a whole lot different than the one they rejected. (I don't remember where I learned this, probably in school.)
In our system, it's just the opposite. We get to vote on numerous candidates, many of whom I've never heard of, for numerous offices, many of which I'm not sure exactly what their job is. If it wasn't for political parties, I don't know how I would decide who to vote for, except for the President, the Governor, and maybe Congress. Many people can't even name their congressmen, much less the members of the Wayne State Board of Regents. (I'm not making this up, there really is such a thing in Michigan.) Within the last few years, Michigan passed a law that eliminated straight party voting. The law was overturned by a court, then reinstated on an appeal, and ultimately overturned by ballot initiative. I think the law was stupid myself. People said that they did it to discourage Blacks from voting, but I'm sure that lots of White people vote straight party too. Whatever were they thinking?
I'm with Uncle Ken on the TV advertising. I listen to most of them once, and hit the "mute" button every time they come on after that. I think you'd have a hard time banning or restricting that, though, because of freedom of speech issues. What they might be able ban is those annoying robo calls. I think any freedom of speech issues might be over ruled by right of privacy issues. Calling me on the phone is not the same thing as broadcasting something on public media.
I get an extra 20 or 25 dollars in my Social Security check because of my veteran status. I could get free medical care if I was poor, and I could have gone to college on the GI bill, but I didn't.
In our system, it's just the opposite. We get to vote on numerous candidates, many of whom I've never heard of, for numerous offices, many of which I'm not sure exactly what their job is. If it wasn't for political parties, I don't know how I would decide who to vote for, except for the President, the Governor, and maybe Congress. Many people can't even name their congressmen, much less the members of the Wayne State Board of Regents. (I'm not making this up, there really is such a thing in Michigan.) Within the last few years, Michigan passed a law that eliminated straight party voting. The law was overturned by a court, then reinstated on an appeal, and ultimately overturned by ballot initiative. I think the law was stupid myself. People said that they did it to discourage Blacks from voting, but I'm sure that lots of White people vote straight party too. Whatever were they thinking?
I'm with Uncle Ken on the TV advertising. I listen to most of them once, and hit the "mute" button every time they come on after that. I think you'd have a hard time banning or restricting that, though, because of freedom of speech issues. What they might be able ban is those annoying robo calls. I think any freedom of speech issues might be over ruled by right of privacy issues. Calling me on the phone is not the same thing as broadcasting something on public media.
I get an extra 20 or 25 dollars in my Social Security check because of my veteran status. I could get free medical care if I was poor, and I could have gone to college on the GI bill, but I didn't.
not many parties, ONE party
The communist party is exactly what I was thinking of when I thought of the One Party. Surely within the communist parties there are guys who, within that restricted range, are more to the right or to the left, they must have some informal coalitions, but those would be fine, It seems like they are mostly ceremonial in nature. How often do you see any commie leader in trouble because their party voted against them? Another big problem is that you have to be a commie to join.
In Uncle Ken's One Big Happy Party (OBHP) anybody could join, probably you would have to be a citizen. You would have to sign something agreeing to not form a formal party. The language of that could be tricky, but lest's say it's doable. All elections would be like primaries, anybody could run, though maybe you would need petitions to keep the ballots from being too big. One advantage would be that you would have to articulate your ideas and programs more clearly, you couldn't just say vote for me because of my party because everybody would be a member of the same party, I kind of like that voting system where you vote for your 1st, 2nd, and 3rd candidate and they get respectively like 5, 3, and 1 point, and the guy with the most points win. People would have to raise money on their own, they would get no OBHP money. The elections would be limited to a certain amount of time like I believer the British are, or were. There would be official forums where the candidates would lay out their agenda., some tv shows where all candidates would appear, but no commercials like we see now. Do the dawgs see any changes they want to make on my system?
The reason the green and libertarian parties don't get many votes is that most people don't like their agendas. Some of their ideas, legal pot, and a clean environment may be popular, but the way to move them into actualization is to have them adopted by a major party, just as the dems took the 40 hour week from the progressives and made it their own.
It may or may not be relevant, but I'm reminded of a quote by the late, great, Charles Bukowski when he said “The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts, while the stupid ones are full of confidence.”
I think Mr Bukowski is stealing from WB Yeats' The best lack all conviction while the worst are full of passionate intensity, but probably many said something similar before him.. I always thought it was a weakness of the liberals against the commies and the hard rightists who have no doubts. But if you think a lot about things you are bound to have doubts, just the nature of the universe.
Happy Veterans day guys. By the way do either of the dawgs get benefits from the VA?
In Uncle Ken's One Big Happy Party (OBHP) anybody could join, probably you would have to be a citizen. You would have to sign something agreeing to not form a formal party. The language of that could be tricky, but lest's say it's doable. All elections would be like primaries, anybody could run, though maybe you would need petitions to keep the ballots from being too big. One advantage would be that you would have to articulate your ideas and programs more clearly, you couldn't just say vote for me because of my party because everybody would be a member of the same party, I kind of like that voting system where you vote for your 1st, 2nd, and 3rd candidate and they get respectively like 5, 3, and 1 point, and the guy with the most points win. People would have to raise money on their own, they would get no OBHP money. The elections would be limited to a certain amount of time like I believer the British are, or were. There would be official forums where the candidates would lay out their agenda., some tv shows where all candidates would appear, but no commercials like we see now. Do the dawgs see any changes they want to make on my system?
The reason the green and libertarian parties don't get many votes is that most people don't like their agendas. Some of their ideas, legal pot, and a clean environment may be popular, but the way to move them into actualization is to have them adopted by a major party, just as the dems took the 40 hour week from the progressives and made it their own.
It may or may not be relevant, but I'm reminded of a quote by the late, great, Charles Bukowski when he said “The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts, while the stupid ones are full of confidence.”
I think Mr Bukowski is stealing from WB Yeats' The best lack all conviction while the worst are full of passionate intensity, but probably many said something similar before him.. I always thought it was a weakness of the liberals against the commies and the hard rightists who have no doubts. But if you think a lot about things you are bound to have doubts, just the nature of the universe.
Happy Veterans day guys. By the way do either of the dawgs get benefits from the VA?
Sunday, November 11, 2018
The Lesser of Three Evils
We had a saying back in my Libertarian days, "This country doesn't need a third party, what it needs is a second party." That's because it didn't seem to matter which party was in office because they both had almost the same agenda. I like it better now that there is a discernable difference. I think what happened was the two major parties made an effort to assimilate people from the extreme left and right to keep them out of the third parties. Then Trump came along and managed to piss off people from both sides. The Libertarians got three percent of the vote in 2016, which is at least three times what they usually get. I think the only reason the third parties didn't do better than that is a lot of people wanted to vote against either Trump or Hillary, and the most effective way to have their vote matter was to vote for the opposite major party. The only reason I voted for the Libertarian presidential candidate was that I didn't like either Trump or Hillary and, this way, I got to vote against both of them at once.
I think the difference between the current caravan and the others is that this one is much larger and more determined. Say what you want about Trump, but he has done more to control illegal immigration than any president I can think of. If I had known that he was actually do it instead of just talk about it, I might have voted for him myself.
11/11
Of course a single party is unlikely to come about or to last very long.
Except in countries that are still Communist; those are the only nations that have a single party system to the best of my knowledge. Orwell's 1984 also had a single party, but that's a work of fiction...or is it?
I still like the idea of having more than two parties to choose from, and we do but the smaller parties never get any traction. All the money flows to either the Democrats or the Republicans and the lesser heard voices are never funded to the extent they should be. The Greens and the Libertarians don't have a chance and we're at a point where the big guys seem to want to put the interests of the Party before the best interests of the country. There is a reluctance for many congressmen to cross the aisle and compromise to make decisions and I don't know why that is. It would be a ballsy move for the reasonable congressmen of both parties to drop out and form a new third party but I'm not holding my breath.
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I just checked my news app, and it seems the Caravan is still on track.
Indeed it is but I think Uncle Ken is correct in pointing out that it's a big deal because Trump is making so much of it. There have been caravans before and they seemed to have been dealt with without any high drama but I could be wrong. What is strange is that Trump hasn't said much recently about that caravan but he is not known for his long attention span unless it involves Hillary, Obama, or the 2016 election.
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Happy Veterans Day to Mr. Beagles although I don't think "happy" is the right word. I've always liked this holiday the best because it's the only holiday that I've ever earned.
Except in countries that are still Communist; those are the only nations that have a single party system to the best of my knowledge. Orwell's 1984 also had a single party, but that's a work of fiction...or is it?
I still like the idea of having more than two parties to choose from, and we do but the smaller parties never get any traction. All the money flows to either the Democrats or the Republicans and the lesser heard voices are never funded to the extent they should be. The Greens and the Libertarians don't have a chance and we're at a point where the big guys seem to want to put the interests of the Party before the best interests of the country. There is a reluctance for many congressmen to cross the aisle and compromise to make decisions and I don't know why that is. It would be a ballsy move for the reasonable congressmen of both parties to drop out and form a new third party but I'm not holding my breath.
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I just checked my news app, and it seems the Caravan is still on track.
Indeed it is but I think Uncle Ken is correct in pointing out that it's a big deal because Trump is making so much of it. There have been caravans before and they seemed to have been dealt with without any high drama but I could be wrong. What is strange is that Trump hasn't said much recently about that caravan but he is not known for his long attention span unless it involves Hillary, Obama, or the 2016 election.
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Happy Veterans Day to Mr. Beagles although I don't think "happy" is the right word. I've always liked this holiday the best because it's the only holiday that I've ever earned.
Friday, November 9, 2018
Wrong Again
I have scanned through all four gospels, and it appears that Jesus never said the thing that I said he said. Maybe it was another Biblical character, or maybe it was Shakespeare, but I'm pretty sure that somebody said it and that I didn't just make it up.
About that chicks thing, if you will check my post "Slim Pickings" of 11/4/18 you will see that it was I who first tracked down that Esquire article and reported that I was unable to access it. My sister doesn't remember it and Uncle Ken doesn't remember it, and they are the only people I know who ever participated in a protest demonstration, so maybe it never happened, but I didn't make that up either. I didn't have a TV in those days, so I must have either read about it somewhere or somebody told me about it. When I brought it up, comparing it to the current practice of illegal immigrants bringing their women and children with them, I didn't expect to have to defend my statement. I thought it was common knowledge, but apparently it is not. I was surprised that there is so little mention of it on the internet. I do think that the You Tube video is worth a look though. The poet lady just rattled it off like she didn't think anybody would challenge it. Of course the poem might be a work of fiction, but that could be said about almost anything you hear or read or see on TV these days. It's like that old army saying (origin unknown), "Don't believe anything you hear and half of what you see."
I just checked my news app, and it seems the Caravan is still on track.
https://a.msn.com/r/2/BBPvole?m=en-us&referrerID=InAppShare
About that chicks thing, if you will check my post "Slim Pickings" of 11/4/18 you will see that it was I who first tracked down that Esquire article and reported that I was unable to access it. My sister doesn't remember it and Uncle Ken doesn't remember it, and they are the only people I know who ever participated in a protest demonstration, so maybe it never happened, but I didn't make that up either. I didn't have a TV in those days, so I must have either read about it somewhere or somebody told me about it. When I brought it up, comparing it to the current practice of illegal immigrants bringing their women and children with them, I didn't expect to have to defend my statement. I thought it was common knowledge, but apparently it is not. I was surprised that there is so little mention of it on the internet. I do think that the You Tube video is worth a look though. The poet lady just rattled it off like she didn't think anybody would challenge it. Of course the poem might be a work of fiction, but that could be said about almost anything you hear or read or see on TV these days. It's like that old army saying (origin unknown), "Don't believe anything you hear and half of what you see."
I just checked my news app, and it seems the Caravan is still on track.
https://a.msn.com/r/2/BBPvole?m=en-us&referrerID=InAppShare
Down in front
I like to take a break from this forum once in a while, not only for the sake of my own sanity but also to avoid getting sucked into prolonged and meaningless discussions. This whole "chicks up front" business, for instance. Despite Uncles Ken's assertions, it was indeed a "thing," not a big one but a thing nonetheless; a cover story of a major national magazine made it so. You are free to think otherwise.
And that caravan business? Too much we don't really know but it seems to me that it is less of an invasion than a somewhat cohesive group of gatecrashers who are unlikely to be armed and dangerous. I expect a measured and restrained response when they do show up at the border but with Trump at the helm any predictions would be futile.
That's the thing about Trump, his complete unpredictability and his capacity to flip 180 degrees on any issue at a moment's notice. He deserves a little credit, though, in that he has made us painfully aware of some of the shortcomings of our political system. I don't think there is any loophole that he hasn't examined thoroughly and is willing to exploit. Despite any investigations and legal proceedings, what do you suppose will happen when the eventual court cases against him get appealed all the way to the Supreme Court? He could very well walk away unscathed, as loathsome as that idea may be, and remain the Black Swan of American politics.
It may or may not be relevant, but I'm reminded of a quote by the late, great, Charles Bukowski when he said “The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts, while the stupid ones are full of confidence.”
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And to help me keep things on an even keel here's a video of a guy serenading his cattle with a trombone.
And that caravan business? Too much we don't really know but it seems to me that it is less of an invasion than a somewhat cohesive group of gatecrashers who are unlikely to be armed and dangerous. I expect a measured and restrained response when they do show up at the border but with Trump at the helm any predictions would be futile.
That's the thing about Trump, his complete unpredictability and his capacity to flip 180 degrees on any issue at a moment's notice. He deserves a little credit, though, in that he has made us painfully aware of some of the shortcomings of our political system. I don't think there is any loophole that he hasn't examined thoroughly and is willing to exploit. Despite any investigations and legal proceedings, what do you suppose will happen when the eventual court cases against him get appealed all the way to the Supreme Court? He could very well walk away unscathed, as loathsome as that idea may be, and remain the Black Swan of American politics.
It may or may not be relevant, but I'm reminded of a quote by the late, great, Charles Bukowski when he said “The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts, while the stupid ones are full of confidence.”
-----
And to help me keep things on an even keel here's a video of a guy serenading his cattle with a trombone.
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