Thursday, 10 April 2014

By on April 10th, 2014 in news, personal

08:14 – I’ve finished our federal income tax return. I haven’t done the state forms yet, but they’re based on federal taxes with some adjustments so it’s a simple matter to complete them.

I see that another high school kid went berserk, this time in the Pittsburgh area. This time, the weapons of choice were knives rather than guns. I’m expecting calls for stricter knife control.

I finished watching season six of Heartland yesterday just in time for Barbara and I to start binge-watching season seven, the last episode of which airs this coming Sunday. Toward the end of season six one of the main characters, Georgie, age 11, has to deal with one of her classmates who is a mean girl. The mean girl theme recurs through many of the series we watch, and I conclude that once a mean girl, always a mean girl.

Barbara’s mother is having to deal with mean girls of her own age right now. I was stunned when Barbara told me why her mother hesitates to go down for meals. Sankie is shaky and sometimes has trouble eating without dropping food. Apparently, some mean girls (AKA vicious old bitches) at the facility make fun of her difficulties. This isn’t something Sankie is making up. Her caregiver confirms it.

I told Barbara that, although I normally go out of my way to be polite and non-threatening to little old ladies, I’d be happy to make an exception in this case if she wants someone to scare the shit out of these old bitches.


09:09 – I mentioned some time ago that Elemental Scientific had been sold to another company, which planned to continue doing business as Elemental Scientific. So this morning I got email from the new Elemental Scientific announcing a 20% off sale. I visited the site, intending to stock up on some chemicals. Unfortunately, I immediately noticed that the new company had significantly increased its chemical prices, to the point where 20% off isn’t much of a deal, if any.

37 Comments and discussion on "Thursday, 10 April 2014"

  1. MrAtoz says:

    If you haven’t been following the cattle grazing mess here in NV, check it out on Drudge. Still a top story. I guess the Feds now own everything and if you don’t follow the law, you get assaulted by an armed 200 man team. Funny no humans have been killed yet.

  2. Paul says:

    I always chuckle when I see “new low price,” it usually seems to mean they’re raised the old low price and or reduced the amount of product.

  3. DadCooks says:

    I can see the Attorney General’s Press Conference now, announcing registration of all kitchen knives (30-day waiting period too) and calling for the development of a “bracelet” that only allows knives to be used by the owner in the kitchen (the kid used kitchen knives from home) and tracks the knives if they leave the house.

    @MrAtoz – I have been following the cattle grazing mess. This is not going to end well.

  4. Robert Bruce Thompson says:

    Yeah, they raised their chemical prices 20% across the board and then turn around and have a 20% off sale through the end of this month. Based on their old prices, that’s actually a 4% off sale.

    Some of their prices are still reasonably decent, but others are outrageous. For example, they’re now charging $108/pound for ACS potassium iodide. I just got a kilo (2.2 pounds) of that from another vendor for $116. Same deal on ACS ammonium metavanadate, which they used to charge $45/ounce (less than 30 grams). That was bad enough, but they’ve now bumped it up to $54/ounce. I just ordered 100 g from another vendor for $38.

  5. Lynn McGuire says:

    My father in law is back in the hospital from the rehab / nursing home facility. Apparently they missed a gallstone when they were removing his gall bladder and it caused him to go into pancreatitis.

    He is actually enjoying the rehab facility and has agreed with his daughters that he needs to be living there now. They actually got him able to get from the bed into the wheelchair and back. Of course, a couple of strong male nurses are standing around when he transfers.

  6. MrAtoz says:

    Rev. “Fatso” Hagee predicting “something bad is going to happen” because of blood moons! He won’t say what so I guess he has no fucking idea. Why do these nuts always do this. Maybe the Yellowstone super volcano will erupt. You can bet “something” will happen in his timeframe so he will be correct.

    http://www.chron.com/news/local/article/Pastor-Hagee-Blood-moons-point-to-world-shaking-5391880.php?cmpid=hpts#photo-3486070

  7. OFD says:

    Some grrls can be extremely nasty and I know one of my young nieces has been subject to that shit in the recent past. No help from teachers or administration, natch, and her dad is fit to be tied and also has a violent temper and firearms down there. I hope I’ve calmed him down. And I agree; once mean, and probably always so; guys tend to mellow out eventually from that behavior, usually.

    The media is reporting the Nevada situation as one where the ranchers have repeatedly grazed their cattle on Leviathan’s land, despite getting cited and warned off that, since 1998. So finally the BLM honchos decided to roll SWAT and snipers, typical these days. And other reports are coming through now that local militia types are heading to the area; this may indeed not end well. It could be a semi-black-flag op where the Feds are deliberately provoking this to get an idea of ground response and weapons assessment. Any of those militia boyz got anti-aircraft stuff, for example? Any of their own snipers? Maybe freshly returned from the Suck?

    We shall see…

  8. SteveF says:

    I beat the bejesus out of one “bad girl” when I was a teen. Before you get all “oh, you can’t hit a girl because they’re all delicate n shit”, consider: She’d been bullying my sister, who was 12. I was 18 and the bad girl was about 15, but only one grade ahead of my sister. And she was taller than me and fifty or a hundred pounds heavier. I showed some fang, threat rather than violence. She just wouldn’t take the hint and threatened to beat my sister to death. Whereupon I beat the bejesus out of her and said I’d do the same to her mother if she touched my sister again. Problem solved.

  9. OFD says:

    Well you is just an ornery cuss, Mr.SteveF. Always been that way, sounds like. I was a peace-loving and gentle boy, with my stamp and coin collections, my model tanks and planes and ships, smoking the doobies, dropping a hit weekly during my last two years of high skool…but people left me alone and didn’t mess with me, or my weight-lifter brother. Helps being six feet at thirteen, carrying an Arkansas toothpick with me all the time, and known to be high on something or half in the bag with something else, despite Honor Roll, soccer, track, football, AP classes, etc.

    It hit 62 here today but has been extremely windy all day. We can now see a bit of open wottuh out there, though a lot of it seems to still be on top of the ice. May hit 70s by early next week, too. That is just crazy shit.

  10. Chuck W says:

    Lots of standing water around here. Purdue just came out with a study that rainfall has increased almost 2 inches per year since 2008, in the county where the radio project is licensed. Their prediction is for 25 to 38% (how can they possibly get to to such exact figures, like 25 and 38?) further increase in rainfall by the end of the decade. Farmers are being advised to increase the capacity of their field tiles accordingly. Looks like they need to, based on water, water, everywhere.

    Jetstream is ever so slowly retreating into Canada, so I expect much warmer temps here soon. Normally (a decade ago) I would not have to fire up central air until into June. But I’ll bet it is on before the middle of May. We had an exceptionally hot May in 1977, which was the last time I remember central air being pressed into service that early, until I got back to Tiny Town 4 years ago.

  11. Chuck W says:

    What is with the little dot beside everyone’s picture since 13:09 today? Or has that been asked and answered before?

  12. Chuck W says:

    Got $1,500 to waste? Google is going to sell Google Glass to anybody online for one day only 15 April.

    http://www.androidcentral.com/google-might-just-let-anybody-buy-google-glass-one-day-promotion

  13. Robert Bruce Thompson says:

    I have no idea what the little dot is.

  14. bgrigg says:

    We’ve all been flagged by the NSA?

  15. Robert Bruce Thompson says:

    Nah, that one’s a bright red illuminated dot.

  16. OFD says:

    Correct. This dot is just to identify us for further investigation and interrogation by the junior league guys, the Feebies. But they’re real busy right now out in Nevada.

  17. MrAtoz says:

    Tasers used here in NV on protesters. How much longer until lead is used.

  18. bgrigg says:

    “Nah, that one’s a bright red illuminated dot.”

    Red dot means targeted, black is merely flagged.

  19. OFD says:

    MrAtoz; any more word on the militia people rolling toward there? All they need is a “report” of “shots fired” and all Hell can break loose.

  20. MrAtoz says:

    A handful of militia have arrived. The BLM anted up by bringing in armed rangers from other states. The lead should fly soon. The Gov is upset, but won’t do anything about it. All this for feeding on scrub grass and stomping a few tortoises.

    The Feds claim $1,000,000 in grazing fees. How much do you think this will cost us. At least two helos are going full time. 200+ armed BLM thugs. Overtime, lodging, chow, etc. Going to cost millions.

  21. Lynn McGuire says:

    Lots of standing water around here. Purdue just came out with a study that rainfall has increased almost 2 inches per year since 2008, in the county where the radio project is licensed. Their prediction is for 25 to 38% (how can they possibly get to to such exact figures, like 25 and 38?) further increase in rainfall by the end of the decade. Farmers are being advised to increase the capacity of their field tiles accordingly. Looks like they need to, based on water, water, everywhere.

    So that is where our rain in South Texas went to. Central and North Texas also. You are stealing our water!

  22. Lynn McGuire says:

    Not to be paranoid but that little black dot started on my posting. And I do not see the right side menu either. Weird.

  23. OFD says:

    Right side menu has disappeared no matter which day and I had to hit the Home button to pick the right day.

  24. MrAtoz says:

    Like this turd is helping the situation in NV:

    http://www.infowars.com/county-commissioner-says-bundy-supporters-better-have-funeral-plans/

    What a dope. On the up side, there are reports the helos are running some cattle to death. I may boogie over in my Tacoma and grab some carcasses. Hmm need a bigger grill.

  25. MrAtoz says:

    Woof! Dirty Harry Reid’s name pops up in conjunction to the cattle mess. Why am I not surprised.

    http://www.infowars.com/breaking-sen-harry-reid-behind-blm-land-grab-of-bundy-ranch/

  26. OFD says:

    Apparently six to eight choppers a day zooming around there plus countless SUV-type vehicles. The Fed cattle rustlers have already stolen a couple-hundred head; in the old days that was a hanging offense.

    Reid belongs on a gallows, like most of Congress.

  27. Lynn McGuire says:

    http://www.infowars.com/breaking-sen-harry-reid-behind-blm-land-grab-of-bundy-ranch/

    Those solar panels will provide shade for the desert tortoises.

  28. eristicist says:

    The black dot is a bullet point. They’ve been introduced to all replies because each reply is in “li” tags: a list element in a large list. The stylesheet normally suppresses those for this particular list, but somehow Bob’s comment (just above Lynn’s first comment with a bullet point) picked up an extra closing “div” tag. It’s on line 176 of the page, if you want to have a look.

    I’m not sure why it happened, but I *think* WordPress failed to correctly escape the less-than symbol which Bob used in his post. Certainly, that symbol isn’t escaped as it should be, and that’s the comment which introduced the spurious “div” tag.

  29. Robert Bruce Thompson says:

    Thanks. I just edited the less-than symbol out and refreshed. Everything is back to normal.

  30. OFD says:

    Well, I wouldn’t go that fah….

  31. MrAtoz says:

    Great quote from one commenter on the NV cattle grazing fiasco:

    The Feds send in 200+ armed *rangers* to stop cattle from illegally grazing, but do nothing to stop grazing illegal aliens.

  32. SteveF says:

    The solution is obvious: spray-paint “wetback” on the side of each cow.

    Related: the farmer I worked for in upstate New York had to paint COW and HORSE in blaze orange on the sides of his stock every hunting season. The dumbass downstaters would shoot at anything when they came up to the woods for maybe the first time in their lives and every couple years one would get himself one o’ them gigantic black and white deer. And I heard about third-hand about one guy who was convinced that it was ok for him to shoot that horse because he had a doe permit.

  33. bgrigg says:

    There was a guy in New Brunswick that thought a train was a deer.

    Or maybe it was an elk, but c’mon a train?

    Alcohol and guns don’t mix.

  34. OFD says:

    I found that out thirty-plus years ago and haven’t gone hunting since; this was down in MA, and they only have the shotgun season down there, no rifles, due to population density. The woods were full of drunk-ass yahoos and cretins, blasting everything in sight. A cop colleague of mine shot a deer one time and tracked it; a guy was already there gutting it. Larry said “Hey, that’s my deer.” The guy aimed the shotgun at him and said “No, it’s mine.” WTF? I can only imagine how it is now.

  35. Robert Bruce Thompson says:

    Neither do guns and morons.

    Back when I used to hunt I read a story about a guy who’d been shot accidentally (?) by a hunter. The victim was wearing a blaze orange hat and jacket. The shooter claimed it was raining heavily and he thought the victim was a deer. Yeah, right. Rudolph the blaze-orange rain deer. I gave up hunting soon after that incident.

  36. SteveF says:

    I stopped hunting because, to modify the quote, once you’ve hunted armed men who are hunting you, Bambi just isn’t a thrill anymore. I do love venison and in theory am interested in going out solely for the meat, but in practice don’t seem to have bothered.

    I never had a run-in with other hunters like described above, though I know people who claim to have. (Did have one close encounter with a bear which popped up out of nowhere, rather closer than I was comfortable with. I was carrying a shotgun loaded with birdshot so I ran ran ran away.) But, yah, there are an awful lot of people with more gun than brain out there.

  37. OFD says:

    “…once you’ve hunted armed men who are hunting you, Bambi just isn’t a thrill anymore.”

    Yes, there is that. Also, the attraction of an adrenaline rush seems to fade with the years, at least in my case and a few others I’ve known.

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